Rupeek, a pioneer among gold finance companies in India has unveiled its first brand campaign featuring Manoj Bajpayee and Priyamani. The six month long campaign will span across ATL (above the line) and BTL (below the line) platforms, with significant focus on TV, and digital video.
The TVC tracks the journey of a couple seeking a loan against their gold asset. Things are not going well for the couple at the start of the TVC as the person at the loan approval counter seems to ignore them, and has a brusque manner in general. At one point, Bajpayee is shown frustrated, saying he’s the one giving the asset in exchange for money, and questions the treatment being meted out to loan seekers.
Cut to the second half of the commercial when the couple avails the services offered by Rupeek, and all seems well in their corner of the world. Shalabh Atray, senior vice president – marketing and digital, Rupeek explains that the TVC centres on the insight that loan seekers go through a variety of emotions when pledging their gold assets in lieu of financial assistance, and the inconvenience and uncertainty of the process just makes matters worse.
Elaborating about the communication objective of the campaign, Atray added, “Our business stands for solving consumer pain points when accessing financial assistance. Now, the consumer pain point here is that getting access to credit in India, for the bulk of Indians, is a process full of anxiety, and is emotionally draining. If you actually think about it, the golden category has been around as long as Indian civilization has been around. But there has been no digital disruption in this category. And what does digital really do? It makes people’s life easier and more transparent.”
The creative, conceptualised by The Womb, shows both the actors smaller in size than the loan personnel in the initial half of the ad, indicating the feeling of inadequacy and awkwardness loan seekers may feel while accessing such services. In the second half, they are shown normal sized to indicate that they feel equal to the service provider, and in control of their situation. “The fact is that digital is a great equaliser and we wanted to show this through the TVC,” Atray adds.
The brand’s aim is to create visibility in the 30 markets it already operates in, and beyond these markets too. Atray says that the goal is to capture the north and the south markets, which reflects in Rupeek’s choice of actors for this campaign. Both Bajpayee and Priyamani are famous as the lead couple in the web series Family Man. The second season of the show was bilingual with Hindi and Tamil in the play. This led to a massive spike in the series’ popularity in the southern market.
“Our first consideration was someone who fits the creative concept. Both Manoj and Priyamani are very relatable as the common man who wants to take charge of the situation. And when we spoke to Manoj, he expressed that he has gone through similar situations (as depicted in the TVC) in real life. Then of course the popularity of Family Man was the cherry on top,” Atray says.
Bajpayee echoes the sentiment saying, “I am elated to associate with Rupeek and its core value of making credit available for the common man. It is wonderful to see how young entrepreneurs and companies are addressing the issues that are deeply penetrated in our society. Through this film, we have tried to break the stigma associated with gold loans and convey a deeper message on the potential of gold loans to make people feel empowered during challenging times.”
Priyamani adds, “Gold is the most celebrated asset in our country, yet people continue to undermine its potential, especially in tiding through financial exigencies. The Covid-19 has been an eye-opener in many ways for the common man and with a trusted brand like Rupeek, I am certain people will start acknowledging the benefits of hassle-free and safe doorstep gold loans.”
The team at Rupeek used insights from their research while conducting business. For example, they discovered that different regions and markets in the country have different attitudes and reactions towards seeking a gold loan. In the southern states it is very common and accepted, while western markets like Mumbai have very little prevalence of the practice.
To address this difference, Rupeek has created different variants of the commercial for different markets. For the southern markets, Priyamani leads the commercial, while the one for the HSM (Hindi speaking market), sees Bajpayee take the lead. Additionally, the 45 second ‘master commercial’ as Atray calls it has been sliced to 30, 15, and 6 seconds to be launched across different platforms.
He adds that since this is a long term exercise in marketing for the brand, there will be other video and physical assets deployed over time to supplement and complement the TVCs that go live on TV on September 10. He is however tightlipped on the marketing spends involved in this extensive advertising undertaking. When asked about the cost of the campaign, he simply said, “We are launching our first-ever brand campaign and the marketing spends are sizeable and thoughtfully distributed amongst all the mediums.”
While the aim is to get maximum visibility and reach, the brand will not go the full hog on properties like the Indian Premier League. Atray explains that since the goal is longevity and not just frequency, it will invest conservatively on the IPL, but will focus on sustained communication over a period of six months.
