Digital audio campaign educates children about the world of finance

In this week’s egtabite we showcase a case study from Russia where a bank cooperated closely with a media sales house to launch an innovative digital audio campaign featuring branded podcast, cleverly combined with extensive radio and online promotion, all aimed at the youngest listeners with the goal of increasing their financial literacy.

The concept – a native podcast adventure into the magical land of finance

The client, SberBank, is particularly interested in developing financial literacy among young generations. With that in mind, they wanted to promote SberKids, their children’s app, and their financial product, a children’s bank card, through native advertising.

SberBank partnered with the sales house Gazprom-Media, the SberMarketing agency and Detskoye Radio, a children’s radio station from Gazprom’s portfolio. Together, they came up with the concept of a children's educational podcast. Each of the ten episodes features a story about the exciting journey of a boy named Petya in the magical land of finance. The main character is always accompanied by SberKot, a cat who is an expert in financial literacy and a loyal friend. Children learn how banks were created and how they help people. Through the adventures of Petya and SberKot, children become acquainted with the rules of cybersecurity, while also learning how to save money and spend it wisely.

Cross-media promotion

SberMarketing was responsible for the development of the media plan for the advertising campaign. The Petya and SberCot podcast was launched on air on Detskoye Radio. The radio station aired the ten original episodes, and ten re-runs of the programme, ranging from 290 to 390 seconds in length. The radio version mentioned the SberKids application within the narrative – the app being installed on the protagonist’s smartphone. At the end of each episode, listeners were encouraged to listen to the remaining stories on digital platforms. Digital videos also invited kids to listen to the podcast on-air or on digital platforms, such as Yandex.Music or SberZvuk.

The Petya and SberCot podcast was also cross-promoted on other Detskoye Radio podcasts that have over one million monthly listeners and the perfect target audience. Other promotional channels included the station’s website, their YouTube channel, Yandex.Music, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, SberZvuk and other podcast platforms.

Additional promotion was achieved via social media channels - Instagram, VKontakte, Yandex.Direct and YouTube, as well as through the bank's own channels (e-mails and a newsletter for employees with children).

Results

The campaign ran in June and July 2021 and in that time the podcast was played more than 500,000 times across all digital platforms with over 75% listen-through-rate. The commercials integrated within the podcast were played more than 340,000 times. On social media, the campaign had more than 9.3 million impressions. The radio advertising campaign’s total coverage was 3,928,700 people in Russia.

From 1st August to 22nd September 2021, the podcast gained more than 100,000 plays across all digital platforms without any additional advertising promotion. Even after the campaign ended, the podcast continues to be streamed and grows organically in popularity, which is a testament to the quality of the content.

Digital audio ad-spend is on the rise in Russia and has increased by 18.8% between 2019 and 2020, this case study reflects the demand for online audio and proves that campaigns can achieve great results by combining radio and online audio.

***National and local rules for advertising to children may differ. Always make sure you go through the prescribed clearance procedure before launching a campaign on radio.