HBL – Tapping Into The Neglected SME Segment

In HBL’s latest “Business Value Account” advertising campaign, a farmer is featured as one of several small business owners whose anecdote is supposed to inspire potential customers to use HBL.

TV, Print and Web ads prominently display the man and other entrepreneurs with the heading “Grow your business” & the tagline “Jahan Khwab, Wahan HBL”. (roughly translates to “Where there’s a Dream, there’s HBL”)

I think JWT (HBL’s agency) hopes the ads will lead curious & potential customers to HBL’s site (& 1000+ braches around Pakistan), where videos of these entrepreneurs and their stories are featured. The bank substitutes the word interest for profit, taking advantage of Ramadan season to intrigue the masses within easy income and microfinance.

In a time when ATL is losing out to BTL, HBL has forgone glossy models for the everyman albeit, telegenic ones in its campaign. This has been done before – Sooper biscuits musical montage has a collection of consumers & shopkeepers (which made it a hit with the public) in it.

This way, companies aspire to connect to potential customers, capture a specific demographic and take the focus off their very large businesses at a time when people are less trusting of big companies that too, involved in managing finances.

Tags: account, ad, advertisement, Advertising, agency, ATL, BTL, Business, campaign, caption, creative, customers, entrepreneurs, habib bank, hbl, jahan khwab, JWT, ltd, Online, potential, print, ramadan, sooper biscuits, tv, value, wahan HBL, web

Category: Brands