The move, which has proved to be a success, was prompted by two factors. One, to reach out to all those passive investors who although have significant investments, rarely trade in the market and have hence stayed away from trying to understand what the depository means to them. These investors run into several lakhs and are only now beginning to open accounts with the depository.

The second factor was undoubtedly that of cost. Being an organisation which is not profit-driven but oriented towards providing a service to investors by facilitating an electronic trade settlement environment, there was no way in which thedepository could have resorted to huge ad spends.

The strategy was clear. The large investors were tapped first. The high net worth individuals and active traders were covered through more than 500 seminars and interactions across the country. Then came the critical issue of reaching out to all those retail investors who would need to be goaded into approaching a depository participant to open an account.

An ad campaign was launched on a small scale twice during the past year and from December this year the depository hit the bulls eye. A film was prepared depicting in a manner resembling a soap, an investor's experience with tainted shares. Relationships were soured, money and peace of mind was lost and finally it was the young son's endeavour which convinces the father to move to the depository.

Once the film was ready, the issue was that of getting investors to see it. "We obviously did not expect investors to rush before their screens just when the film was being beamed. They would have to be drawninto it. Our hope was that while flicking channels the investor might just be led on to take a look at the film. It is for this reason that we decided to tap the prime time slot between 8-9 pm for beaming the film. We tied-up with all cable operators in seven cities and they responded favourably," says NSDL vice-president T Koshy.

The investors seem to have responded even more favourably. A little over a month down the line, the depository is flooded with investor feedback through telephone calls and letters wanting to go a step forward from where the "movie" left them.

The depository, which had signed up with cable operators for two months, is now planning to expand the screening of the film to more centres. The film is currently beamed at the four metros, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Baroda, in eight different languages.

Says NSDL chief CB Bhave: "We had already reached out to the active traders through one-to-one meetings with them at the various seminars that we organised across the country. Thiscampaign was basically aimed at the investors who are still to awaken to the depository system of settlement".

"The response so far has been excellent in that most investors who have seen the film have responded through a call or a letter. Several have gone straight to the nearest depository participant to open accounts," adds Koshy.

In some cases, cable operators have taken the lead and in fact beamed the film on the depository in the middle of the evening feature film. The campaign through the cable television network has worked out to be far more economical for the depository than the print campaign. "The film campaign has a greater visual impact. We plan to expand it to other centres shortly. Our aim has been to inform the investor about a depository well before he is asked to trade only in demat shares. To that extent we seem to have succeeded," says Bhave.