Inside: Bajaj Finserv's attempt at associating with travel via #TravelOnEMI

Bajaj Finserv #TravelOnEMI contest campaign adds gamification and interactive content elements to the brand's social media strategy.

With #TravelOnEMI, Bajaj Finserv attempted to increase brand association with travel as a category, creating awareness about it. It was an essential step for the brand felt there was low awareness about the travel-related offers and benefits that come with the Bajaj Finserv EMI card. An element of gamification was added with the help of a dedicated microsite.

The brand kickstarted 2020 with the third edition of #TravelOnEMI, having run the campaign twice last year. "This time around, we took a route of gaming to engage and inform our customers about the offerings and the property," said a brand spokesperson.

Most of the campaign is being run on the brand's Facebook page that has
2,394,764 likes on it. The brand is not as active on Instagram.

With 26.2K followers, Twitter is also an important platform for the brand where they have put up #TravelOnEMI posts.

They have also partnered with Goibibo, Makemytrip, Yatra, SOTC, Thomas Cook and Via. The names of these brands appear when a potential customer solves a puzzle on the microsite.

Running a contest campaign

Are there any specific challenges to running a social media contest as a BFSI brand? There are, says a Bajaj Finserv spokesperson, "The sensitivities that come with maintaining the reputation of a financial brand from the BFSI sector needs to be kept in mind when constructing campaigns and contests." It is important to keep strong legal terms and conditions in place and clearly communicates the same to potential customers.

On the basis of their past experiences of creating content for social media, Bajaj Finserv has learned the importance of being conversational and engaging instead of trying the hard-selling route for financial products. "We tend to educate, inform and engage customers to make them feel connected to the brand and products," the brand spokesperson tells us.

Plans for 2020

Bajaj Finserv intends to run six to eight campaigns around #TravelOnEMI this year. The objective is to build the category with a mix of social campaigns, contests, influencer marketing, high-impact display properties, offline activation, content programs, and PR to drive engagement.

The brand will focus on leveraging gamification, gaming, topicality, app marketing, and vernacular content. Efforts will also be made to bring depth to the brand's existing digital capabilities like context-based marketing, video marketing, influencer network, activations and social.

BFSI trends 2020

Armed with AI and data analytics, BFSI sector marketers will be able to better reach audiences and potential customers in 2020. Some trends that are likely to go big this year, according to Bajaj Finserv are:

• Interactive digital content like quizzes, polls, 360-degree videos and gamification.
• Content customised according to the target segment and their interests to make it more appealing for customers.
• Brands will look for ways to be more visible during customer micro-moments while engaging with them across different platforms.
• Interactive pictorials will be used to help customers understand the various product offerings and features.
• Communicative calculators will help brands give more information to customers in an interesting way.