The Hurdle Before a Too Good to Be True Offering

m.Stock, a stock broking and trading service by Mirae Asset, a financial services group headquartered in South Korea, offers zero brokerage and no hidden charges for life. This unique proposition sets them apart from competitors who make similar claims, albeit with hidden charges. Despite this advantage, m.Stock faced challenges with low brand awareness and recall among their target audience. The brand engaged us to capture audience attention, maximize reach, and generate impact as they approached their first anniversary in the Indian market.

When Everyone Is Chasing the ‘Zero’!

The stock market primarily attracts serious, habit-driven participants, whether traders or investors. Most discount brokerages offer zero brokerage only on equity delivery trades but charge a brokerage fee on other trades. Our insights revealed that traders are reluctant to part with their hard-earned profits. m.Stock’s pricing strategy was not only transparent and distinct but also significantly beneficial to traders.

So we decided to make ‘0’ the real hero and questioned the rationale behind paying brokerage fees despite competitors’ zero brokerage claims. This led to the creation of a disruptive and challenging campaign – “Zero bola hai to brokerage dena kyon hai”.

How We Turned mStock 'Zero' Into a Hero!

To get the attention of busy traders we created three key pillars:

  • Right Audience: We developed well -defined customer personas based on active age groups and interest pools while avoiding overlaps and identifying untapped opportunities with competition analysis.
  • Right Place: Selected mediums that maximized involvement and engagement from the trader community.
  • Right Time: Contextuality was the key for success as we only communicated when the market was open – no weekends or public holidays.

As per our research, we went where they went by targeting trading hours (IST 8am – 4pm) and creating disruptive ads on news portals and their social media haunts. Roadblocks on business and general news portals got maximum exposure. To aid recall, we tracked visitors of competitors’ sites and served them ads across relevant platforms.

 

We accompanied them on their commutes to work by advertising on music streaming services, Meta, and Google platforms. That’s not all! Transit Ads (in flights and trains), print and radio ads with the highest concentration of trading enthusiasts helped create a surround sound effect. An integrated approach ensured effective engagement across multiple touchpoints, both online and offline.

We took it further with a month-long sustenance campaign.

103M

impressions for launch campaign (vs. ~90 million planned)

0.24%

click-through rate for launch campaign (vs. ~0.15% planned)

28%

lift in web traffic post launch campaign (vs. industry benchmark of 7%)

150M

impressions for sustenance campaign (vs. ~130 million planned)

0.34%

click-through rate for sustenance campaign (vs. ~0.23% planned)

54%

lift in web traffic post sustenance campaign (vs. industry benchmark of 11%)

92%

listen-through rate (LTR) for audio ads

52%

video-through rate (VTR)

500+

leads generated (despite the campaign objective being awareness)

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