India, the land of diversity! Unfortunately, the bane of diversity weighs as much as its boon, if not more. People are stereotyped based on caste, color, religion, etc. This leads to a social stigma, where people turn socially hyperconscious.

Kotak Mahindra Bank recognized the fear of 'being judged' as the reason why a lot of people feel intimidated to walk into a branch to open an account. Digital is a great equalizer, especially in banking, providing equal access to everyone. And Kotak 811, India’s first downloadable bank account, represents the very qualities of equality and inclusiveness.

Kotak 811 is a unique full-service banking ecosystem that welcomes every Indian to open a digital bank account from wherever one is comfortable.

The aim was to take the ‘promise’ of inclusion beyond the product and get people to experience and participate in a movement that works towards a more inclusive and egalitarian society.

It was the need of the hour to bring about the change in the mindset to make banking digitally inclusive and accessible to all.

The solution was seen in a bench. One, that would soon become a symbol of 'inclusion'. Just as you are not afraid of being judged by a park bench, there would be no prejudice about Kotak 811.

The digital movement #BenchOfUnity was launched.

Deep listening and AI brought into light the long tail of stereotypes prevailing in society. They were in turn used to create micro-content for awareness and consideration.

Popular opinion leaders, who defy these stereotypes, were invited to join the movement. This was done using a microsite www.IndiaInvited.in, where one could log in using their social passport and grab a spot next to Bollywood Superstar, Ranveer Singh.

People from all over the country, came together to experience and spread the message of inclusion.

Using social listening and AI, we found long term keywords in India that could extend itself to creative micro-content pieces, to be published across platforms.

The addressing of the most common stereotypes ended up sparking conversations and drawing attention towards the less-spoken-about ones such as, ‘well-built guy who is a professional Kathak (Indian Classical) dancer', 'girls cannot take up wrestling as a profession', etc.

The audience pool was segregated based on age, interest, and affinity. This helped us target specific people with specific micro-content that spoke of a certain stereotyping. In the next stage of the #BenchOfUnity movement, we introduced key opinion leaders to help spread this movement to their clout. This opened the door to a much larger audience - the whole of India, who were invited to join the movement.

Kotak 811 launched a unique digital bench – The #BenchOfUnity, inviting every Indian to join the movement towards forming an egalitarian society. With over a quarter million Indians supporting the movement in the digital space, special invitations were sent out to people who had created a unique identity for themselves, despite facing discrimination & judgements from the society.

A custom-made Facebook Kotak 811 AR filter was created, where users could share the frame with the brand ambassador and Bollywood superstar-Ranveer Singh.

Furthermore, people were invited to share their perspectives of how they could take inspiration of non-discrimination by emulating the “Bench”, in the activity - ‘Bench Ki Aatmakatha’ (A Bench’s Autobiography). From poems to rap songs, spoken word to mini-stories, the 500+ video entries that were received were both, interesting and humorous, while being aligned to the brand campaign.

The #BenchOfUnity movement was supported by 258K Indians who came forward to voice themselves against discrimination & judgement. This put the brand right at the top of the category when it came to engagement during the period.

The movement reached 9.5M people and left an impression of 702M. Having garnered 15M views on Facebook, the brand saw a 7% growth in fans and a 47% growth in engagement rate. Kotak Mahindra Bank was ranked #1 in engagement on digital during the campaign amongst the key competitors in the category.

By the end of the campaign, there was a 5X growth in the number of Kotak 811 bank account holders.