Most financial services in Pakistan – be it banks, insurance or asset management companies (AMCs) – are in the habit of taking a serious approach when advertising their products and services. The ads are either information laden flyers (examples: Askari Bank’s Bachat Account and UBL Fund Managers print ads) or emotionally charged messages that seem bent on overwhelming the customer (examples: NIB Bank’s “Because you are special” campaign, and the proverbial Baiti ki shaadi-themed ads). However, in the last few years, some financial brands have launched more conceptual and humour-based campaigns, which have been quite successful in terms of attracting user attention; examples include HBL’s Mr Bean ads, EFU Life’s Kamal campaign and now Alfalah GHP’s recent ad campaign.

In September, Alfalah GHP Investment Management Limited (a joint venture between Bank Alfalah and GHP Arbitrium of Switzerland) took an even more unconventional approach in order to advertise their capital preservation mutual fund (one of the many mutual funds they offer).

The communication in fact consisted of one print ad and a radio spot, with no TV or OOH support. And yet the financial returns it generated were so unprecedented that the AMC had to extend the last date of the IPO in order to deal with an unexpected inundation of calls by potential customers.

Here, it is interesting to note that the same product (capital preservation fund) was launched in May, and advertised via print ads; yet those ads failed to attract any noticeable attention, except from the company’s usual investors. In stark contrast, the current campaign, conceptualised by The D’Hamidi Partnership, sparked considerable debate on social media, and attracted a significant amount of customers. The print ad was simple; it showed a laughing young man, carefree and confident and almost delusional with happiness with a headline that boldly announced “I got fired!” This unapologetic and nonchalant dismissal of losing one’s job did the trick and left the audience curious to know more.

According to Faraz Maqsood, CE and CD at The D’Hamidi Partnership, “Emotional voltage gets people excited. Directing them in some way; compelling them to take action.”

However, it wasn’t just the ad’s shock factor that pulled in the customers. In D’Hamidi’s opinion, the ad stood out because of three factors; it was conceptual and not an ‘info dump’, it tapped into the mindset of its primary target audience (salaried individuals) by introducing the notion of losing one’s job and it experimented with the concept of ‘justified irreverence’, something that has not been attempted before in local ads.

According to Maheen Rahman, Chief Executive Officer, Alfalah GHP Investment Management, “We are required to advertise prior to all mutual fund launches and have been doing so regularly for several years, and they have been more informative rather than conceptual. This time we wanted something that would attract attention and clearly communicate what we are offering, especially given that in Pakistan, mutual funds are associated with retirement, education or long term saving.”

To tackle this perception, the ad focused on something which people in their mid-thirties can and do relate to – financial security and having a secure job. The idea was to communicate the fact that investing in a mutual fund could help them get through any possible financial crises. In essence, the campaign humanised mutual funds by associating them with a very real situation.

For Alfalah GHP, the business impact was positive and an “eye opener”. They were swamped with inquiries from as far as Gujranwala and Sialkot. For perspective, Rahman adds that whereas the company usually receives a handful of inquiries in the month following an announcement of a new fund, this time they received over a hundred calls in the first two days of releasing this campaign.

“We didn’t anticipate such traffic! The launch was scheduled for September 30, but we extended it further for a month to better absorb the demand. Our total investor base has gone up by about 25 to 30%.”

Financial services might now wish to consider whether the time has come to dump their info dump approach.