Last Updated on March 14, 2024
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A few years ago, there was a new kid on the block – Digital storytelling. Oh, the excitement around it was palpable. Digital storytelling soon became the buzzword at every conference. It had many facets – social media presence, emails, and newsletters, app explainer videos, online community building etc.
Custom explainer videos were only a small part of digital marketing, but within a short time, grew a great deal. Today, video marketing is seen as the newest income magnet by marketers. And rightly so. Because brands are notorious for growing 49% faster than the rest, when they use promotional videos for their businesses
Today, video storytelling is the star of the show. Folks from all walks of life are enjoying its simplicity and charm. The popularity of videos for business has created this FOMO phenomenon that has gotten everyone rushing to get one for themselves.
Video storytelling is not about making any random promotional video for a product or service. It is the first touch-point for many prospects. It speaks about the company, the brand and their values. This is precisely why a lot of companies (across verticals) take their video stories quite seriously.
What is up with these banks?
Healthcare, IT/ITes, Education, Business Consultancies, Real estate and many other sectors are putting up their video stories online.
- Real estates in India has never looked cooler;
- Hiring portals have broken out of their shells and created sassy app explainer videos;
- Consultancies are bringing out their creativity in fun and exciting video stories.
And what have banks and finance companies have to show for themselves? A couple of dull PDFs. And long-winded webinars. Not very impressive.
“Financial institutions have traditionally been slow to change”, Marketo says in their recently published and aptly named ebook, Don’t get left Behind. Mainly because Banks and Financial institutions have existing perspectives of how things should be done. Their conservative habits die hard. Even Time is not on their side! It takes a long time for new and experimental ideas to go through their processes.
In comparison to other industries, the number of financial institutions that have completely embraced digital marketing is quite small. Only a paltry 15% of banks have clear digital marketing strategies.
Using edutainment videos for nurturing
Shivkant Singh, the head of Digital Marketing at Bajaj capital Ltd., says that one of the biggest mistakes companies do is to overestimate or underestimate the medium of communication. We rely on the technology and neglect the content or vice-versa, which is why communication fails even with a great product or message.
At this point, a thorough and deep understanding of the mediums of communication is imperative. When you have access to online platforms like YouTube (and other social media) it would be a crying shame not to use them to the maximum.
As it turns out, in India, a large population is still unaware of the ways to invest and grow their income. So it falls upon banks and financial service companies, to educate millennials and Gen X on the benefits of investing. Early adopters among finance firms have shifted their marketing to education-based nurturing using clear and concise edutainment videos.
But others are not so fortunate. If I had to take a guess, I’d say that your company has already got one foot in video marketing, but the other is still in traditional advertising. Understandably, there is a real struggle for transitioning over to the digital side.
Digital storytelling is a challenging job
Aditya Birla’s My Universe app is a personal finance management platform.
“Ramesh is just like you and me. All his life he’s been told that he needs to save money to get what he wants. But just like us, he has zero clues on how to manage money. No one taught him that”
These well-chosen words strike at the heart of the majority of working professionals. The simple language and story element adds tremendously to customer engagement. A comical visual with piggy banks and a grab claw instantly make it funny and attention-grabbing.
Metrics give you all the proof you need
To talk about videos and not talk about metrics would be a crime. Measuring the ROI of Videos matter because metrics hold the key to success and growth of your firm. With proper metrics, you can track every like, every share and every action.
Let’s check out one more video.
HDFC Bank’s Multi-currency card has so many features that could be tiresome on paper (or on a web page) This little two-minuter has proved that even this heavy topic can be boiled down to a nice, neat story, packaged into the life of a character (Ajay) and given to the audience.
In both videos, there were difficult-to-understand topics. But they have been simplified to an engaging story that is easily shareable and even re-tellable.
App explainer videos are tiny but have tremendous potential. Their virality far exceeds that of any traditional ad. Everyone likes videos because they are full of stories; they are enjoyable; they are used for education and most importantly, they are currently on top of the list for many firms as their marketing strategy.
You are not alone
An annual report of the Indian Advertising and Marketing industry reveals that in 2015, out of the total advertising spends, 13% was towards (no surprises!) Digital marketing. And this percentage is increasing year-on-year. This means that the Indian Government is backing up the digital marketing revolution.
This is good news for the Banking and Finance sector, specifically, since their advertising expenditure is driven by the Reserve Bank of India. The RBI policies make way for new banks and create a ‘fertile ground’ for finance firms who are brave enough to step into the digital revolution.
A successful digital marketing strategy for any finance firm in 2016, would be to create valuable and engaging content on multiple channels. Animated explainer videos with their versatility and creativity are arguably the safest and most viable bet for Banks and Financial Institutions when it comes to allocating their digital marketing money.
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