"Diwali – The Festival of Lights" is one of the largest, most highly anticipated Asian Indian (AI) celebrations. Diwali celebrates the victory of "Good over Evil" and "Light over Darkness" for five continuous days. During this five-day period, traditions consist of family and loved ones spending time together, bonding over spiritual/emotional connections, as well as giving gifts to one another and to the less fortunate. Colourful lights, candles and small clay lamps (diyas) illuminate homes as a part of this celebration.
Wells Fargo wanted to show its consistent support to the Asian Indian community both from a cultural and a financial perspective during Diwali. To make this connection with current and prospective Asian Indian consumers, Wells Fargo offered ways to celebrate the true meaning of Diwali with the gift of giving. Through a partnership with the charitable organization Operation Smile, Wells Fargo provided a platform for this consumer set to give back to its community, while simultaneously working to build awareness and increase brand consideration.
Alongside a larger integrated campaign that included experiential, print, paid digital, dedicated landing pages, earned media and ATM messaging, social media was a vehicle to engage with the AI audience during this lively holiday time of year. Social media allows individuals to experience and enjoy the season even if they might be far away from family and friends.
Focusing in on the traditions, feelings and visuals that make Diwali resonate with the AI audience, we saw an opportunity to connect with the audience on Instagram and Facebook. In particular, with its beautiful visuals and high prestige — especially with younger users — Instagram would be a quality platform for driving awareness and affinity. We focused our creative attention on GIFs, knowing this newer format to Instagram would be innovative, eye-catching and engaging within the feed.
In the spirit of giving, we highlighted the greatest gift of all, bringing a smile to someone's face. As part of the campaign partnership with Operation Smile India, we supported the overarching program theme of "The Best Smiles Are The Ones We Create" and created a series of GIFs that convey the Diwali spirit across social media. In particular, the GIFs could engage fans through artwork and lifestyle elements unique to the Diwali season. We aligned our post dates of the GIFs to the five-day celebration period of Diwali and specific targeting was used towards Diwali/South Asian related interests to strategically amplify to our target audience.
One of the three GIFs was created to showcase the custom debit card designs available for customers to use on their bank card. Through these complimentary Indian-themed design debit cards, Wells Fargo helps customers make Diwali special — a small gesture from Wells Fargo to make customers smile all year long. The GIF flips through the various card designs available in a manner reflective of the vibrancy of the cards themselves, which range from a Madhubani painting, Indian truck art and gemstones and jewelry.
A second GIF features traditional sand art that captures the essence of the Diwali season through subtle flickering Diya candles.
Diwali, often called the Festival of Lights, is celebrated through a third GIF of fireworks, a familiar site throughout the season.
Diwali was Wells Fargo's first paid Instagram campaign, revealing valuable insights about cross-platform performance and optimization opportunities across Facebook and Instagram.
Overall social media sentiment was 37% positive and 52% neutral. Content drove over 1,500 comments.
Instagram GIF Performance
AI debit cards: 918K impressions, 113.4K video views and 535 comments
Diya candles: Over 1.3MM impressions, 219K video views and 420 comments
Fireworks: 954K impressions, 109K video views and 194 comments
