Inside: RBL Bank’s #RahoCyberSafe & awareness first digital strategy

To help educate customers about cyber banking frauds, RBL Bank created a series of consumer awareness videos called #RahoCyberSafe. The brand-agency duo takes us through the making of the campaign & supporting digital marketing strategy.

“Cyber frauds are a menace and act as a dampener in adopting digital ways of banking. In today’s times when digital transactions are increasing rapidly, it is pertinent to create awareness amongst customers on the cyber frauds to ensure safe and convenient digital banking customer experience,” asserts Abhijit Somvanshi, EVP & Head- Marketing & Communications, RBL Bank. The bank recently rolled out its  #RahoCyberSafe campaign highlighting the rise in online fraudulent schemes and methods.

The teaser video opens with a few real-life instances on how fraudsters call customers offering a lucrative scheme or requesting inputs for an urgent KYC updation. Typically, the customer is enticed to share confidential information such as card number, CVV number, or card pin. The individual videos then elaborate on each instance and how to steer smartly from such fraud calls. 

Campaign Insight

A few insights that triggered the campaign evolution shared by the bank
were:

· Scamsters want people to act first and think later.

· People tend to share their sensitive information like card number, CVV number, OTP because they are caught unaware and in mid of their busy schedules.

·Scamsters create a sense of urgency and panic

· Emotions that are best exploited by the scammer, fear of losing or greed of winning

·It is important to have knowledge of safe banking, however knowledge alone is not enough. Well-read people too fall prey to these frauds since they are caught unaware in their busy times of the day. Hence “being alert” along with knowledge is important to stay safe from cyber frauds. Leading to the campaign thought of #RahoCyberSafe. Stay Alert to Stay Safe

The Brief

RBL Bank wanted to stay away from taking the preachy route and create fear amongst customers - instilling fear would result in discouraging customers from adopting digital ways of banking. The brief to the production house hence was to create a set of films which talk about the serious topic like frauds in light and an entertaining way without bringing fear in.

Brainstorming in the ‘new normal’

 The series is Hoppipola Picture Company’s second collaboration with the brand, where the aim was to create films that educate and entertain. 

“We were thrilled to receive the brief from a brand which was open to experimenting in a genre which is usually serious. We chose the quirky approach, and presented scripts that fit the brief well,” shares Sahil Sejpal, Producer, Hoppipola Picture Company.

The idea the brand went ahead with was that of a scamster who has his own personality and carries it along with swag. .

He adds, “Basis the brand team’s research inputs of
the four most common frauds and the scamster’s & victim’s age group and
profiling, we worked on the characterization of the Victims and the Scamster in
particular.”

The Campaign
Journey

Top trending frauds and their modus operandi were identified and are being shown through the campaign – Credit & Debit cards fraud, KYC related fraud, UPI fraud, and Phishing (email & SMS).

Somvanshi informs, "With a slice of life execution of the films, our film's cyber heroes were designed close to the real-life victim’s profiles. our characters Joshi Kaka, Vidya ji, Atul Bhai, and Sushant outsmart the fraudster with their presence of mind and drive awareness around safe digital banking practice.”

He further adds that the production house’s efforts on the casting, costume, art direction, cinematography, and the overall production lifted the films and the script to a new level. “By roping in the lead actor of a popular series which was on the similar theme of cyber frauds, the actor caught the pulse of real-life scammers (fraud callers) rather well in his delivery and mannerisms,” says Somvanshi.

The target audience for the campaign is 45+ MF, not so digitally savvy/ late adopters, from tier I & II  and metros.

Video production
under lockdown

It began with casting the right actors who would suit the victim & scamster profiles. “Key emphasis was given on the look and feel so that the storyline is justified, right from the art direction to the hair and makeup,” says Pratap Dhulap, Director, Hoppipola Picture Company.

While the teams ensured that the production phase went smoothly, who knew that the post-production would not go the same way. Most of the film work was done prior to the lockdown. The lockdown stalled post-production work and delayed the campaign from releasing in March to July.

This included editing, color grading, music creation, sound design, and mixing and re-recording some dialogues with the actors at a remote setup following all the social distancing and safety norms. They made edit changes on video Calls and through screen sharing platforms.

While we all agree that brainstorming happens the best over endless cups of coffee, the lockdown had made it challenging. Sejpal quips, “At Hoppipola Picture Company, we are welcoming this as the way forward where individuals can contribute ideas from their own spaces and share it together on a common platform which can be accessed from anywhere without any barriers.”

From an on-location shoot perspective, the team is also exploring ways as to how can remote shoots happen via video calls and how they can be operated with a minimal crew. 

Social Media Plugin

Social media was the first choice of channel to release the films. The videos were released with the launch of a teaser video with all the four characters seeming to have fallen to the scammer’s trick.

Later the main films were released on the Bank’s social media handles followed by driving engagement through polls, stories, and followup posts. The Bank’s digital assets like website, ATMs, and branch network was further used to promote the campaign.

Apart from campaign announcements, RBL Bank can be seen as involved in spinning topical creatives, moment marketing, and weaving trend stories.

Amplifying campaigns for digital and safe banking, the bank is actively participating in spreading awareness and creating informative posts leveraging hashtags such as #DigitalBaking, #SafeBanking, and #ApnoKaBank.

Also Read: Inside: Sofit’s companionship to lift the lockdown on passions and hobbies

#RahoCyberSafe & Brand Objective

RBL Bank has come a long way since 1943. “The core of all our actions and values is about keeping the customer at the center of everything we do, thereby building deep-rooted relationships. We have even tried to capture this succinctly in our brand tagline- ‘Apno Ka Bank’, which denotes a sense of belonging,” reiterates Somvanshi.

The brand claims to be warm, caring, fair and someone who can be relied upon. Taking this premise forward, at unprecedented times like these when social engineering frauds are on the increase due to the rising adoption of digital banking and payment, it wanted to step in to alert customers about these incidents.

Somvanshi adds, “Hence our cybersecurity campaign #RahoCyberSafe is more from a standpoint of a friend and a well-wisher, who advises and alerts viewers from impending danger.”

The changing marketing strategy

Somvanshi notes, “With all the information overload around us, we prefer to keep the content simple, believable, and relevant. Currently, for us, the proportion of digital media has gone up in the media mix, as is the case with other brands too,”

He further highlights that creating useful, relevant, and engaging content is the key to garnering customer’s trust. Over the last four months, the bank has also transitioned its customer engagement event platforms to digital, and hence the marketing and communication efforts have been continuing with a deeper digital-first approach.