Tickled pink

ADVERTISING: At long last, financial services advertising discovers the tibia humerus.

What was that again "" did someone mention a "serious" category? Financial services laboured for years under the burden of the "serious" tag, churning out ad after ad that spent more effort living up to the tag than talking to anyone with the remotest interest in multiplying money.

Financial services, however, have ripped off the tag as far as advertising goes, and it has been a refreshing change. The loosening up of collars (and much else) was initiated by the unlikeliest of candidates: SBI.

In one quick sequence of "take a bet" commercials, it rid itself of the stodgy image of a bank where laughter might actually get you hauled off in handcuffs by the cops.

To be fair, there were precedents. Kotak Mahindra's campaign, for example, has never taken the stiff-collar approach to its target customer, opting instead for breezy ads.

ICICI had made several "friendly' ads. And SBI's campaign was preceded by SBI Life's memorable "heere ko kyaa pata tumhari umra kyaa hai" ad featuring an old couple and a diamond.

Whatever the original cause, a change it has been, and now everyone seems a lot more relaxed "" be it insurance, banking or mutual funds. They all want to be noticed.

Says Debashish Sarkar, director, marketing, Max New York Life, "It is important to differentiate "" with the right communication strategy targeted at the audience one is looking at."

Pratap Suthan, national creative director, Grey Worldwide, seconds that view: "Companies want to break free from the clutter, and communicate the fact that they will take care of your money as it is a serious task."

Humour, he adds, actually offers the customer a sense of assurance "" of an organisation confident enough to behave this way, and human enough to smile once in a while.

"Anything involving money is serious business," says Suthan, "and the customer needs something extra to relate with the services "" and humorous ads provide that."

Friendliness is all the more important in this category, says Sagar Mahableshwar, group creative head, O&M, because that is precisely what is missing, all so often.

"Finance is seen as something very complex, very threatening," he says, "Most finance ads are about who's offering a 'better rate' of interest, or who's offering 'more liquidity' and so forth."

But. Hard numbers do not a connect make, no matter how much money is spent (and big money is certainly being spent in financial services).

So it's safe to conclude that funny ads are here to stay. Yet, there's a caveat: advertising must never find itself out of touch, which for some investment sub-categories can happen with a sudden twist of the Sensex. This adds complexity to the task of conveying a sense of confidence in what's going on.