The Empire Strikes Back is the term that comes to my mind as soon as I saw the ads from SBI. For a long time competitors in the banking sector like ICICI and Kotak etc. have been launching massive ad campaigns and SBI has remained silent. Now, the giant seems to have been spurred into action because the youth of India seem to prefer private banks to SBI. The ad series highlights all the salient features of SBI over their competitors and that too in a nice humourous way.
Chiman Lal Charlie: So we have the poor Mohan jumping at everyone that his name is Chiman Lal Charlie because he lost a bet where in he did not know that SBI has the maximum ATMs
Executive in Shorts: We have an executive well dressed at the top and a short at the bottom because he lost a bet as he did not know SBI gave car loans on On Road Price.
Papad rolling: A husband rolling papads just because he did not know that SBI housing loans include cost of the house + furniture etc etc.
Waxing Woes: And finally we have a person going to the waxing process just because his waging process failed him as he did not know that SBI has weekend branches as well.
Now the ad campaign does get people watching the ads. The only thing that I and many others I talked to feel is why ’’Surprisingly SBI’’. Everyone knows that this is the big daddy of all banks in India. So rather than ’’Surprisingly’’ the better option would have been ’’But Naturally SBI’’ or ’’Of course SBI’’. Also the main thing that SBI needs to do to attract the youth is to reassure them with regards to its customer service and this campaign does not do anything like that. So ICICI’s reassuring ’’Hum Hai Na’’ seems to be more comforting than ’’Surprisingly SBI’’.
Having said this given the late start that SBI has on the advertising campaign, it has now got people turning their heads to the giant. Probably the second wave of ads might be the reassuring ones with a more sensitive and indian touch something like the ’’Hamara Bajaj’’ or ’’We understand India better than anyone. So waiting with bated breath for the second series in the campaign.
Cheers! Ram