Cut to the chase

We took the simple idea of contextual advertising into print to bring Indian consumers an affordable way of buying the products they wanted during the festival season.

The challenge

India is the land of festivals. Most festivals take place between September and November – and that’s when people’s enthusiasm for consumer goods purchases peak. This enthusiasm is, however, restricted by fear of overspending. To combat this, Citibank launched a card offer with interest-free, Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) repayments. We had two challenges: ensure a disproportionate share of spend for Citibank and revive at least 10% of their dormant card users.

Our insight

People associate consumer durable advertising with rich content, especially at festival time.

Our solution

We ‘chased’ festival-offer advertising across print titles, so every time an ad for a consumer brand appeared, there would be a Citibank EMI ad placed right next to it. This offered the consumer an affordable way to buy the product they wanted.

The results

• Brand preference up four points (Q4 2011 versus Q3 2011)
• EMI product page traffic up 42%