Times Network urges viewers to #HelpyourHelp

In the second leg of its initiative Remonetise India, Times Network has launched a mass media campaign conceptualised by Publicis Ambience, Mumbai, asking viewers to allow a day off to their house helps so that they can open bank accounts

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | February 16, 2016

Click on the Image to watch the TVC.

Instead of blaming others or finding reasons for demonetisation, Times Network took a step in a new direction by announcing its Remonetise India campaign. While the first leg of the campaign urged people to go cashless and use as much plastic money as possible, the second leg takes a step further.

The recently launched second leg of the campaign urges viewers and other citizens of the country to #HelpyourHelp. So, what is the campaign attempting? If the country has to go cashless, everyone is expected to have a bank account. Times Network has set up remonetise camps that are helping people to open bank accounts. The mass media campaign under #HelpyourHelp has asked the viewers to allow a day off to their house helps so that they can go and open their bank accounts. It has urged viewers to realise that we need to make them self-reliant and include them in the progress path.

Conceptualised by Publicis Ambience Mumbai, the campaign has three television commercials and extension to print media and activations. The TVC will be promoted across the network's channels and additionally in 300+ multiplexes, supported by a digital contest.

MK Anand, MD and CEO, Times Network said, “Times Network reaches out to about 4.5 crore urban English viewers every week. This is the largest base of premium, influential audience in the country. The network in fact is an influencer to influencers. At a time when the nation is attempting to leapfrog economically, we believe that regulation, infrastructure and technology are not enough to jumpstart socio-economic change. Behavioural and cultural transformation is as important, if not more. This is where a uniquely positioned media group like ours can help.”

(L) MK Anand & Bobby Pawar (R)

He further expands his thoughts, saying, “Through the 'Remonetise India' campaign, we aim to focus on making changes in everyday behaviour of urban Indians so that the benefits of this disruptive reform (demonetisation) flow in the right manner. One of the pledges under Remonetise India is to help others around us to go digital and benefit from the new economy. The Sahayata camps that we have started have already resulted in the opening of thousands of bank accounts and more young people are taking the Remonetise India pledge. The second phase of the campaign 'Help your Help' is a call to capable urban citizens to help and aid others in achieving financial inclusion.”

The mass media campaign will unfold in a phased manner and the first film, which was launched on February 15, is in the backdrop of an upper middle-class house.

The film opens when a little girl enters the drawing room of her house to check with her mom if Sunita aunty (house help) will be on leave the next day. The girl is worried about her tiffin box and lunch, which is generally Sunita aunty's responsibility. She teases her mother, when the mother says that she will make lunch for her. Sunita aunty goes to open her bank account and is happy the next day when she is back at work.

Bobby Pawar, Managing Director, Publicis Ambience said, “There was no brief. We were just chatting about things and how demonetisation has hit and that there was a deeper impact which was going to last for the next two quarters. A lot of business was getting affected, incentives and employment was also getting affected. We can keep talking about it unless we decide to make some change and then, we started walking in the direction. That's when remonetise India came up. We wanted to build faith in the country's economy and we wanted to make it stronger than what it was before by making sure that we use less cash which was the first phase of this initiative.”

Speaking about the challenges in this aim, Pawar said that the apathy of the people was the biggest challenge. “Most people think that since I have not created this problem, it is not my duty to solve it. We wanted to look at the people who go beyond themselves. This thing is not about advertising as much as it is about changing mindset. If today, they (maids, laundrymen and others) have a bank account, they might have a Paytm tomorrow and a credit card the day after.”

“These changes won't happen overnight. A lot of times they are going to need from us, as they have no idea about how systems work, they are not educated and that makes the whole process all the more challenging for them. But if you are educated and you can help them, why not? You have relationships with these people and ultimately it makes your life easier as you don't have to withdraw cash every time.”

The film is produced by Director Karthik Bhat from Opticus Films.

Bhat said that the attempt was to keep the film simple and to say it with ease. “We didn't want to make all of this a huge affair and look transformational. We wanted it to be more simplistic as much as the problem of a child's lunch box and snacks. Hence we used a simple storyline. Featuring a kid only made this more impactful as children are more observant and are quite big influencers in our day-to-day decisions.”

The TVC:

https://img-cdn.thepublive.com/filters:format(webp)/bmi/media/post_attachments/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Times-Network-HelpyourHelp.jpg

Credits:

Agency: Publicis Ambience

Chief Operating Officer: Paritosh Srivastava

Chief Creative Officer: Bobby Pawar

Creative Team: Jigar Fernandes, Gururaj Rao, Rohan D'souza, Abhishek Sawant

Account Management Team: Atin Wahal, Noorbanu Qureshi, Kanishka Bhamawat

Production House: Opticus Inc.

Director: Karthik Bhat

Producer: Daya Suryavanshi

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