An aircraft maintenance engineer turned adman turned marketer, MVS Murthy became the first-ever chief marketing officer of Federal Bank in July last year. Murthy started his career in advertising and had worked at agencies like Ogilvy before moving to the client side. Now, at a time when the financial sector is looking at a digital first approach, Federal Bank came out with a campaign “”Rishta Aap Se Hai, Sirf App Se Nahi” that focuses on choosing to build human connections in the age of digital-first services.
“For the record, the Rishta TVC is not an agency script but true stories paraphrased to make a unique memorable film,” Murthy says.
In an exclusive interaction with Storyboard18, Murthy talks about the impact of its latest campaign, building a non-intrusive and trusted financial brand and the changing dynamics of client-agency relationships.
Edited excerpts:
It’s almost a year since you have joined Federal Bank, what would be the key changes that you’ve brought so far?
Before I speak of the changes, let me tell you of my rich inheritance. The Federal Bank brand has an extremely strong, solid and supportive work culture. For starters 42 percent of my colleagues are women, attrition is at a 2-3 percent low both are top of the chart measures), on an average every employee clocks in a decade and most of us join at an entry level. Now when you look at it from an investor or a customer perspective – here is a team that digs patience, bats deep and has depth of knowledge.
We have built a 3S framework for Marketing – Segment, Scale and Sustainable. Whatever we do for our brand must appeal to segments that are of interest to us, the initiatives must be Scalable and should be Sustained over time, no flash in the pan for us. To illustrate youth is an important segment on our portfolio, we are scaling up this constituency through our fintech partners and our communication which now has a more contemporary flavour and our initiatives like the just launched Kochi Marathon or the multi-year Speak For India are testimony of sustainable programs.
As a brand there is deep work happening across branches, in a one on one interaction with our retail and corporate customers, our impactful CSR initiatives, innovations, micro-marketing etc. We want to ensure that these stories are known across the country and almost every day you would find one such impactful nugget, when you search the internet. We call it the Federal – 365, an all year round effort to regularly present our work to the audiences.
When we step back and see ultimately, a bank’s role is to propel people, families, communities and nation as a whole. And culture is a plank where we are embedding ourselves to become relevant to audiences. Be it a sponsorship of the Women’s ITF, working with the government in tackling a pollution related issue, asking our NRIs to come home for the festivals, celebrating our youth, etc. The Federal Bank Brand is colouring one white space at a time.
What kind of impact did your campaign “Rishta Aap Se Hai, Sirf App Se Nahi ” create?
When we look at our rate of acquisition of customers across savings accounts, auto loans, personal loans, home loans, etc. all of them without exception have done better than the pre-campaign stage. The number of followers we have gained is 2X of the daily average, website traffic, customer service centres all have reported progressive and positive engagements.
So, what began with two TV scripts and a summative tagline, is now owned by every team across our bank and is being transmitted enthusiastically to clients. Now there are 1500 independent / individual units of “Rishta” in the making. You must follow us on our social handles to see the warmth and affection for The Federal Brand.
When a brand can speak beyond its core category then it is setting a cult standard. Rishta does it for the services sector for sure. I am hoping as we keep delivering on this promise in every Customer interaction and through our physical / digital distribution assets, we could be an exemplar.
To all my partners, I am on record saying this work should win us a lot of accolades and awards, not just for its execution but business impact.
Which media platforms work best for your brand?
It really depends on the brand campaign. When an indulgent reach is needed, the video format across TV and digital has delivered well. When we need impact and response for a product, print/digital is a good combination. Outdoors allow for storytelling on the move, such as in metros/cabs or towering hoardings that showcase a rock-solid Federal Bank. And that’s how we found our sweet spot in the media + format mix.
Banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) are the traditional culprits who have encouraged and sustained bad practices and given telemarketing a bad name. What is your take on it?
Well, more than being culprits, these direct-to-consumer channels have given a lot of youngsters an opportunity to build careers and helped brands do one-on-one messaging. On a lighter note, traffic always tries to make the most of a small service road, and that’s where the issue happens. And we tend to over-rely on maps or data and treat every route/prospect in a unidimensional manner. A judicious marketer will know when discretion itself construes a lot of well-spoken and meaning pitch. The better part is that now we have identifiers that help receivers ignore calls or mobile devices simply block unknown numbers or social messaging needs prior permission.
We will have informed, intelligent, and non-intrusive outreach programs. There is a distance of confidence that businesses across the board need to travel. FOMO works even when there is nothing to be lost or gained.
Tell us how you approach choosing your ad partners. Do you work with a bunch of agencies? How do you choose them?
Our ad partners need to reflect, resonate, and echo our values. Simple measures of being a solid, enterprising, excitable, and well-finishing team are what we look for across all our strategic partners. From a marketing perspective, everything is marketing. Personally, I wish to build ecosystems around each of our initiatives, such as Rishta/Marathon/Micromarkets, etc. A campaign is not enough. So our partners will need to be able to think with a lot of gravitas and be absolutely swashbuckling when it comes to execution. In fact, to all my partners, I am on record saying this work should win us a lot of accolades and awards, not just for its execution but business impact.
There can’t be any ambiguity on understanding what the marketer wants, and everyone jams in to create great music. I must say that we are working with some of the best talent in the industry. We challenge and propel each other.
What are your thoughts on working with content creators versus celebrities?
Either is good if they resonate with our brand, can express camaraderie, add personal heft of belonging and at a personal level have first-hand experiences of legacy as well as new age banking.
How have client agency relationships changed? What value are new age agencies bringing to the table?
Access to information has allowed more clients to have wider reference points. I mean I can cross-pollinate from an FMCG business problem and address an issue in banking. Having been on the agency side, particularly in planning, I did a lot of work in understanding the customer and bringing it to all my clients’ tables. Today, I feel that we are not drawing from a single cocoon, but there are lots of strands that get into the warp and weft as clients and agencies sit together. This gives the opportunity for far higher quality of output. It’s important also because the consumer’s exposure has also increased, and they all have a sharp point of view on brands which gets amplified on social channels. So clients and agencies can create a richer mix of ideas.
The new agencies have been able to pull off extracts like storytelling, form factor adoption, adding a technology spine for delivery, measurability etc. That’s a strength. My own view is that they need to grow and build the brand muscle, the legacy agencies need to strengthen the above core.
And I am unambiguous that it’s never the agency, it’s always the client – no matter the medium or media.
What has been your learning so far on what it takes to be a modern marketer?
I have learnt early in my career, track your numbers when someone else is tracking you. One needs to be a culture foodie, the same brand will have different triggers in different markets. Modern or ancient travel. Be the encyclopaedia of the right and left side of your brand – tell your story with passion, candour and respect for anyone you meet.