Lendingkart, the fintech platform, has released its first brand campaign with Rajkummar Rao as its brand ambassador. The campaign ‘Business Loans Bole Toh Sirf Lendingkart’ is conceptualised by Contract Advertising.
Said Harshvardhan Lunia, Founder and CEO & at Lendingkart: “We are delighted to have Rajkummar on board for our first-ever integrated brand campaign. Rajkummar has started his journey from grassroots and made a mark in the film industry. He is the perfect ambassador for us in our journey to simplify MSME financing. We clicked well together right in the first meeting we had. As the digital economy grows, it is imperative to spread awareness about digital business loans being available at fingertips. Lendingkart is playing a major role in bridging the credit gap that MSME sector faces. It is great that we have a friend in Rajkummar now.”
Added Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, Chief Creative Officer, at Contract: “We wanted to introduce Lendingkart in a simple relatable manner to the millions of MSMEs in India. What Lendingkart offers is far ahead of what the world has been used to, in terms of availing business loans. The idea was to connect through the stories of business owners who are gearing up to expand their business, but in serious need of financing. And through ‘Business Loans Bole Toh Sirf Lendingkart’, the campaign highlights that for modern day businesses, there is only one partner for business loans – Lendingkart.”
HiveMinds, a Bengaluru-based online marketing strategy and services firm, and a unit of Madison World, a digital agency, has won the digital marketing mandate for Rupeek, gold finance company, following a multi-agency pitch.
Said a spokesperson of Rupeek: “Rupeek is the first brand that has digitized the entire process of obtaining secured credit against gold holdings, allowing users to get instant credit from the comfort of their homes. As we continue to grow and unlock gold backed credit for a billion Indians, digital marketing will play an important role in driving this momentum further via tech-led gold monetization (GoMon) in over 120 cities across the country. We are happy to partner with HiveMinds in this digital led growth.”
Added Deepti Bhadauria, Chief Strategy Officer, HiveMinds: “Gold asset loan is a $2 Trillion opportunity in India. There is a massive consumer segment looking for access to cheap capital and monetization of gold assets that can be unlocked using digital marketing effectively. I am happy that we will be partnering Rupeek, in scaling and building India’s largest digital asset-backed fin-tech platform.”
Jigsaw Brand Consultants has been mandated to create extension brands for the Prega News Portfolio by Mankind Pharma. This will include the strategic direction for the brand architecture, identity and packaging for the new brands.
Rutu Mody Kamdar
Said Rutu Mody Kamdar, Founder, Jigsaw Brand Consultants: “We are very happy to partner with Prega News for these new and exciting innovations in this category. We are bringing in our deep consumer insight skills that are being translated to identity and packaging design for this portfolio.”
Added Joy Chatterjee, General Manager, Sales & Marketing, Mankind Pharma: “The team at Jigsaw Brand Consultants brings with them an ocean of experience in this space. They understand the consumer as well as the science of design and communication: especially one that is as intimate as ours. I am delighted to have found partners in them and look forward to the value they bring to the Prega News table.”
Cred, the Bengaluru-based fintech company (Dreamplug Technologies) for Credit card payment promises its nine million-plus members points that can be redeemed against rewards. In a way, the customer not only earn rewards while buying things on a Credit card, but also when making Credit Card payment through Cred.
I have commented on Cred’s strategically quirky ads and clutter breaker creative devices. Personally, I was never a huge fan of Cred advertising and found it crazy. It did not really make sense, with hardly a real call for action and flogging the same message for too long.
With time, the advertising started making some sense. Cred advertising is impressive enough on focussed consistency. The message format has changed yet it has retained its basic flow and quirkiness. I can now appreciate the structure and the advertising a bit better, but am simply stumped with the scale and need.
Cred advertising is still about the rewards on Credit card payments. Other features like Expose Hidden Charges. Track Spends. Clear Bills, Free Credit reports and scores, referral programmes, Get Rewarded, Peer-to-peer lending or pay Rent are not promoted.
Cred – BOWLS OVER WITH RAVI SHASTRI
With the Ravi Shastri Cred ad, Cred seemed to have bridged a gap. The ad is all about the performer’s perception and image. Coming in towards the last leg of IPL, the timing is right. Being a country that focusses a lot on cricket, viewers relate to the act as Ravi Shastri and his passion for drinks is a joke shared too often.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=vLHpfulLcUE
The ad is humorous. It exploits the media image of Ravi Shastri. It has dialogues that one may find crazy and cheesy, but they are on the dot. And then Cred promising more fun than what Shastri is having. That is the week link.
‘Sattar minute for happy hours’, ‘I used to be a batsman, but for you, I can be a keeper’, ‘Waste mat karo yaar’ are spot-on. The timing perfect. Add to them my favourite: the poker-faced answer at the press conference, ‘Hate Talking to sports journalists’.
The Cred Ravi Shastri ad, like any other Cred quirky ad, is gaining views on YouTube. The small write-up under the ad on the Cred YouTube channel is equally interesting. Here it is.
As Ravi Shastri, I want to make it very clear that all my parties are invite-only. But I admire our youth and their potential, so if you’re able to do all of the following, you’re automatically on the guest list: (1) Open beer bottles with a bat. If you ask how, you’re already out. (2) Analyse footage from the party to see where drinks were wasted (3) Bartend 24×7(4) Carry an extra case of cough syrup at all times (5) Parallel park the bar-counter
If you make the cut, congratulations. You’re never going to remember another night in your life again. But if you don’t, cheer up: you can find an equally rewarding experience on Cred. All for paying your credit card bills. Believe me, I know what’s fun. To join me as a member, download the app.
What Next With Cred Ads
If Cred remains true to its advertising SOP, we can expect a series of ads in the format where the Celebrity may project their unwarranted images. Maybe Shashi Tharoor, Kangana, Chetan Bhagat, and Salman Khan could be good extensions to the series. Maybe the next series can pick trends with social media influencers. Hope it remains away from the region, religion, sex and politics – the four pointers that tilt the Smear Index for any communication.
Cred Clutter Breaking Communication Recipe.
Something must be right. Cred claims ( as of Oct 2021) a 700% increase in app downloads after the 2020 audition campaign featuring Madhuri Dixit, Govinda, Alka Yagnik and Udit Narayan, Bappi Lahiri, and Anil Kapoor. And I was questioning – what the hell Cred was doing?
The next lot of communication has celebrities portraying images that you don’t associate with. The series featured Rahul Dravid, Jackie Shroff, Kumar Sanu, Venkatesh Prasad, Neeraj Chopra, and Kapil Dev. These were fun, and everyone had their favourite, with the Dravid ad being the most loved.
Then came the old era imagery with Karishma Kapoor in Nirma ad, Zee Antakshari with Renuka Shahane and Annu Kapoor, Sharma Ji-Gupta Ji, Shaan-Sonu Nigam song. I thought Cred was becoming too constrained with its own format and boundaries. And then it surprised us with Ravi Shastri ad that pushed me to rethink. The Ravi Shastri ad is fresh and one of the most enjoyable- but if it does anything to the business is a question mark. I will any day have the fun Ravi is having then go for the Fun of earning rewards by making Credit card payment on Cred.
Too Much Of Advertising!
That’s too many films in the last two-three years with not much to show in revenue other than valuation. So many celebrities and four format mutations. I may be bowled over with Cred Ravi Shastri for its timing and content. Still, I am stumped at the need and purpose of this considerable advertising.
Thanks to the advertising and some positive word of mouth, the brand enjoys a high recall and decent usage among Credit card users. However, the ad never made me want to check out or download the app. Maybe and hopefully, I am a minority. And perhaps the advertising is more cantered for VC, Investments and valuation.
Cred Not-so-Cred-ible Performance!
It is different when it comes to financials. Cred marketing spends outscore its revenue by huge multiples. It became a Unicorn within two years of launch, and the current expected valuation is around $6 Billion! And it behaved like one burning at a high rate.
Reports tell that Cred had a 95 cr total income and 88.6 revenue from operations in FY 21 (against 18.1 cr and 0.5 cr in FY 20), with total expenses at 619.4 cr and a loss of 523 cr in FY 21 (( against the expense of 3979 Cr and a loss of 361 cr in FY20)! Additionally, the marketing expenses themselves are pegged at 418 cr in FY21.
The brand seems to have launched or substantially grown products, including Cred Max, Cred Cash and Cred Travel which were not pushed aggressively with advertising.
One would here like to believe the founder Kunal Shah, statement: “At Cred, we are constantly working to enhance members’ experience to make it more engaging, frictionless and rewarding. With new design philosophy, gamified rewards constructs, best offers and high value jackpots, we are consolidating our message of rewarding the right financial decisions and the privileges that come by being a member of the Cred community.”
Will Cred Credibility get stronger in the future? We will have to wait and watch? Being Bowled by advertising is bad enough but getting stumped with financials is worse.
Rebel Foods, the online restaurant company, has unveiled a new campaign for its half-n-half pizza offering by its flagship brand Oven Story Pizza. Conceptualised by Amit Akali’s What’s Your Problem, now a Wondrlab company, the new campaign addresses “common pizza problems”.
Said Akali, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, Wondrlab: “There is a dictatorship in the pizza category with every big player giving out the same offerings. For an ardent foodie like myself, it was high time that someone came along and put an end to this dictatorship. Oven Story does just that with its unique half and half pizzas. The film is fun, quirky and drives home the message well. More importantly, they are unexpected. And today, if you catch attention, that’s half the battle won for a brand. You can look forward to a few more episodes with our dictator.”
Added Pragati Dalal, VP, Brands at Rebel Foods: “Oven Story truly believes in exciting innovations with stand out offerings while making every pizza different. This unique identity goes beyond the product and also gets captured in the way we market the brand. Customers usually end up compromising while ordering their pizza when ordering in a group. Through this new campaign, we have addressed these customer problems with Oven Story’s half-n-half pizza where customers can order their choice of pizza/toppings individually. Being a disruptor in the pizza category, we don’t want our customers to compromise which makes us stand out against our competition.”
Nescafé Ready-To-Drink (RTD) cold coffee has launched a new campaign “Thoda Aur Machaa”. Through a three-part video series the campaign brings forth stories of real Gen Z heroes who believe that their actions and attitude can make a meaningful impact.
On being part of the campaign with Nescafé RTD cold-coffee, Malhar Kalambe, the 23-year-old founder of NGO ‘Beach Please’ said: “The most prominent type of waste we come across during our clean-up drives is plastic packaging. I’m glad that brands like Nescafé RTD are plastic neutral and are taking greater strides towards sustainability.”
Footwear major Bata India has announced the launch of a 360-degree campaign titled ‘It’s Got To Be Bata’, starring new brand ambassador Disha Patani. It is conceptualised by Contract Advertising.
Commenting on the new TVC, Gunjan Shah, M.D. and CEO, Bata India Limited said: “Casualisation has become a big trend over the last couple of years. Consumers now seek styles that are versatile enough to take them through multiple occasions in a day. Multifunctional footwear, therefore, has become more relevant for women today and Bata is introducing footwear that merges active and leisurewear attributes. The 24×7 Casual Collection is curated keeping in mind the various roles that women play throughout the day for which they need versatile casual shoes to effortlessly move from one occasion to another. It features Bata, Bata Red Label, Bata Comfit and Naturalizer brands, with artisanal styled heels, wedges & trendy sneakers with hues of colors that can be matched with any occasion, anytime, anywhere. The new campaign features our new brand ambassador Disha Patani, and we hope to attract younger audiences who seek outdoors-inspired benefits, while still wanting a fashion-driven aesthetic that works well for the city life”
Added Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, Chief Creative Officer – Contract India: “Over the last few years, we have seen Bata transition to a fashion-forward brand with product lines that are in sync with the latest of trends – be it casuals or sneakers or formals. With this campaign, we had an interesting opportunity of taking the brand journey forward. From the journey that started with Surprisingly Bata campaign in 2018, it was time to take a more confident and bolder stance. Association with Disha has helped bringing about this transition, she personifies the attributes that we want Bata to represent today – stylish, glam, young, more confident and bold. The campaign is beautifully supported by lyrics crafted by Amitabh Bhattacharya, one of India’s ace lyricist.”
Trip Creative, visual communication design company, has been mandated to design campaigns for Škoda Auto India’s new car launches, the Škoda Kushaq and the Škoda Slavia with event partners 70 EMG.
Said Saurabh Dedhia, Digital PR and Communications, Škoda Auto India: “Skoda India is experiencing an optimistic growth with numerous products launching and hitting the market. With such an incredible pace, partnering with 70EMG for the launches and Trip Creative for the design creatives helped us to make our brand mission and vision stronger with their creative graphical and virtual representation. We are glad to have them on board and aim for more successful collaborations for our launches.”
Added Prateek Sethi, Founder of Trip Creative Services: “We have already established a benchmark in the animation industry working with 70EMG for the launch events is fantastic! Škoda PR and Comms team are great clients. Our motive now is to expand our footprint. It has been a pleasure to be a part of the creative team of ŠKODA Auto India PR & Brand Comms for almost 4 years now and going strong. We are always trying to push the envelope across creatives and technologies for them.”
Protinex, the flagship brand of Danone India, has launched a new commercial on television and digital platforms. The TVC is conceptualised by DDB Mudra.
Said Sriram Padmanabhan, Marketing Director, Danone India: “Protinex is committed to create awareness about Protein. Indians often neglect Protein in their diets and the core reason behind this is lack of understanding around adequate protein intake and the pivotal role it plays in helping one lead an active and healthy life. Through this TVC, our intent is to build awareness around the fact that muscle loss can lead to lack of strength, if not addressed appropriately with adequate protein intake and physical activity.
Added Pallavi Chakravarti, Creative Head-West, DDB Mudra: “As someone who was 30 a long time ago, it really shook me up to know about the muscle loss and weakness that starts to creep up on us post thirty years of age. Because it is not outwardly visible, we end up telling ourselves that we don’t feel the tiredness either. Time to acknowledge the need for protein and therefore, for Protinex in our daily lives. Through this TVC we want to bring alive the dilemma grappling Indian adults as they deal with decline in health of their muscles.”
Madison Media Ultra, a unit of Madison World, has just won the Media AOR for Jyothy Labs. The agency will be responsible for traditional media and digital media mandate for the client including TV, Print, and Digital.
Said Jyothy MR, Managing Director, Jyothy Labs: “Madison is a respected name in the industry with its proven expertise in traditional and contemporary media platforms. We believe our brands will be ably assisted with Madison’s well rounded integrated media solutions in meeting our marketing objectives.”
Added Jolene Fernandes Solanki, COO, Madison Media Ultra: “Extremely delighted to partner with one of the pioneering brands in our country. We are pleased to have Jyothy Labs on board and partner with them in their growth journey. We believe that our framework at Madison – ‘keeping consumers and technology at the center’ – will complement Jyothy Labs’ growth journey.”
Zero Gravity Communications has come up with an exclusive OOH campaign for the new and existing range of Vadilal ice creams. As part of this campaign, 500+ hoardings were put in key locations attracting maximum footfall in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, which are the major markets for the brand.
Describing the thought behind the campaign, Khushboo Solanki Sharma, Co-Founder, Zero Gravity Communications, said, “We wanted to bring out the delectable flavours that Vadilal has to offer to its consumers in an instantly tempting way. Our thought behind the campaign was to generate maximum ROI through design and positioning to drive home top-of-the-mind recall for the brand.”
Delhi-based consumer electronics lifestyle brand Boat, known for products such as earphones, headphones and smart watches, has rolled out a new campaign promoting its Alexa built-in smartwatch, Boat Xtend, that shines the spotlight on GenZ. Titled #MoreInEveryday, the campaign brings out the various intelligent features of the watch-from setting reminders to counting calories.
Speaking about the campaign, Siya Wadhawan, Brand Manager, Boat, said: “We get this generation. We know what makes them tick. The Xtend watch with Alexa Built-in has been designed to fit perfectly into their lifestyle, and we’re pretty sure that the campaign will resonate with them and make voice-enabled smart wearables mainstream.”
Added Sonia Khurana, Chief Operating Officer from Digitas: #MoreInEveryday was a reminder for every GenZ, every hustler, and every doer, of all the things they can achieve with an Alexa on their wrists. It was a treat to partner with Boat to create yet another exciting campaign.
Said Teena Sidana, Head of Alexa skills and voice services, Amazon India: “Customers in India interact with Alexa millions of times every day to ask for information, start their workout and manage their day with reminders, to-do lists, alarms and more. With the Boat Xtend smartwatch customers can interact with Alexa on the go, wherever they are, and continue to make the most of their day. We are sure this campaign will resonate with Gen Z and they will be able to see a little bit of themselves in the videos.”
Cred, the Bengaluru-based fintech company (Dreamplug Technologies) for Credit card payment promises its nine million-plus members points that can be redeemed against rewards. In a way, the customer not only earn rewards while buying things on a Credit card, but also when making Credit Card payment through Cred.
Delhi-based consumer electronics lifestyle brand Boat, known for products such as earphones, headphones and smart watches, has rolled out a new campaign promoting its Alexa built-in smartwatch, Boat Xtend, that shines the spotlight on GenZ. Titled #MoreInEveryday, the campaign brings out the various intelligent features of the watch-from setting reminders to counting calories.