Two months after developing, content and community bootstrapping, the website sponsored by Kotak NRI services, was ready to be taken to the next level. EC had to hook the NRI consumer in with a viral campaign that would:
1) Increase sign-ups to the NRIM platform,
2) & convert the NRI online audience into regular consumers of the NRIM platform

The goal was to reach 10,000 sign ups withing 45 days, without any preliminary media spend for the discovery of the campaign or the website.

Staring at this mammoth task at hand we quickly started scratching our Grey cells and the EC team conceptualized an international online contest called - The NRI Power Podium.

We found that the “Pravasi Bharatiya Divas” was a wish list event in the minds of the NRIs. The three winners of The NRI Power Podium contest would win an all expense trip to New Delhi and above all the chance to rub shoulders with the top brass of the NRI Diaspora at The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, 2011.

Each contestant had to select their candidature category (Investments, Culture, Legal), build their application and then draw in votes for their application. Based on the voting metrics and an international jury of business and community leaders we deduced the winners on quantitative and a qualitative levels.

To make the campaign a massive all round success we tied up with more than twelve partners under the - Online / Print / Radio Media category along with the other brackets such as Hospitality, Telecom and Real Estate (who would help us in cross-promotions in their own special ways - EDMs, radio spots, print spaces, WOM, facebook content cross pollination, etc.).

This bring back a theory that I had read about when I was in college called the Bullet theory of communication.
There are three ways to hit a target with a bullet.

The first is to aim at the target, and fire. You may hit, you may miss. (Think: Massive spends on Mass Media)
The second way is to go close to the target hold the bullet against it, and hammer it in. Really pain staking and time consuming. (Think: Well targeted, high frequency media. Once again an expensive and messy affair)
The third approach is to bring the target close to you and then fire the gun. (Think: Digital)

We used the third approach for the discovery and sustenance of NRI Power Podium. We narrowed down partners that would be able to help us out in reaching out to the dispersed NRI community. Gave them ample incentives to tie up with a very young website. And the rest is all history.

With the help of our partners, minimalistic media spend (on facebook stamp ads and a few banners here and there), intense social media efforts, we reached the monumental target of 10,000 sign-ups. And obviously that very moment we called for a cake and celebrated our success.

Little did we know that in the remaining few days, the campaign would ultimately lead to more than 13,000 sign-ups to http://www.nrimatters.com (30% more than our target), receive more than 600 qualitative applications with and average of 100 endorsements for each applicant!

With the NRI Power Podium contest we not only achieved our quantitative goals, generated qualitative leads for Kotak’s NRI services, but have also increased the share of voice and the recall value for the Kotak brand among the NRI Finance consumer segment.