IDBI Bank fuses beauty of childhood bonds with a friendship promise

IDBI Bank has rolled out four new ad films conceived by Ogilvy & Mather, on the theme ‘Bank aisa dost jaisa’ (A bank like a friend).

Each of the films feature kids in a pairs, with one of them explaining why the other is his or her best friend.

One of the films features a boy and a girl sitting in school. The chubby boy says that everyone in school calls him motu (fatty). Even at his tuitions and at the playground, people call him motu, he complains, but says his best friend seated next to him doesn’t. As he finishes his story, music plays in the background and his friend asks him what he had for lunch. Their banter continues even as a voice over signs off saying, “Aisi dosti agar ek bank nibhaye toh… IDBI Bank, bank aisa dost jaisa”.

In another film, a young boy is peeling sugarcane for his friend, who has lost her milk teeth. Yet another shows a girl confessing how when she caught a cold and didn’t have handkerchief, her best friend helped her with his tie. A fourth film talks about a kid whose pants tore in school. He explains how his friend helped him by walking behind him the whole day, and escorting him home.

Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and creative director, South Asia, Ogilvy & Mather, said, “Our initial thrust for IDBI Bank a few years ago had been to tell the world that just because we are a big nation-building bank, does not mean that we are not approachable to address your smallest need. And now when we look at the next step in the evolution of the communication, what better than the universal emotion of childhood friendships to symbolise the role that IDBI Bank plays in its customers' and partners' lives.”

Abhijit Avasthi, National Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather, said, “When we started work on the new campaign of IDBI Bank, we were very clear that we are changing the campaign and not the values that the Bank stands for. The idea we came up with does exactly this. In an innocent and charming way we are telling people ‘What if a bank would do what a friend would do’. When you say something like this, you really don’t need to say much more.”

Kainaz Karmakar, group creative director, Ogilvy & Mather: We have four films. In each one there are two kids and one kid is telling us why the other one is his or her friend. The soul of the films lies in what those kids say and their disarming reasons for considering someone a friend.”

Harshad Rajadhyaksha, group creative director, Ogilvy & Mather, said, “Crafting dialogues for each one of them was an exercise. We wanted moments from a child’s world, because anything else would have been unfair to the campaign and fake.”

Vivek Kakkad has directed the films, produced by Curious.

Credits

Executive chairman and creative director, South Asia: Piyush Pandey

Vice chairman and country head - discovery and planning: Madhukar Sabnavis

National creative director: Abhijit Avasthi

Group creative directors: Kainaz Karmakar and Harshad Rajadhyaksha

Copywriters: Kainaz Karmakar and Harshad Rajadhyaksha

President - geography head, Mumbai and Kolkata: Navin Talreja

Business head: B Ramanathan

Client servicing director: Makarand Nadkarni

Account supervisor: Kunal Dangarwala

Production house: Curious

Director (film): Vivek Kakkad

Associate director: Aarati Kakkad

Producer: Shahazad Bhagwagar