We enjoy the trust, credibility and expertise – the key brand attributes that ET brings to ETMONEY: Santosh Navlani, COO – ETMONEY

The recent campaign of ETMONEY, about the tax saving products of the fin-tech platform is definitely a hard one to miss. Also because it’s very relevant considering the financial year is coming to an end and the tax saving confusion is dawning on most of us.

Medianews4u spoke to Santosh Navlani COO & Head of Marketing – ETMONEY on the new campaign and a lot more.

Edited excerpts.  

What was the insight behind the communication for this campaign?

The core idea behind the campaign is that at the end of every financial year, Indians clamour to get done with their tax-saving investments before the deadlines set by either the HR to submit proofs or the March 31 deadline. In this rush to meet the deadline, most people just buy tax-saving products without evaluating if it’s doing anything for them beyond the tax-saving. Most often, it is akin to giving away the Rs.100 on something just because you will save Rs.30 (max 30% tax saving). In this rush to save Rs. 30, we forget Rs. 70 of our hard-earned money is also getting deployed and should ideally make you better off financially or otherwise.

Another part of the problem is that people don’t really know what the maximum tax they can save is. Taxation laws in India are notoriously complicated and figuring out various deductions, the clauses for each and then knowing your maximum tax saving limit is not something that everyone knows at the back of one’s hand. This results in taxpayers leaving money on the table.

With this campaign, our aim is to help Indian taxpayers not only save maximum tax possible but also do it in a way that helps them better their financial lives. As part of the campaign, we first built a solution on ETMONEY that after looking at the user’s current life stage and investment gives them a personalized tax plan. It details the maximum tax someone can save along with products where they should invest.

The second part was ensuring we have all the tax-saving products we suggest to be made available for purchase. With this, we are India’s only non-banking fintech app that helps people plan to save as high as Rs. 78,000 in taxes and make instant online purchases, right from their smartphones.

How much time did you take to conceptualize the campaign?

We have had a seamless experience conceptualizing and executing the campaign. With a ready inventory of insights we took about 30 days to bring the campaign from ideation to fruition.

What were the factors that helped you decide the casting? especially Biswapati Sarkar and Namit Das?

Tax and finance can be mostly boring or has been overly emotional on television advertising. Tax-saving, is important, but given the mobile-first Indian millennials we want to target, we wanted to drive home the point through shock or humour. Shock has been demonstrated through one not even being aware that Rs. 78,000 tax saving is possible (most people who know, know that it is Rs. 46,800). When not shock, we have used humour through the “crazy happiness” one gets when some finds a sum of lost money (i.e. when one accidently some money which was either written off or lost).

Biswa brings that lightness we wanted in the communication to the brink of being scary (through shock). On the other hand, Namit Das is truly representative of ETMONEY users. Young, suaveand someone who really knows that making his money work hard is as important as earning it.

How does this campaign cut the clutter that exists across TV and digital?

We wanted to reach out to the country’s digital-first, tech-savvy audience and therefore took to the most contemporary form of content tonality that captures audience attention. For years emotional or mundane ads have ruled the roster when in campaigns for financial products. Marrying finance and humour is a unique concept that helps maximize retention for the audience.

The emphatic light-hearted tonality of the ad helps us simplify and cut through the complicated aura that surrounds personal finance.

How have you positioned ETMONEY in the market? Considering the immense competition in the Fin-Tech space.

ETMONEY has always emphasized on driving financial literacy and we offer a range of services that make investing in personal finance hassle-free and enjoyable. We target the digtial-first audience and spend roughly 40% of our budget in digital medium.

Through driven measures to simplify personal finance we have established a brand that is well and truly India’s largest online wealth management app. Our 7.5Mn users stand testimony to our efforts. Couple that with our digital innovation and ability to produce industry-first services, just like our tax saver that saves up to an unprecedented Rs.78,000 and you have a credible brand that is increasingly becoming India’s go to app for all things personal finance.

What is the media mix for this campaign?

The campaign is live on TV, Print, Digital and OTT platforms. Besides, it will be live soon on OOH media to reach out to the daily commuting population. We intend to keep the campaign buzzing by releasing a music video in the 2nd week of February that will be a fun song to listen to on Tax!

What are some of the learnings from this campaign that you’d want to share with our readers?

In the absence of any instant gratification like cashbacks, sales or discounts + given the stage we are in the early stages of our brand journey –  our learning generally across our various campaigns has been that having a simple and clear “reason-to-buy” ETMONEY is a must have than any abstract brand message. Last year, we established that due to zero commission, ETMONEY can enable one to have Rs. 25 Lakh of extra returns and that was a reason to buy. And now it is Rs. 78,000 of instant tax-saving as a clear reason to buy. Difference between our last campaign and this is – we have evolved as a product. From a Mutual Funds ONLY product, we are now a one-stop shop for all financial products catering to investing, retirement and protection (i.e. NPS, Mutual Funds and Insurance). So, taking the highest savings of Tax as a route seemed an irresistible unique proposition to go out and claim the first to launch as well as communicate.

Is the application purely a B2C offering? Or are there some B2B offerings too? 

ETMONEY is a B2C product; we are engaged in a high-volume business and currently have our plates full.

How are you leveraging the brand value of Economic Times and ET? 

There is a strong association with Economic Times for ETMONEY in the minds of our users. The look and feel of our logo takes inspiration from ET, as most people refer to Economic Times as. We enjoy the trust, credibility and expertise – the key brand attributes that ET brings to ETMONEY. And these 3 are nearly the table stakes when it comes to a financial brand. We are taking the lineage forward and adding the power of design, simple communication and mobile technology as to take the brand in a direction that suits the consumer and business goals of ETMONEY.