This document describes an advertising campaign by HDFC Bank to promote their faster ATM transactions. HDFC had invested in upgrading their ATMs to be 40% faster than competitors. The challenge was communicating this speed advantage to customers. The strategy was to visually engage customers by integrating the "40% faster" message into different TV show formats, like showing cricket highlights or nature documentaries in 40 seconds to demonstrate speed. This was done across TV, radio and digital to bring the speed concept to life contextually. Research showed the campaign reached 59% of the bank's target group and led to an 8% increase in ATM transactions.

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HDFC Bank has around 3570 ATM’s spread across 550 cities. Last year there was a directive passed by RBI which
enabled a customer to withdraw cash at any bank’s ATM without any charges. This presented both a challenge &
opportunity to banks like HDFC who had invested hugely in building their ATM network. The challenge was that the ATM
network of a bank no longer remained one of its key selling propositions. The opportunity was to attract customers of other
banks to withdraw cash from the HDFC ATM’s & this can become the starting point of a relationship which HDFC can
develop with these customers.
Based on the above insight HDFC invested to upgrade its ATMs & introduce options which made them more fast, efficient
& safer than ATM’s of other Banks. One of such key initiative was introduction of “My Favorite” Transaction option which
made cash withdrawal from HDFC ATM’s 40% faster compared to any other ATM.
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The challenge was to communicate the message that “HDFC Bank ATM’s are 40% faster” in an interesting & engaging manner
& to demonstrate how that will make the customer’s life much easier and thus gain an advantage over other International banks.
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People realize the importance of time more, when they face an impediment in getting through to their favorite thing. For e.g.
Delay in start of a cricket match, Delay in the arrival of a loved one etc.
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Since HDFC Bank’s 40% faster ATMs allowed the customer to skip the usual process and get straight to withdrawing their
‘favorite’ amount, the same had to be communicated to our consumers in a way which would not only deliver our message but
do so in an innovative manner that adds value to the customer’s experience. Hence the idea was to engage them through a
series of interesting properties which brought alive the concept of ‘faster’ - VISUALLY
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Driven by the insight, we integrated our message with the relevant format of different television shows
On Neo Cricket – We created ‘Fatafat Highlights’ which showed the full highlights of the match in 40 secs
In Infotainment channels like Animal Planet we created short format informative films which showed different types of
animals/mammals/birds and the speed at which they operate.
In movie channels like UTV Movies & World Movies we created film festivals where we showcased movies which are all about
speed e.g. Race
On News channels like NDTV 24X7,NDTV India,UTV Bloomberg we created special highlight packages which demonstrated the
happenings of the day in a flash – Top 5 News,Fastest Growing Share of the day etc.
Thus by going beyond conventional 30 secs spots we highlighted both the “My Favorite option” & “40% faster” concepts
contextually. This was done across TV channels and also on Radio and thus brought alive the whole concept of 40% faster
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The post campaign research showed that the total awareness for the campaign in the banks TG was 59% In total we delivered
175M impressions through this concept and as per internal data from the Bank there was an 8% increase in ATM transactions
post the campaign.
Submitting Agency: Starcom Worldwide (India)
Client/Brand: HDFC Bank
Campaign Title: Bringing Alive 40% Faster
Client Description: ATMs
Date Beginning-Date End: Jan’10 – Apr’10
Contact Vehicles: Television
CATEGORY: Creativity/Innovation
Agency Credit
Girish Upadhyay -+919820438321-
gupadhyay@starcomindia.net
Saurabh Tyagi, Kalpesh Thakkar,Pranshu Sharma
Sujata Dwibedy, Ketan Karnik, Stephen Sequira,Annie
Velankar, Pravin Govekar