Kotak Prime #KotakPrimeWithHer: Ten-Second Films, 1 Million Views on $20,000
Three vertical films for Kotak Mahindra Prime's women's two-wheeler loan, each one denying the vehicle before naming what she does with it.
Published November 5, 2026 · Updated November 5, 2026
TL;DR
Kotak Prime is a low interest two-wheeler loan from Kotak Mahindra Prime, built for women. By 2019 the category had commoditised and every lender was arguing about interest rates.
ibs Fulcro made three films of ten seconds each in Facebook's Thumbstopper format, shot and cut native vertical. Each film opens on a parked two-wheeler with a line denying what it is, then reveals the woman who rides it and what the vehicle means to her.
On a budget of $20,000 the campaign reached 1 million views and 13,000 shares, and won Silver at the Campaign India Digital Crest Awards 2020.
The Marketing Challenge
Kotak has a record of disrupting its market through both product and marketing, and has been deliberately gender sensitive over time with products such as Silk, a bank account built for women.
Loans had gone the other way. By 2019 rate and tenure were the whole conversation, and every lender in two-wheeler finance was making the same argument in the same words. More media weight behind that argument buys attention. It does not buy preference.
The Objective
Build preference for Kotak Prime among women considering a two-wheeler, in a category where everyone else was competing on numbers.
The Idea: Not a Vehicle. What She Does With It.
Attention had moved to the phone, held upright. The work had to be built for a vertical screen and had to land in the shortest duration we could manage. Every competitor was running long format video into that vertical feed.
We went the other way and finished each story in ten seconds.
One device holds the campaign together. Each film opens on a parked two-wheeler and a line that denies what you are looking at. It then cuts to the woman who rides it, and replaces the denial with what the vehicle actually represents to her.
The three #KotakPrimeWithHer films and their lines
| Film | Opening line | Payoff line |
|---|---|---|
| Tiffin | Not a Scooter | But an Entrepreneur's Spirit |
| Love | Not a Motorcycle | But a Lover's Freedom |
| Athlete | Not a Bike | But a Champion's Hunger |
Every film closes on the same card. Women's Two-wheeler loans. Kotak Prime. With Her.
How the Films Were Built
We produced three vertical films in Facebook's Thumbstopper innovation format, shot and cut native vertical rather than cropped down from a landscape master. Each one runs ten seconds.
The Tiffin film opens on a red scooter in a courtyard and resolves on a woman loading tiffin carriers and riding out to her round. The Athlete film opens on a bike parked outside a boxing club at night and resolves on a boxer arriving to train. The Love film opens on a motorcycle against a painted wall and resolves on two women riding together through a Pride parade, rainbow flags overhead.
That third film put a same-sex couple at the centre of a financial services campaign in India in 2019, and did so without comment, as one of three equally weighted stories.
Watch the Films
The Results
Three films of ten seconds each, produced and run on a total budget of $20,000, delivered 1 million views and 13,000 shares.
The share number is the one that matters. Shares are not bought. In a category people scroll past, 13,000 of them chose to pass these films on.
The campaign won Silver at the Campaign India Digital Crest Awards 2020.
Why Format Beats Spend in a Commoditised Category
When every lender is arguing about interest rates, more media weight behind the same argument buys attention rather than preference. Changing the format changes what the audience is being asked to do. A ten-second vertical film asks for almost nothing and is over before a thumb can move.
The constraint did the work. Ten seconds forces one idea per film, which is why the campaign needed more than one film rather than a single longer one. It also meant the whole campaign could be produced and run for $20,000, a fraction of what a long-form campaign in the same category would have cost.
Frequently asked questions
#KotakPrimeWithHer was a Facebook campaign for Kotak Prime, the women's two-wheeler loan from Kotak Mahindra Prime, built by ibs Fulcro in 2019. It ran as three vertical films of ten seconds each in Facebook's Thumbstopper format. Each film opens on a parked two-wheeler with a line denying what it is, then reveals the woman who rides it and what it lets her do.
Tiffin, which runs "Not a Scooter. But an Entrepreneur's Spirit." Love, which runs "Not a Motorcycle. But a Lover's Freedom." Athlete, which runs "Not a Bike. But a Champion's Hunger." All three close on the same card: Women's Two-wheeler loans. Kotak Prime. With Her.
The campaign delivered 1 million views and 13,000 shares on a total budget of $20,000, and won Silver at the Campaign India Digital Crest Awards 2020.
Mobile attention was fragmenting and the audience was browsing vertically. Every competitor in two-wheeler finance was running long format video. A ten-second native vertical film asks almost nothing of the viewer and finishes before they can scroll past, which is what the Thumbstopper format is designed for.
Thumbstopper is a short vertical video format built for mobile feeds and designed to stop a scrolling thumb within the first seconds. It is shot and edited vertical rather than cropped from a landscape master.
Kotak Prime is a low interest two-wheeler loan from Kotak Mahindra Prime aimed at women buying a two-wheeler. The product sits in Kotak's record of gender specific products, alongside Silk.
ibs Fulcro, a digital agency in Mumbai operating as Fulcro Consulting Pvt. Ltd., created and produced the campaign for Kotak Mahindra Prime.
Campaign by ibs Fulcro, Fulcro Consulting Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai. Client Kotak Mahindra Prime Limited. Campaign period May to July 2019.