Axis Mutual Fund: Taxman To The Rescue

Axis Mutual Fund has launched a campaign where it is urging the consumers to invest in ELSS tax saving instrument and cut down their taxes paid.

It is that time of the year when saving taxes is of utmost importance to the employed class. And none can forget the scary e-mails that he/she gets from the accounts department (of each company) every year where they have to showcase their investments to save the income tax.

Taking cue from this insight, Axis Mutual Fund has launched a campaign titled 'Taxman' where it urges people to understand that a part of their income tax deducted which they lose can actually be saved if they invested in ELSS (Equity Linked Savings Scheme) as compared to many other tax saving products.

Keeping the idea simple and pun intended, the brand created a raid activity at a corporate canteen and was captured through hidden cameras. The raid was carried out by a person dressed in a black suit wearing black sunglasses who went to everyone's table and took a part of their meal without asking their permission. After gaining enough attention in the canteen, the taxman unveiled a message from Axis Mutual Fund saying 'Is the taxman eating into your savings?'

Just as how one shares their hard-earned income with the Taxman, this taxman demanded the same from people when it came to their food. Finally revealing that there is a way to share less with the Taxman by investing in ELSS.

Speaking on the idea, Praveen Bhatt, COO and CFO, Axis Mutual Fund, says, "As per our research, the reason why people do not invest in mutual funds is because of the lack of knowledge and secondly they do not know how they can save taxes. With this campaign our idea is to sensitize them to the fact they can actually save some more if they invest in ELSS. Another argument that people give is that the volatility in the equity market is very high, to which we tell them that if they go only for a year then it is definitely high but if the lock in period is a large time, the benefit is more."

He further adds that one should invest in those schemes which help the consumer to beat the inflation. "After the final tax deduction on a large number of tax saving instruments, the returns are not beating the inflation," adds Bhatt.

The video was released two weeks ago and has garnered over 3 lakh + views. The brand is running a social media led campaign with this video as the centre of the activity. They are sending mailers, FB posts and tweets urging people to view this video and tell for themselves.

The creative agency for the campaign is AgencyDigi while the video is shot by Agency One September.

The target audience for this campaign is between the age of 25-32 years who are in their first job or more and are keen on savings with less responsibilities at their hand than the ones compared to the age of 40 +.

ELSS mutual funds invests in equity related instruments which help the consumer to appreciate their money when the stock market grows over a period of time. It is the only tax saving investment option that provides tax free returns for short period. Since ELSS mutual funds invest in equity related instruments, these are classified under equity funds. Any returns received from equity funds after one year is tax free, hence ELSS funds which comes with a 3 year lock-in period, dividends/returns/capital gains from such funds are also tax free.

Axis Mutual Fund launched its first scheme in October 2009. It has over 5 lakh investors across 49 schemes and is present in 75 cities.