Have you ever remembered a successful communication campaign where entire industry come together to promote the industry? …… One has to stretch our brains to find out answer. Few people may recall NECC campaign (Sunday ho ya Monday roz khao ande).
If you are IPL cricket buff, then you must have come across with TV commercials with tagline “Mutual fund sahi hai”.
In March 2017, Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), the trade association of mutual funds in India, launched a media and communication campaign under a tag line “Mutual Funds Sahi Hai”. The campaign was aimed to create investor awareness and expand the category. This endeavor’s objective was to promote mutual funds as a preferred investment option for individual investors. The campaign- “Mutual Funds Sahi Hai”- went 360 degrees by romping in Digital, radio, print, cinema and outdoor hoardings in multiple languages.
To what extent this initiative attracted retail investors towards Mutual funds? Answering this is difficult but a table below offers an interesting comparison to reader.
| (before campaign) | (post campaign) | Growth | |
| Number of Retail folios | 4.77 crore* | 6.25 Crore** | 31.03 % |
| Ticket size of folio | Rs 60750/-* | Rs. 85875/-** | 41.36 % |
| Average monthly addition of SIP accounts | 6.27 lakhs# | 9.70 Lakhs## | 54.70 % |
| Average Monthly flows from SIP accounts | 3660 Crore# | 5461 Crore## | 49.21 % |
| Total SIP contribution | 43,921 Crore# | 67,190 Crore## | 52.98 % |
| * As on March 2017 ** As on December 2018
# FY 2016-17 ## FY 2017-18 |
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But one has to interpret these numbers with a pinch of salt. In post demonetization we have observed retail investors higher appetite towards financial savings. This new investment appetite is fueled by falling interests, increased household incomes and global rally in the stock markets. But It is commendable for any industry to cloak a growth of 50 percent in value and 30 percent in volumes.
This was not the first attempt by AMFI to promote the entire category. In 2015, AMFI came up with a campaign under tagline “Mutual Fund – the new of saving”. It went unnoticed. This time AMFI’s campaign got financial muscle as mutual fund companies share half of their awareness funds to association.
Earlier people is to associate Mutual fund with disclaimer i.e. “Mutual fund are subject to market risk ………”
It seems that this new AMFI campaign changed people perception from negative (Market risk) to positive (sahi hai). The simple message was communicated through everyday situations on the backdrop and through relatable characters.
This campaign is not only mile stone to MF industry but under penetrated industries such as insurance, pension can learn from it. Ultimately collaboration brings more value than competing.
Let’s hope that in near future we will see more collaborative efforts from financial service providers towards investor education, financial inclusion and marketing.
When people or companies start collaborating with each other, instead of competing there would be celebration. It’s good that they came together for this beautiful campaign which is beneficial to both investors and the companies.