Case study · Lakhani Investment
A money paper for a town that doesn’t read money pages.
Lakhani Investment wanted to be useful in Rajula, not advertised at it. So we wrote a newspaper instead of an advertisement: one sheet, every fifteen days, free with the local paper, in Gujarati.
the drawing isn’t done. the thinking is.
The problem
Money is the one thing nobody in town talks about.
In a town like Rajula, financial advice arrives in two forms: a relative who “knows about these things”, and a WhatsApp group with a guaranteed tip. Between them sits a scam that nobody warns anybody about until after the money has gone.
An investment firm advertising into that gets read as one more person after your savings. So the brief we wrote back was the opposite of an advertisement: make money an ordinary thing to talk about in town, and put the company's name on it exactly once.
The goal: a fortnight after each issue, somebody in Rajula is arguing about something they read in it.
What it is
One sheet, six sections, two languages of humour.
written the way people actually talk in saurashtra.
A single newspaper-sized sheet, full colour, both sides, free with the local paper. No tips, no targets, no charts nobody understands. Six sections, each with a job:
- The news: the fortnight's money news cut to the few things that touch a household here, each ending with the only question that matters: so what does this mean for me?
- The teaching: one subject per issue, explained from the beginning, until the reader thinks oh, is that all it was?
- The warning: one scam per issue, told as a story about a person, because that is how people remember.
- The game: a money puzzle with the answer upside-down in the corner, designed to be argued about over tea.
- The family: a few lines each for the children, the young ones, whoever runs the house, and the elders.
- The funny one: a cartoon uncle who gets every money decision wrong with complete confidence, held back until there is a real illustrator.
And a box with a QR code that opens a chat, where you record a voice note instead of typing your question. The typing is the reason most people never ask.
The name
Three options, all of them a gift.
Each name says the same thing in a different way: this is free, and nothing is expected back.
- પૈસાની પરબ — Paisa ni Parab, the water-stall for money. A parab sits by the roadside and gives water to anyone passing. Nobody asks who you are.
- બે ઘડી પૈસાની — Be Ghadi Paisa ni, two moments on money. For the person who says they have no time for this sort of thing.
- પૈસાની પ્રસાદી — Paisa ni Prasadi, money's prasad. Something given freely, to everybody, without being asked for.
Under all three, the same line: પંદર દિવસે એકવાર · સૌના માટે · મફત — once a fortnight, for everyone, free.
The marketing
One line. That's the whole campaign.
the sheet is the argument.
રાજુલાના ઘર ઘર સુધી — Lakhani Investment તરફથી
To every home in Rajula — from Lakhani Investment
No offers, no photographs, no promises about returns, no “call now”. The moment there is a sales box on the page, every other section starts reading like bait, and then it is not a parab any more. It is an advertisement.
And the bags
44 lines, in the language they’re read in.
The same client needed lines for their bags. Two lines each, Gujarati, meant to be read across a shop counter, so the jokes are made of things people already eat and play:
- રોકાણ ફાફડા. વીમો જલેબી. Investment is fafda, insurance is jalebi. Who eats one without the other on Dussehra?
- રોકાણ એક દાંડિયો. વીમો બીજો. One dandiya stick each. You cannot play raas with one.
- રોકાણ લાંબી મુસાફરી છે. વીમો સાથેનાં થેપલાં છે. Investing is the long journey; insurance is the thepla you pack.
Eight of the forty-four are on the work page, with translations.