Q] Could you walk us through the idea behind the Shubharambh campaign and its launch across all mediums? How do you measure its success?
Q4 is one of the biggest and most important quarters for us. It also witnesses a big surge in business customers & big borrowers availing gold loans for business purposes. Increasingly, business customers have started unlocking their household gold jewellery to meet their business needs, such as for starting a new venture or expanding their existing one, paying rent, paying salaries, paying advance tax, buying raw material, investing in plant & machinery, etc. The Shubharambh Campaign beautifully depicts Muthoot Finance like a trusted family, always by your side and ready to assist you for all your financial needs.
In the first film, Muthoot Finance Gold Loan is seen helping a first-generation entrepreneur start his new café, while in the second film, it facilitates a business family grow and scale up their supermarket business to make it bigger. The campaign is also complemented by a number of tactical offers under the aegis of ‘Muthoot Finance Gold Loan Mela’ wherein more than 11,000 prospective customers can win Amazon vouchers worth + INR 70 lakh, either by availing a gold loan themselves or by referring a friend or family member who does instead. Every customer also gets an assured 24-carat gold coin on accruing a minimum of 500 reward points under Gold Milligram Rewards – gold loan industry’s 1st loyalty program.
We measure the success of all our marketing campaigns through a robust CRM in place. The KPIs for measuring a campaign’s effectiveness are the number of leads generated and the actual business converted in terms of the number & volume of gold loan disbursed.
Q] Can you reveal more about your upcoming digital-first campaign featuring Mr. Bachchan, and what can audiences expect from this campaign?
In addition to the Shubharambh campaign, we’ve also produced four incredibly engaging, quirky and light-hearted digital films featuring the legendary Mr. Bachchan. These vertical format films are designed specifically for different customer segments and will be delivered to the relevant target groups, primarily via WhatsApp.
While the first film is for existing Muthoot Finance gold loan customers contemplating another gold loan, the second film is aimed at those who have an active gold loan with us and their pledged gold has appreciated in value, thereby giving them a DIY opportunity to get a gold loan top-up at no extra cost, no extra documentation and no need to visit a branch—all at their fingertips. The third film is aimed at acquiring new Muthoot customers, wherein Mr Bachchan plays the role of a vibrant RJ speaking to gold loan customers from different parts of the country in their respective languages. And the final film is a dramatic Zanjeer-styled film for those who are eager to break the shackles and transfer their existing gold loan to Muthoot Finance. These films will be going live very soon.
Q] Big B comes with a Big Bill, considering that it is a significant investment for the brand, how have sales performed following the campaigns featuring him, and what has the ROI been like?
For a brand of our size, scale and stature, having iconic personalities like Amitabh Bachchan & Madhuri Dixit is an investment. They are great brands themselves. In terms of measuring campaign effectiveness, we use a very robust CRM wherein every penny of marketing investment made is measured for business impact. In the last 12 months, we have launched three marketing campaigns – ‘Kholiye Khushiyon Ki Tijori’, ‘Bharosa India Ka’ and ‘Gold Loan Mela’. These integrated marketing campaigns and associated media investments have generated more than INR 95 lakh gold loan leads and led to over INR 45,000 crore gold loan disbursements.
Q] What is the marketing mix of the brand? Who takes the lion’s share?
We maintain a healthy marketing mix with ATL taking the lion’s share with nearly 50% of our media investments. Digital and BTL consume almost 15 to 20% each. And the rest is invested in content development, production and related projects.
Q] We heard you are planning to launch Season 3 of the ‘Sunheri Soch’ campaign? What’s new and exciting about this upcoming season, and when can audiences expect it to go live?
We are in the final stages of launching Season 3 of ‘Muthoot Finance Sunheri Soch’. After two largely successful seasons in 2021 and 2022, we felt it was the right time to bring back our much-appreciated radio campaign. Season 1 generated a significant business impact with INR 148 crore worth of gold loan business, and Season 2 witnessed a fourfold increase with INR 718 crore in gold loan business. We are aiming to double our Season 2 achievement in Season 3.
In terms of newness, Season 3 will feature three new and exciting elements. This time, we are partnering with two national radio stations instead of just one, as in the earlier seasons. Audiences can listen to these inspiring stories across 59 cities and 64 radio stations of Radio City and Mirchi. Other stations like Friends FM and Suno Lemon will also be airing these stories.
Secondly, in the earlier seasons, we recorded and aired five success stories over five successive weeks. However, this season, we have carefully handpicked 17 life-transforming customer stories, of which five have been recorded in the voice of our brand ambassador, Madhuri Dixit. A melodious song and dance-based Sunheri Soch Anthem has also been choreographed and produced, uniquely bringing together more than a dozen top RJs from across the country under one roof. With the pre-hype and anthem launch, Season 3 will be a 6-7 week-long campaign.
Thirdly, the remaining 12 stories have been recorded in the powerful voices of popular celebrities and regional influencers such as RJ Raunac (in Hindi for North and HSM markets), Sudesh Bhosale (in Marathi for Maharashtra), Manoj Joshi (in Gujarati for Gujarat), and Jisshu Sengupta (in Bengali for Eastern markets). This has been done with the objective of achieving additional reach by showcasing stories in certain regional languages as well.
Q] How will the Sunheri Soch Season 3 be amplified on digital platforms, and how do you see it contributing to Muthoot Finance’s overall marketing goals for the quarter?
While the stories have been created with a Radio-first approach, they will also be extensively promoted on various digital and social media channels of The Muthoot Group, Radio City, Mirchi, social media handles of more than 70 RJs and regional influencers mentioned earlier. The campaign will also be heavily promoted through our network of branches, ground activation and other ATL mediums. We are aiming to double our achievement of Season 2, and canvass INR 1500 crore+ worth of gold loan advances through Sunheri Soch Season 3. We’ve also set ourselves a target of collecting more than 5000 stories this time, as a prep for Season 4.
