#InstaDiwali – An integrated content marketing & digital PR case study

Challenge

Diwali season is the most popular festive period in the country when brands keep no stone unturned to maximise sales. It comes in the last quarter of the year and is a look out for every player to end make the best out of that period. The market is flooded with products with different incentives like discounted rates, goodies etc. To build the momentum for the service across the digital and social platform was a hercules task. To project the sales offer in the best way and to establish consumer connect for a service of an offline brand in the online space. We started off with connecting the brand’s communication talk points to consumer passion points. We identified that consumers across market segments are driven by instant gratification, thanks to the digital invasion. Bajaj Finserv endeavored to bring about the same instant gratification in both the online and offline space. Thus, we decided to turn this Diwali into an #InstaDiwali with Bajaj Finserv    

Strategy

The strategy was to drive the live conversation with consumers through engaging campaigns/ content capturing the passion points of the TG.Diwali is the time when Indians shop heartily. It is the time when customers invest and indulge in small and big pampering which makes it the ‘festive period’ for brands. Riding on this Diwali celebrations, brands launch their products and services. Bajaj Finserv, India’s leading NBFC brand was no different. Bajaj Finserv launched India’s first EMI Finance App during Diwali; The company intended to drive awareness around the convenience, advantages & a range of products and partners that come with their Online EMI Finance. The brand also aimed to position itself as an industry pioneer in revolutionizing & digitizing offline finance through online only loans and Instant EMI Approvals. The campaigns aimed to create a powerful Word of Mouth and delightful experience stories to attract the targeted audience. We focused on making our communication our strength leading to organic trends and organic impressions.

Execution

The Bajaj Finserv #InstaFirstcampaign started on Friday, October 16th, 2015 and continued till November 11th, 2015, the holy festival of Diwali.

• #IndiasFirst : We ushered in the conversation by unveiling India’s first EMI Finance App by Bajaj Finserv through an engaging campaign #IndiasFirst with a throw-back to firsts that changed our lifestyle and evolved the respective industries. The campaign lead with non-brand conversations that focused on consumer interests and relativity with fillers that connected those interests to the brand.
• #InstaDiwaliParty : Once we had unveiled our star, India’s first EMI Finance app, it was time for celebration and hence #InstaDiwaliParty. Card parties, get-togethers, and fun with friends and family is an essential part of our Indian countdown to Diwali. Through this campaign, we attempted to link that fun element with Bajaj Finserv with a slight twist. Further, the campaign is driven from @UrbanLadder’s Twitter handle, one of Bajaj Finserv’s retail partner to tap into a different set of audience. In a party-hopping twist, we moved the campaign to Bajaj Finserv’s twitter handle. The communication strategy remained the same, leading with consumer interests and fillers with brand connect.
• #InstaDiwaliSwag : We spoke about parties, nostalgia and for our final #InstaDiwali Twitter campaign it was time to tap into this generation’s buzz word – ‘Swag.'
• #GharWaliInstaDiwali: Diwali is a festival that has been a staple in every Indian household. All of us have our fair share of fond memories, family traditions & smile-inducing anecdotes all bound by Diwali. Our third campaign touches upon that nostalgia of #GharWaliInstaDiwali.
• Hosted Campaigns: We also executed ten parallel hosted campaigns with top technology blogs to further enhance the awareness of the EMI Finance App along with securing endorsements and recommendation of influencers & while tapping a different set of audience at the same time. The hosted campaigns curated and crowd-sourced an #InstaDiwaliWishlist and drew more traffic to Bajaj Finserv’s social platforms at the same time. Each blog hosted campaign also served as a blog post elaborating on the EMI Finance App by Bajaj Finserv amplified by SEO. PR Amplification: The EMI Finance App launch was amplified and announced through media stories via Press Release, select media interactions, Press meet and use-case based listicles that enhanced positive sentiments and brand awareness.

The first leg of the campaign kickstarted with #InstaDiwali on twitter. The campaign was amplified with a mix of traditional PR tools and content marketing on social media. The communication was drafted to establish industry leadership of Bajaj Finserv as the pioneer in the digital revolution in the finance industry.

Results

• Enhanced Brand Recall
• Positive online sentiments
• Increased awareness of the EMI Finance App & app downloads
• Increased following on brand’s owned social platforms
• Consumer Engagement

The final feather in the #InstaDiwali hat though was added when ET Brand Equity recognized Bajaj Finserv as the most successful brand during the noisiest, most competitive and most crowded time on Indian social media, Diwali.