Radio City 91.1 FM and Lodestar create innovation with 5000 Dabbawalas

RJ Rohit Vir

Federal Bank, one of India's leading private sector banks offering personal, corporate, NRI, SME banking and online banking services. The bank recently launched a new brand campaign around the theme ‘Why Settle for less?'

Taking this campaign though ahead innovatively, Lodestar UM, one of India's leading media agencies, part of IPG Mediabrands conceptualised a unique initiative which was executed by Radio City 91.1 FM with the lifeline of Mumbai - the Dabbawallas. The Mumbai Dabbawalas are an incredible organization of 5000 people that delivers lunch boxes to lakhs of people every day.

The Dabbawalas are well known for their ‘Why settle for less' attitude and have a record of less than 1.9% error per billion statistic, which is a great achievement of incredible efficiency, despite their systems being very low on technology. Lodestar UM rode on this reach of the Dabbawalas to create a never before innovation in this space. "In all aspects of life, be it family career or home, Mumbaikars exemplify the ‘Why settle for less' attitude. Hence, we decided to celebrate this spirit of the Mumbaikars and give them a surprise in form of a Federal Bank goodie box", said Deepak Netram, Senior Vice President, Lodestar UM.

RJ Harshit

On August 19th, the campaign kicked off on Radio and on Digital platforms. Radio City 91.1FM's Popular radio jockeys, RJ Rohit Vir and RJ Harshit led the campaign on air and on the ground. Between August 22 and 23, 5000 Dabbawalas successfully delivered

Federal Bank branded sweet boxes to 1.25 lakh people along with their lunch boxes at leading Corporate Houses across the length and breadth of Mumbai. Both Radio City's RJ's accompanied the Dabbawalas to select corporates to deliver the goodies personally. The entire journey was encapsulated on camera including the ‘WOW' moments of luncheons enjoying the sweet. The activity was hugely successful as Radio City received large numbers of calls from offices with people sharing their experience of the getting this unexpected treat from Federal Bank.

Talking about the campaign, Rajanarayanan N, Deputy Vice President (Marketing & Investor Relations) Federal Bank, said, "Most ads in the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector talk about products or services. But we decided to diverge from the beaten path. It is the mood of the campaign, its playfulness and its treatment that haloes the entire series of our Ad films. We wanted the demeanor of the films to come out loud and say ‘Why Settle for Less?' and this is what distinguishes the commercials from others. We wanted to do on ground activities that would complement the spirit of our Ad films. The Dabbawalla initiative is an innovation ideated by Lodestar which I am sure will win a lot of hearts in Mumbai"