Ummeed Housing Finance: Financing Dreams of The Unbanked Citizens

Introduction

Ummeed Housing Finance is a company focused on providing home loans to the underserved and poorly banked segments of the Indian population. Their target audience includes individuals who often struggle to access traditional banking services, such as auto-rickshaw drivers, street vendors, small traders, and skilled workers in the informal sector, without proper documentation and traditional income proofs.

Recognizing the need to reach this audience effectively, Ummeed Housing Finance partnered with Ascent Brand Communication to design and execute a targeted BTL campaign in Madhya Pradesh.

Brief

Ummeed Housing Finance tasked Ascent Brand Communications with creating a high-impact, localized marketing campaign to reach their target audience in various towns and cities across Madhya Pradesh. The “Sunao Dard-e-Kirayedari” campaign needed to be engaging, informative, and capable of generating quality leads for home loans.

Objectives

Target the specified audience with a hard-hitting communication campaign to generate qualitative leads and build a future pipeline.
Create high buzz, visibility, and brand awareness in the target areas through gamified messaging.
Educate the target audience about Ummeed’s hassle-free documentation for home loans.
Encourage the transition from rental housing to homeownership among the target group.
Engage the target segment with games and use slogans with a blend of humour, to drive home a serious issue that everyone is affected by, i.e., to own a house.

Challenges Addressed

Reaching a dispersed, often difficult-to-access target audience across various rural, urban, and semi-urban locations in Madhya Pradesh. The main focus was on the rural areas.
Overcoming potential literacy barriers and financial hesitancy among the target group.
Creating an engaging campaign around a typically serious topic (home loans).
Differentiating Ummeed Housing Finance from traditional financial institutions.

Target Areas / Location

The campaign targeted potential housing aspirants in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

Target Audience

Auto-rickshaw drivers, street vendors, taxi drivers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, construction laborers
Small traders
Shop owners, kirana and general stores
Users of digital payment services (Google Pay, Airtel Payments, Paytm, PhonePe) and card swiping machines

Approach

Ascent Brand Communications developed a multi-pronged approach:

Mobile Van Campaign: A specially designed van toured various locations, serving as a mobile engagement platform.

Storytelling and Humor: The campaign leveraged the common storytelling elements and the experience of “kirayedari” (tenancy) issues to create a highly relatable messaging for the target audience. Additionally, every attempt was made to trigger emotions related to the relationship of tenant and landlord throughout the campaign engagements.

Interactive Gamification and Contests: Activities like balloon shooting and a “jumla” (witty saying) contest were used to attract and engage the audience. Gamified fun engagements with slogans like “Goli Maaro Kirayedari ki” were highly successful in generating interest and driving home the messaging, in a lighthearted manner.

The game involved contestants shooting the balloons on the board in one go with a toy pistol. Anyone who is able to shoot all 4 balloons in one go, was declared the winner.

Local Language Communication: All content and interactions were conducted in the local language to ensure better comprehension and relatability.

Visual Aids: The van was equipped with visual displays to help explain home loan concepts.

Selfie Engagement: A selfie point was created to encourage social media sharing and increase campaign virality. The images were shared across WhatsApp groups and Facebook/Instagram to generate additional interest in the campaign.

Activities Done

Van Announcements: To attract people to the activation area.
Leaflet Distribution: Promoters distributed informational leaflets about Ummeed Housing Finance in the target locations where the van planned to move next. This was done on a daily basis, keeping the route plan in perspective.
“Jumla Kirayedari Ke” Contest: Participants shared their experiences with landlords in a humorous manner. The jumle’s were collected for a lucky draw contest, eliciting involvement and recall in the campaign messaging.
Balloon Shooting Game: An engaging activity with chances to win prizes.
Lucky Draw: From amongst the participants who submitted written “jumlas”, winners were declared based on the lucky draw, and freebies were distributed. It went a long way in establishing visual brand recall amongst the target segment.
Selfie Point: For social media engagement and campaign virality.
One-on-One Interactions: Sales team members reached out to prospects, including traders and shopkeepers, and invited them to the van by distributing leaflets. They played a crucial part in explaining the product features as per the customer’s requirement.

Campaign Execution

- The campaign ran from June 5, 2024, to July 5, 2024 (31 days).
- Covered multiple districts in Madhya Pradesh, including Indore, Khargone, Khandwa, Dewas, Bhopal, Hoshangabad, Vidisha, Dhar, Ratlam, Ujjain, Rajgarh, and Guna.
- Total area of 661 kilometers was covered during the campaign.

Results

The campaign successfully created a high level of engagement in multiple locations across Madhya Pradesh. The use of humor and relatable content ( kirayedari issues) proved effective in attracting the target audience. The combination of entertainment and education helped in simplifying the concept of home loans for the target group. The mobile van approach allowed for flexibility in reaching diverse locations and adapting to local conditions. The campaign generated a significant number of leads expressing interest in home loans.

Reach: The campaign engaged with a total of 4,385 individuals across various locations.
Lead Generation: 1,771 leads were captured during the campaign.
Engagement: 1,221 people participated in the games and activities.
Prizes Distributed: 394 winners received prizes, enhancing positive brand association.

Ascent Brand Communications BTL campaign for Ummeed Housing Finance demonstrated an innovative approach to reaching and engaging an underserved market segment. By combining entertainment, humour, education, and localized content, the campaign successfully generated awareness, leads, and potential conversions for Ummeed Housing Finance in Madhya Pradesh. The high engagement levels and lead generation numbers indicate that the campaign effectively addressed its primary objectives, creating a strong foundation for Ummeed Housing Finance’s expansion in the region.

In case you want us to engage your potential clients spread across the hinterlands of rural India, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us through our contact details.