It's an effort to build greater interaction with customers, says Madhvi Puri Buch, joint general manager, ICICI, adding: ``Our objective is to demonstrate to our individual household customers that we are really serious about being a part of their lives. So, we have combined our safety message with cricket in this exercise, to promote ourbrand.''

Last year, the company had instituted an `ICICI Safe Hands Of the Match' award for the Singer Independence Cricket Tournament played in Sri Lanka. ``This year, we have extended the same thought. It is also an effort to reach out to small and big retail investors across the nation,'' says Kakar.

Earlier, in an attempt to rope in the small investor, the premier institution had launched a print campaign called the `ICICI Making Money Matters Easy Series' in December 1998. ``It is an interesting communication device to educate the common man about his own money. We selected a panel of financial experts to empower the small investors across the country. With the help of the series, we wanted to demystify the financial services,'' explains Kakar.

According to Buch, the educative print ads were launched after extensive market research across the nation. ``For many years, we had been dealing with corporate clients. With the launch of many new products, we now want to focus on individual householdcustomers,'' says Buch. After seeing the success of the series, the ICICI now plans to extend its weekly series to November 1999. In addition, ICICI has plans to launch a booklet, which will be compilation of the earlier series, in June 1999.

As for its future plans, ICICI is now all set to enter the electronic media in a big way. ``As we need to have a national presence on small screens, we will be launching 30-second television commercials in July '99. Then we will be able to address all our small and big investors across the country,'' says Buch. At ICICI, the corporate goal now is to understand the needs of small investors and accordingly devise new financial products.