Case Study: How HDFC Bank leveraged Instagram UI for the launch of HDFC Bank Millennia

Through #SpendItWell, HDFC Bank aimed to combine the appropriate message and platform for reaching out to millennials with HDFC Bank Millenia. A look at Interactive Instagram UI Case Study.

The Caselet explores how HDFC Bank leveraged the right platform and the message coupled with influencers to reach the target audience. The brand attempted to capitalize on the feeling of the new-age 'FOMO' to present to them the HDFC Bank Millenia. Interactive Instagram UI Case Study below.

Category Introduction

The BFSI sector in India is booming, and HDFC Bank is at the epicenter of that. This sector is also embracing digital at a very rapid rate, as it realizes the need to be increasingly customer-facing and responsive.

Brand Introduction

HDFC Bank is a millennial itself at 25 years old! But in 25 years, it has become India’s one of most loved banks, and synonymous with trust and loyalty.

Summary

Hypothetical question: Millennials are indulgent and instinctive. Their spending patterns are different. So, why should they settle for the same old credit/debit cards?

HDFC Bank had an answer to this dilemma. They made the millennials’ shopping behavior rewarding for them with the new Millennia range of cards.

Then, the brand ran a campaign called #SpendItWell that increased the reach of this card to such an extent, that if you were a millennial in India on Instagram, you knew about it!

Brief

To amplify HDFC Bank’s exclusive new
Millennia range of cards on social media and make it a coveted possession among
millennials in India

Objective

Launch HDFC Bank’s Millennia range of cards on digital. The bank launched its new range of Millennia cards, custom-made for millennials. They introduced the cards aiming to present a resonant message - It’s your life, #SpendItWell.

As customers are often extremely loyal when it comes to choosing which entity to bank with, HDFC Bank had to reach out to customers early in the adoption process.

• So the primary objective was to make the Millennia card a coveted possession among these millennials, and position it to be ‘cool’, ‘young’ and ‘fun’.
• Increase
  brand awareness and drive queries for HDFC Bank’s coolest product yet
• Create
  thumb-stopping content that millennials couldn’t ignore

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Execution

Thumb-stopping content that used the right combination of influencers and Instagram

The
message:

• This messaging was quick and catchy. The brand only took a second of a millennial’s time but if they were on Instagram, there was no way they could miss this campaign.
• Millennials have no shortage of credit cards to choose from, and indulging in the things they love is easy. But what if they could spend money on their passions - food, travel, and shopping - and get significantly rewarded for it?

The
platform:

• A millennial social network through-and-through, Instagram was identified as a key platform to drive consideration and top-of-feed recall.

So once the brand identified the message
and the platform, the idea was to combine the two in a burst so that it was all
millennials could see any time they went on Instagram to scroll.

Seamless integration of the Millennia card and influencer posts

• Several hundred influencers soon took to Instagram to talk about their Millennia Card in a 3D fashion. These influencers were the “who’s who” of the millennial space, across multiple sectors and geographies, and created brand recall in a seamless manner
• The brand strategically chose the right people for this campaign, from relevant millennial categories - food, lifestyle, beauty, travel and more. Some of these people were celebrities, others were Youth Icons
• This included (but was not limited to) Rana Dagubatti, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Radhika Apte, Nidhhi Agerwal and Arjun Kanungo
• It also maintained a 3-D look and feel throughout hundreds of posts to create strong brand recall
• Furthered this recall through the timing of the campaign - the posts were released in a burst - to generate maximum impact
• Also, stories were created that centered around ‘unboxing’ - a truly millennial trend - with a millennial box that contained everything from a polaroid camera to a succulent

Challenges

With attention spans dwindling and millennials probably having even lower attention spans, the idea was to create thumb-stopping content that made them stop scrolling. So the message and platform had to be resonant for millennials, so much so that they would pay attention to it over and above the vast ocean of content they already consumed. 

Results

Overall, in a span of 3 days, the campaign:

• Reached
  over 19 million people
• Garnered
  over 22 million impressions
• Led
  to 105,000 website visits in 1 day (a 37% spike on the HDFC Bank Millennia
  microsite witnessed in just a single day)
• Resulted
  in a 500% increase in Google search interest for HDFC Millennia