Karur Vysya Bank

KARUR VYSYA BANK · TRICHY

Digital Self Defence

Amplifying a century-old bank's commitment to social responsibility through a precision engineered multi-platform digital campaign.

Partnership since July 2024 · Agency: SearchMadarth®

About the client

Karur Vysya Bank (KVB) is one of India's most respected private sector banks, with a legacy spanning over a century. Deeply rooted in South India, KVB has built its reputation on integrity, customer-centricity and community values.

THE ASK

Be more than a bank. Be a community protector.

As cyber fraud and digital scams grew more sophisticated across India, KVB wanted to step beyond conventional banking communication and take on the role of a genuine community protector. The brief was to run a CSR-led awareness campaign in and around Trichy that would teach everyday people, especially those newer to digital banking, how to recognise and defend themselves against online fraud, all while reflecting KVB's century-old promise of trust.

THE CHALLENGE

Making safety messaging impossible to scroll past.

Fraud-aware content is easy to forget. They either get lost as fine print or feel too alarming to hold attention. For a legacy bank like KVB, the challenge was to make “Digital Self Defence” feel urgent and useful without feeling preachy and to do it across the platforms where Trichy's audience genuinely spends time: social feeds, search and regional OTT screens.

WHERE WE TARGETED

A 360° awareness campaign, built across four platforms working in tandem.

The "Digital Self Defence" campaign ran for over 30 days across Meta, Google, SunNXT and JioHotstar Sports, delivering a unified message through multiple high-engagement digital platforms and reaching audiences as part of their everyday online experience.

Meta (Instagram & Facebook): Short-form TVCs and Reels driving reach.

Google Ads: TrueView video, Display and CTV formats targeting finance and banking-intent audiences.

SunNXT (Tamil OTT): Pre-roll placements inside high-viewership regional content, including cricket coverage and Tamil cookery shows.

JioHotStar Sports: Pre-roll placements around live sports viewership for broader reach.

HERE'S WHAT WE DID

Test fast on socials.
Target with intent on search.
Go hyper-local on OTT.

Meta - Instagram & Facebook

We ran seven ad variants, split between profile-visit-optimised TVCs and native Trichy-market cuts, so we could learn quickly which length and hook drove the strongest engagement, then shifted delivery toward what worked. Targeting leaned into KVB's core banking audience, 18–34-year-olds, who are both the most digitally active and most exposed to fraud risk, while placements spanned Instagram Reels, Stories, Feed and Facebook.

Google - Search, Display & CTV

We layered TrueView video against curated finance-intent audiences, including Financial Services, Fixed Deposit and Banking & Finance segments, alongside a Display layer for broad, low-cost reach and a CTV pilot for the living-room screen.

OTT - SunNXT & JioHotStar Sports

We went hyper-local: SunNXT carried the message inside Tamil-language entertainment that Trichy households already trust, while JioHotStar Sports extended reach through live cricket viewership, one of the single highest-attention windows on Indian screens.

We reached…

The ones young enough to be online everywhere; old enough to have savings worth protecting.

Meta delivery skewed young and mobile-first; Google and OTT balanced that out with an older, more financially active audience, exactly the split fraud-prevention messaging needs to cover.

The campaign concluded with a remarkable milestone of reaching over 130 crore screens. But beyond the scale, its success was built on a simple belief: an authentic campaign creates real impact only when it reaches the right audience through the right channels. We let the brand's purpose and intuition shape the story, while data guided every strategic decision, ensuring every impression moved us closer to the outcome we set out to achieve. Heart… Gut… and Data. In that order.

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