PAUSE THE BARGAIN

Gold Spike
TitlePAUSE THE BARGAIN
BrandAXIS BANK
Product / ServiceBFSI
CategoryA01. Fiction & Non-Fiction Film: Up to 5 minutes
EntrantAUTUMNGREY Bangalore, INDIA
Idea Creation AUTUMNGREY Bangalore, INDIA
Production DORA DIGS Mumbai, INDIA
Post Production AUTUMNGREY Bangalore, INDIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Atul Pathak AutumnGREY Creative Lead
Bodh Deb AutumnGREY Supervision
Nishant Ananthram AutumnGREY Creative Lead
Geowel George AutumnGREY Creative Designer
Arun Karane AutumnGREY Creative Designer
Shalini Ghildiyal AutumnGREY Servicing Lead
Alloyna Diaz AutumnGREY Client Servicing
Aanchal Srivastava AutumnGREY Client Servicing
Soumyadeep Ghosh AutumnGREY Post Production Lead
Dyuti Banerjee AutumnGREY Creative Copy Support
Sandipan Bhattacharya Grey Group Supervision
Arun Raman Grey Group Supervision
Lavanya MN Grey Group Supervision
Anusha Shetty Grey Group Supervision
Abraham Chacko Axis Bank Supervision
Sayan Halder Axis Bank Supervision
Anoop Manohar Axis Bank Supervision

Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

India has changed a lot over the decades, but we Indians haven't changed a bit when it comes to our tenacity for bargaining hard. Be it for an air conditioner or a paper clip. Axis Bank chose this insight to goad for a behaviour change towards the small shop owners, who had suffered a massive blow during the pandemic imposed lockdown. By using self-deprecating lyrics and a catchy Bollywood-ish tune, this work makes an appeal for change in a deeply engrained behaviour, delivering a very relevant message in a way that's entertaining yet calls for introspection.

Background

The small businesses of India took a massive financial hit during the lockdown. Many shopowners suffered over 60% drop in income and many more faced closures. Axis Bank, which has been associated with millions of these businesses, wanted to help them revive their businesses and help them get back to their feet. With many Indians not going to shops during the lockdown, shopkeepers were facing dire straits and wanted to quickly regain lost income. But, would the proud Indian habit of bargaining till the last rupee, really help these small business owners?

Describe the creative idea

The idea was to show much we've changed as a country, and how little we've changed when it comes to the habit of bargaining hard till the last Rupee! The most common phrase Indians use to bargain is, “Chaar rupaiya kum karo na pleej (Reduce it by 4 rupees, please?)”. We turned this phrase into a catchy self-deprecating song to show a mirror to all Indians. And to give hope and express solidarity with all the small businesses across the country who suffered massively because of the Coronavirus pandemic and can do without the disease of bargaining to boot.

Describe the strategy

Diwali is the biggest festival in India for shopping. Indians flood the local markets for Diwali shopping, two months in advance. So, we harped on this topicality and spoke to all the Indian consumers to do something that’s been intrinsic to them for decades – to put their love for bargaining on hold for a while so that the small businesses can get back to their feet and celebrate the festival of Diwali just like every other Indian.

Describe the execution

We turned the most popular Indian catchphrase used for bargaining, “Chaar rupaiya kum karo na, pleej” (Reduce it by 4 rupees please) and turned it into a song that urged people to put a pause on the decades-old habit of bargaining. We tied up with one of the most popular Bollywood singers of India, Ragubhir Yadav, who voiced this peppy song for an otherwise serious issue. We aired this on all Axis Bank social channels as well as showed them on dedicated screens in busy market places during the Diwali shopping period.

Describe the outcome

The campaign performed fantastically on Social Media and otherwise with a total of 121 Million impressions. Was also the fastest to record 20Mn Views. Most reactions received for any campaign and it had the highest positive sentiment and was covered by numerous PR channels

Links

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