- Client
- Kotak Life
- Services
- Short Videos
- Emailer
- Vehicle Branding
- Merchandise
Communications is a fine art – it’s almost a science. It’s as much about the content as it is about the medium. As the world goes through several gears of change and evolution, communications itself has had to adapt and evolve.
The digital era has changed everything – very drastically and very fast. The way people communicate, consume data, information and entertainment – and hence content and media themselves – have also undergone a sea change. People have increasingly shorter attention spans and hence the days of verbose print communication and long format films are passé.
These very issues were at the forefront when Kotak Life approached Mumbai-based creative advertising agency, Water Communications, to handle its internal communication. Its existing output directed at employees was hitting a blind spot. The formats were old, the content was too regular. Just more of ‘same old, same old’. Something drastic needed to be done, and done real quick – because, often, internal staff were missing important updates buried in an avalanche of content.
We analysed the problem by examining the existing communication. Emailers were drab, boring and text-heavy. Videos were detailed, unimaginative and tended to overwhelm the viewer. Images and videos weren’t relatable or dynamic – they all tended to preach rather than engage.
The road ahead was clear to us. Everything had to change. Emailers had to go from text-heavy to visual-lead. Videos had to convey much less and yet convey everything important in bite-sized shots. All communication had to be overhauled, made more innovative and engaging, warm and interactive where possible… even made more entertaining and enjoyable, without being flippant.
We dismantled the old order, and created a fresh set of emailers, videos and print communication that was easy on the eye, visual-led, uncluttered, and quick in the messaging. The entire focus was on creative simplicity, even if by being innovative..
We didn’t stop there. We suggested roping in actor Raj Kumar Rao to be the brand’s face across all internal communication. This would help build trust and credibility, while achieving better emotional connect with employees.
We expanded the scope by suggesting merchandise to clinch the communication build-up and help personalise the connect with the employee. The general merchandising would help achieve increased goodwill through functional brand promotion. We also suggested leveraging the widespread love for cricket within the workforce.
All of this, to help Kotak Life achieve a drastic turnaround in its internal communications. So that employees would enthusiastically read emailers and print communication, watch videos and act on triggers.
The end result of the sum total of our efforts would be far greater engagement with, and responsiveness from, the target audience – helping the brand achieve an emotional and intellectual connect with them.
Print may still represent conventional media, however it to has been forced to evolve with changing times.
At the same time, Print is subliminally perceived to be a more serious medium. We leveraged both these aspects to the brand’s advantage – effectively using Print to communicate more serious content such as essential guidelines, mandates and important corporate messages.
We also adapted different print communication to suit the sensibilities of the regions they were being deployed in. Beng a pan-national brand with offices right across the country, Kotak Life’s employees are culturally different from region to region and these differences were taken into consideration while developing print content.
On a micro scale, we delivered content that was memorable, easily comprehensible, and light on the eye.
This we achieved through less-cluttered layouts, concise content and highlighting key points via infographics, call-outs and creative typography.
Overall, our efforts resulted in appealing, reader-friendly lay-outs, simplified and succinct content, striking visuals and balanced text-to-image ratio that helped improve retention and comprehension of core messages. It also reinforced brand recognition and professionalism amongst the workforce.
to gleemailers!
Over the years, much of corporate emailers have become blind spots. They tend to be verbose and preachy or at best information overload. In this digital age, bombarded with so much information and entertainment, people’s attention span has become extremely short and fragile.
We recrafted Kotak Life’s emailers, drastically reducing the text, simplifying the language, and decluttering the layout.
In many cases we creatively embedded the message into the visual and thus got across the message directly and immediately. This helped achieve clarity of message in the very first interaction and hence minimised confusion.
If you cannot engage the reader in the first few seconds, you have lost them forever. We thus adopted an engaging and action-oriented approach to the emailers through intriguing subject lines, dramatic visuals and prompt calls-to-action. Cumulatively designed to enhance engagement with, and response to, the communication.
The aim was to deliver creative simplicity, through uniqueness and innovation but minus any over-complication. This was achieved through clean designs, uncluttered layouts, minimal text and evocative visuals.
We achieved the overall objective of enhancing readability, creating memorable communication and resonating emotionally and intellectually with the target audience. Engagement and response rates would increase, and the emailers would achieve their set objectives.
Water Communications also suggested CSR activities to generate further goodwill amongst the Kotak Life workforce. One such initiative was to associate with or introduce its own ambulances, and prominently brand the same with relevant messages.
Kotak Life’s own mass company vehicles like buses could also be message-wrapped with CSR promotions. We suggested empathetic associations like Netra Daan (Eye donation). This would reinforce the brand’s commitment to social responsibility and community welfare.
However, our suggested designs were minimalistic, uncluttered and with the core message prominently and directly conveyed. Excessive branding or design was avoided so as not to overshadow the initiative and thus maintain its authenticity. We suggested that these vehicles be deployed where direct interaction with the community is highest, thus increasing awareness and inspiring action at the very grassroots.
Water Communications saw merchandising as a powerful device to engage and delight its client’s internal audience. On a personal basis, goodwill would be generated through useful, daily-use items like mugs, T-Shirts and pens, that would not only foster pride and belonging, but also increase brand visibility and recall, even for those around them. A case of functional and expandable brand promotion.
The merchandising route we strategically extended to brand collaborations, as between Kotak Life and RCB, the IPL cricket team franchise. We suggested seamlessly blending the two brand identities by incorporating Kotak Life design elements and colours into RCB merchandise like T-Shirts, mugs, caps, etc.
To be seen on the same plane as a powerful and pan-nationally admired sports brand like RCB would have strong rub-off on the company’s image, augment brand value and instil a sense of pride amongst its employees. Cricket being the passion and religion that it is in India, it would strongly enhance brand affinity and boost employee enthusiasm and emotional connect.
