ruwithme: May 2007

3G Recruitment Campaign
Call me a wiseguy, a deviant, call me what you will. Long copy is still read and loved. Some recruitment ads for 3G, a Hutchison Whampoa company, who basically have a call-centre operating in Mumbai, India. Busted butt on the stylising. Salutations to illustrator Khomne. Must have been Michaelangelo back in time. If you don't have fun reading it, you better get back to your Mills and Boons, kid.

SBI Auto Loan - Ambient media
The State Bank of India (SBI), needed to boost their auto loan subscribers’ base. At this point, let it be noted that a large part of the Mumbai working population travels to work in local trains. Apart from suffering a huge crowd in the compartments, passengers often reach their destinations with miserably-trodden shoes. A quick two minutes with the shoeshine boy ensures that the shoes get back their shiny complexion.

What I did was paste posters on the shoeshine boys’ boxes which read:
‘No more trampled shoes to work.
SBI car loans at the lowest interest rates. Toll-free number ---.’

Similar communication was put up at hoardings, in newspapers and aired on radio.

Figuratively, fuelled by the fantastic interest rates and increased disposable incomes for the financial year ’05-06, car loan subscriptions went up by INR 1996 crores, ie 35.2 million Euros.
The campaign went on to win two silvers at the Abby Awards (India’s best-recognised advertising awards) in the ‘Financial Products’ and ‘Integrated Campaign’ categories. And two more at the Effies (Effectiveness Awards) including the Yahoo ‘Big Idea’ Award.

3G Recruitment ad campaign - A sharper breed.
3G has its office in Malad, Mumbai. Recruitments were becoming a problem because of the 'dumb' stigma call-centres seem to come attached with. The new recruitment campaign therefore needed to fulcrum around a premise more enticing. We thought 'A Sharper Breed' would cut more ice, leverage the brand onto a celebral plane. The campaign, visible across all Mumbai dailies and strategically-chosen hoardings, begun about a year back, is still running. I rest my case.