A Ministry of Home Affairs-led report recently found that India lost approximately Rs 11,333 crore to cyber fraud in the first nine months of 2024. As part of its ongoing efforts to control online frauds, HDFC has created Vigil Aunty, its social media influencer, to spread awareness on the latest scams and frauds through her content. She educates audiences on the dangers lurking online. She has over two million followers across social media platforms.
Recognizing the severity of the issue, HDFC also launched “EOSS – End of Scam Sale” campaign which went on to win a Cannes Silver award. This immersive experience simulated a fake website, fake ads and even a deepfake of actress Nora Fatehi, to expose the tactics used by scammers to prey on consumers during seasonal sales trapping consumers on their optimism bias.
This campaign highlights the importance of consumer awareness around online frauds, a topic further explored by Ravi Santhanam, Group Head, Chief Marketing Officer & Head – Direct to Consumer Business, HDFC Bank.
In a conversation with Storyboard18, Santhanam discusses the use of Generative AI for personalisation and hyper-personalisation, integrated media management to maximise outcomes from customers’ spends, the increasing role of brands to provide appropriate content to help consumers make more informed choices among others.
Edited excerpts:
What were the key highlights for you and your teams in 2024?
We made our first large foray into D2C offerings through PayZapp in 2024. It was a large shift for the Bank which had built a vast distribution network and had built business traditionally through a strong push model. In a short time, we managed to set up a full stack D2C campaign which created a strong impact not only at a brand level but also in business terms.
With the changing ecosystem and consumers spending more time online as well as purchasing more online, we felt that there was a strong need to have a digital credit card which not only aligned with the digital ecosystem but also offered customers far more flexibility in terms of colours, billing cycles and choice of merchants for cashbacks. This year, the Bank introduced a purely digital credit card – Pixel – designed for the digital natives.
The launch offered experience zones to interact with the card in its most relevant use cases. Brand Pixel also enabled early access to Diljit Dosanjh’s concert tickets to fans.
These two campaigns went a long way in adding dimensions of youthfulness, dynamism and nimbleness to HDFC making it more relatable to the younger target audience such as millennials and Gen Zs.
The Bank also launched its range of business credit cards like the Biz Black Metal Edition Credit Card, Biz Power Credit Card, Biz Grow Credit Card, among others, for the self-employed and businesspeople – a segment which was hitherto not being catered to.
A Ministry of Home Affairs-led report recently found that India lost approximately Rs 11,333 crore to cyber fraud in the first nine months of 2024. As part of its ongoing efforts to control online frauds, HDFC has created Vigil Aunty, its social media influencer, to spread awareness on the latest scams and frauds through her content. She educates audiences on the dangers lurking online. She has over two million followers across social media platforms.
Building on this momentum, we launched the award-winning campaign “EOSS – End of Scam Sale.” This immersive experience simulated a fake website, fake ads and even a deepfake of actress Nora Fatehi, to expose the tactics used by scammers to prey on consumers during seasonal sales trapping consumers on their optimism bias. The campaign not only won a Cannes Silver award but also created one of India’s largest fraud-awareness communities. Around 8.5 lakh people follow the Vigil Aunty on WhatsApp.
Building on EOSS, the recently launched #AapkeSaathBhiHoSaktaHai campaign is tackling frauds through relatable storytelling. It delves deeper into the emotional manipulation used by fraudsters to defraud people. By highlighting how fraudsters exploit trust, we aim to empower consumers with the knowledge to stay safe online.
Over the years, we have also developed significant data science and analytics capabilities – beyond just predicting customer propensity and building marketing models. We leveraged our expertise to provide strong analytics solutions to other businesses within the Bank including automation, operational efficiency increase, reduction in mule accounts, and so on.
At the core of transformation was our shift from digital marketing to digital sales, creating seamless, unassisted customer journeys. We use predictive analytics and hyper-personalised communication to create frictionless journeys for our customers.
What defining trends stood out for you in 2024?
Defining trends which stood out for us in 2024:
– Use of Generative AI for personalisation and hyper-personalisation
– Influencer marketing playing a much larger role in the marketing mix
– Purpose-driven brand development and marketing
– Integrated media management to maximise outcomes from customers’ spends
– Increasing role of brands to provide appropriate content to help consumers make more informed choices
– Importance of driving a hybrid model in customer on-boarding journeys that combines the efficiency of digital with the strength of physical engagement
– Conversational marketing and the increasing use of voice bots for voice-based transactions
How did the rise of AI and generative AI impact your industry this year? Can you sum it up in 3-5 points?
The rise of AI and Generative AI led to more personalisation in messaging. We have leveraged AI to upgrade our service messaging to be more warm, personalised and simple to understand. It has also helped us make significant cost savings by limiting the messaging to 160 characters without compromising on understanding. Generative AI with suitable prompt widgets created to cater to our brand persona and customer needs has led us to create sharper messaging in a lesser time as also in delivering images relevant for communication to a specific segment.
Beyond marketing, we are leveraging the power of AI/GenAI for document reading and summarisation, image classification, etc. We feel there is a lot more power to be leveraged from AI. We have already created some strong use cases that leverage the power of AI with a combination of human intelligence to create better and more efficient solutions. We are in the process of testing many more use cases and are confident that it will only improve our ability to do impactful work at scale across product categories and consumer segments.
What disruptive trends will take the spotlight in 2025?
The disruptive trends that may take the spotlight in 2025 are:
– Voice bots to drive human-like interactions through voice-based search, conversational marketing, voice-based customised tele-conversations instead of IVRs or tele agents
– Generative AI driving full content creation / automation – including text, visuals, AVs and audio content
– Customer insights and analytics models that are enhanced using AI
– Ethically designed AI use cases and privacy-centric marketing
What is your New Year’s resolution?
– Stay ahead of the curve on the latest marketing trends
– Make marketing the centre point for building efficient business growth by leveraging digital platforms and analytics through offline as well as online channels
Personally, I look forward to creating purpose-driven strategies where we build brand love by driving genuine sustainability efforts in everything that we do. In doing so, we will create a much more sustainable future for the coming generations.
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