Dezerv builds maiden campaign around ‘Mutual Funds Sahi Hai’ buzz, cryptocurrency mania

The investment advisory platform created the two ads in partnership with Light@27, Gursimran Khamba’s new creative agency.

The fintech sector is having quite a moment in India. You can see ads for fintech startups that advertise a variety of functions, on your television or mobile phone.

The newest kid on the block in the fintech world is investment advisory platform Dezerv. It was founded in April 2021 by Sandeep Jethwani, Vaibhav Porwal and Sahil Contractor. The trio were part of the early-founding team at IIFL Wealth. They had 15-16 years of experience managing large sums of money, and wanted to translate that expertise into starting Dezerv.

(L-R) Vaibhav Porwal, Sandeep Jethwani and Sahil Contractor

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During a conversation with afaqs! over a video call, Jethwani says that they thought of starting Dezerv during the first COVID wave. The markets were crashing then, and people were calling him and his friends for financial advice. He emphasises that during the first wave, the adaptation of digital services increased and this helped get the product offering across to more people.

“The people who were calling us, had MBA degrees. They had good knowledge of the markets and yet needed financial advice and guidance. Right now, we want to make good quality investment advice available to working professionals. Our speciality is creating long-term high performance portfolios for people who don't have the time to invest themselves.”

He adds that with the latest ad campaign, the team wanted to bring out the stark difference between how an investment portfolio should be managed and how people actually manage it. The company wanted to make its target group (TG) aware of the contrast between the two, and how Dezerv could step in and help. This was also the broad brief given to the creative agency Light@27.

Conceptualised by Dezerv and Light@27, which was founded by Gursimran Khamba (ex-AIB co-founder), the campaign includes two films. They are shot in a ‘mockumentary’ format, with the protagonists sharing their experiences and learnings with the audiences.

The first film features a mother-son duo, who’re cricket fans, enjoying a match together when the protagonist (the son) decides to invest in a mutual fund (MF) inspired by the words of his favourite cricketer, ad-libbing ‘Mutual Funds Sahi Hai’. However, when he really needs it, he’s unable to obtain liquidity as his funds have been frozen.

A still from the ad

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The reference to the famous ‘Mutual Funds Sahi Hai’ campaign of Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), is impossible to miss. There are also multiple references to MS Dhoni - with yellow colour stains. (It is Chennai Super Kings’ official team colour and Dhoni is the team captain.)

Jethwani tells us that the insight behind the ad was based on a real life incident - the IL&FS crisis. In 2018, IL&FS, one of the country’s largest lending institutions, defaulted on one of its bonds for the first time. At that time, according to MoneyControl, the entire MF industry held papers for IL&FS worth Rs 2,700 crore and the assets got frozen - leaving investors in the lurch.

Jethwani adds that ‘Mutual Funds Sahi Hai’ posters could be seen all over Mumbai. But when they actually visited the site listed on the posters, the main question people were asking was: ‘Mutual funds sahi hai, but isme kya sahi hai?’ (Mutual funds are good, but of these, which ones are good to invest in?). And, so the campaign idea was born.

“We essentially wanted to appeal to people through emotions. We wanted to try and use humour to do that in this ad campaign,” Jethwani says. Cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been generating a lot of buzz since the end of 2021, and the second ad pays homage to that.

The second film follows the story of a man, who has just started his first job and is somewhat of a cautious investor. He works hard, dreams of owning a home and tends to play it safe. Things change, however, when his friend convinces him to invest in cryptocurrencies based on a 10,000 per cent return he got on an investment (most probably due to a stroke of luck).

“Crypto is, indeed, a hot trend right now. We strongly believe that cryptocurrencies can be a meaningful part of your portfolio, but it shouldn’t be the only investment in your portfolio. It is important to diversify your portfolio so that even if the markets do crash, it doesn’t mean that your life savings are gone. That’s what we wanted to communicate through the ad,” Jethwani adds.

Jethwani mentions that right now, many people are investing in cryptocurrencies purely out of fear of missing out (FOMO). They don't necessarily know what they’re doing - which could lead to heavy losses when the crypto markets crash.

Jethwani adds that the TG is not those who have started earning for the first time. It is those people who have attempted to invest after working for a few years and require the right guidance to create their portfolio. The startup currently works on an invite only basis and the first Zoom consultation with the team's financial experts is free of cost. The company is also running an influencer marketing campaign to promote its services.

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According to a press note, within 90 days of its product launch, Dezerv had thousands of transacting members, with assets worth Rs 277 crore. The investing tech platform raised $7 million in a seed funding round co-led by Elevation Capital and Matrix Partners India.