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Tag: Cred

  • Sanjeev Kotnala on the ridiculously, completely illogical television commercials by Cred

    Cred-ibility ka sawaal hai!

     

    By Sanjeev Kotnala

     

    Sanjeev KotnalaA certain TVC by a service brand called Cred initialied random thoughts. And you can squarely blame it for this piece.

    Life is a switch. Yes, I will not make any politically incorrect statement. Life could have been a dog, but dogs love unconditionally. They are loyal and so intelligent. So, it better remains a switch. Give me time, and it will make sense. I thought I have seen and learned everything there was. And then I saw this brand Cred. It makes these ridiculously, completely illogical television commercials.

    I realised everything is interconnected. And if not, the consultants, marketers, strategist and planners will connect the free-floating dots. That’s their job. Something like the butterfly effect, induction process, domino effect or simply the interdependency of interconnectivity is working here.

    Last year, they just wanted to give a simple message, ‘Download cred and get points to pay your credit card bills. But no, they made Govinda, Madhuri, Anil Kapoor and Bappi da audition for the shoot- and just ran the behind the scenes as a commercial.

     

    People like me did not get it. Many industry stalwarts did not get it. A few expressed their appreciation, and the audience for who the ads were made kept talking. Everyone got the message. I wondered if I would have allowed such a spot to be presented to the client on my beat. Or, If I was the client, would I have bought the creative. I still wonder what the client and the agency smoking was. Whatever it was, I wanted one. Is there anything wrong with this walk the talk or talking walk ad of CRED that explained logically what the whole thing was about and what you get and, yes, who can get it?

     

    Meanwhile, I kept wondering why people were not taking the jab. No, it is not the aftereffect of the first shot of Covidshield that I took on April 4. Wondering why the so-called intelligent literates are not following social distancing, masking and washing hands. Were they not the simple steps. Was the nation asking much? Wondering how and why the election rallies without masks are not creating a chain of possible virus spread? Then I take a deep breath and remind myself, do not worry about things that are not in your control- it is accidental and incidental.

    This year, these Cred fellows went ahead. Even during the lockdown think they managed to get their stuff from the Himalayas. They made my hero, almost an idol; the Wall angry and declaring himself as Indiranagar ka Gunda. Suddenly he is no longer low profile. A simple flip of an image. He definitely seems the dude who will fight in the traffic jam. The Iceland volcano just erupted.

     

    Meanwhile, Sachin Waze has said someone from BARC paid INR 30 lakh. And there is a money trail. Someone may turn approver, and the beans may spill out. It is getting murkier with time, As fast-paced as “Predators and Prey’ by Abhinav Agarwal. There is more to come. The nation may not want to know, but the industry does need the answers. This is about the public and the republic. It is about the audience, media and measurement.

    Meanwhile, the Cred advertisement is applauded for sheer brilliance. The last time it screened behind the scene. This time, there are random clips to tag with the lazy, stupid sit-down message from someone at Cred. Personally, I do not like what they are doing. They are bright, and it shows. I could only say well done and maybe smile (I don’t bow) to their thinking.

    Monopoly is wrong, but the boardgame is good. Better than Ludo and Snakes and Ladders. Inside trading. Inside programming. Data analysis to favour the system. You google, and it will tell you even Google has been doing it. Part of the business, you ask. What’s happening?

    In between, these Cred guys used Jackie Bedu Shroff to tell us, ‘it pays to be good- pay your credit card bills. As if banks will allow us to forget paying them. I knew then that they will come back with points, rewards and cashback.

    An initiative in the southern hemisphere is forcing the digital giants to compulsorily negotiate and share revenue. Inspiration everywhere but the Indian media remain silent and continue to debate the minority-majority issues. Wherever there is a carpet, there is a story under it.

    I am now worried. The Cred  fellow has got even Jackie Bedu Shroff to Zumba and lead a Zumba class. All because this smart-looking Jim Sarbh wants to try doing an innovative Trivago ad. All they want to tell you is simple ‘when you pay credit card bills on Cred, you earn Cred coins, and you can use them to claim cashback and rewards. Knowing them, there will be more such innocent people trashing their well-developed image- CREDibility. Who next? Watch here a wee bit more of the CRED ad.

    As I think of it, I read about the superhero Sonu Sood who has taken the vaccine to encourage others to take the jab!!! Hello, is that right? He has done outstanding work during the first wave, and the way we all are, we look up to him to do some magic again in wave two. If there is an influencer right among the people- then it is Sonu Sood.

    I would hate to see him in Cred. Credibility ka sawaal hai.

    Meanwhile, one brand MAGICPIN  has taken the opportunity presented by the unique Cred approach and created a quick spoof. Well it works as far as catching eyeballs and the desired buzz is considered.

     

    ……………………………………..

     

    Sanjeev Kotnala is a senior marketing and strategy advisor and educator. He writes on MxMIndia every Wednesday. His views here are personal

  • Tanmay Bhat and team think out of the box once again

    Cred gets Jackie Shroff for next ad film

    By Our Staff

    Big bang advertiser (and also a payment convenience provider) Cred has launched a new campaign in continuation with its official sponsorship with IPL 2021. After the first ad film went viral featuring Rahul Dravid in an angry avatar, the next ad film has Jim Sarbh and Jackie Shroff in a never-seen-before personas.

    The ad films have been produced and directed by Early Man Film. The campaign was written and conceptualised by Tanmay Bhat, Devaiah Bopanna, Puneet Chadha, Nupur Pai and Vishal Dayama and executed by DDB Mudra and 22Feet Tribal Worldwide. Karan Malhotra has composed the music for the films.

    Said Kunal Shah, Founder and CEO, Cred: “We are happy to continue our association with the IPL for the second year in a row. At Cred, we believe in rewarding good financial behaviour. With this campaign, we want to instil our message of the importance of financial literacy and educating viewers on the rewarding benefits of practising responsible financial behaviour. ”

    Added Ayappa, Director and Co-Founder, Early Man Film: “It’s that time of the year when we collaborate with our favourite heroes from the 90s and make them do strange, yet wonderful things for Cred. I hope everyone enjoys these films as much as they did the last set.”

     

     

  • Is it better to run a serialised film than a series of them, asks Sanjeev Kotnala

    How Many Ad Films are too Many in a Campaign?

     

    By Sanjeev Kotnala

     

    Brands make multiple television or digital video commercials (TVC/DVC in short,  referred hereafter as ad films) to engage their audience and deliver the message. They are mostly various expressions of the same idea. So, how many ad films should a brand make? Or, how does the team decide how many should be made? Or, why create a series of ad films? That is not counting the edits and adaptations into regional languages.

     

     

    Why Multiple Ad Films?

     

    There are possibly so many highly logical reasons that may push the client and the creative to look for multiple ad films:

     

    • The client believes in iterative expressions.

    • There is a budget to make multiple ad films.

    • The creative is of the point of view that the concepts need clarity.

    • The media agency needs it to keep the audience engaged when the ad frequency is high.

    • The campaign runs aggressively across a property like IPL, and hence audience gets bored faster.

    • To take advantage of economies of scale in production.

    • To justify the high fee of a celebrity.

    • The communication aims to change behaviour and hence more ad films.

    • The concept is so disruptive that we better have more ad films to explain.

    • The idea is so strong that it demands multiple ad films.

    • The idea is weak, and with multiple ad films, we minimise risk.

     

    I am stopping listing reasons knowing that there could be many more for such a strategic decision. But the questions kept bugging me, and soon I found myself with my dear friend, consultant Vermajee, the Management Guru. Last Friday, over Antiquity Blue topped with chilled No 1 club soda, served in steel glasses, I got enlightened on the subject. Being Navratri, drinking was banned at home. So, we parked his SUV under a banyan tree on the Western Express Highway within sight of a ‘No Parking Zone’ sign and chewed on the subject along with Faldhari Chiwda. Vermajee shared his gyaan and opened my eyes. He usually does have that impact on me.

     

    Ad Films Earlier – Vermajee’s Time

     

    Some few decades back, when Vermajee was part of the agency circus, the brands were happy with one TVC at a time. Maybe one TVC per season. Some TVCs lasted many seasons over TV, Cinema and Rural Vans.

     

    It was not the creative teams lacked ideas. The act of making a TVC was time-consuming and very painful. You had to really work hard. Work in detail. Post work was astronomically costly. Budgets were sacrosanct and less clutter in the media. The clients as usual finicky and khadoos, wanting a Merc at the cost of a Maruti.

     

    The client today is no different. Even then, they did not understand that creative and advertising was an investment, not an expense. They fail to see, it is better to invest in good creative even at the cost of the media budget and expose it a less number of times. Cutting production budget, making an average TVC and exposing it more number of times is a bad idea.

     

    Yes, some clients made TVC throughout the year. If you made a judgmental error in one, there was not much to worry as the next TVC was on its way.

     

    However, we were absolutely sure of our craft but a bit unsure of consumer understanding. The research was used as the master key for campaign support and approvals. The scripts and even at times the edits were pre and post researched. It was too costly to change anything at a later stage, not that changes did not happen.

     

    Vermajee Gyaan

     

    Vermajee explained the difference between episodic series (procedural) and serialised ad films. He reiterated the need to judge an ad film more on strategy and impact, likeability, memory and engagement than anything else. He empathised on the law of marginal returns. Vermajee said: “the client and creative along with media must risk raising the question about the number of Ad films and must stop when they stop adding value to the campaign”.

     

    The Case of Multiple Ad Films

     

    Here, the same story is repeated with a slight twist or a change of character. Each of the films is complete, and you don’t lose much, not watching all of them collectively or in a particular series.

     

    The recent Cred communication is an example. Film celebrities like Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit and Bappi Lahiri audition for Cred. They perform in their signature styles but are rejected. They are so overexposed that one completely forgets the Cred ad of last year, which is more explanation-based.

     

    People question the creativity in the Cred campaign. There is a huge awareness buildup for Cred, and the single-minded message is clearly established. I don’t have data for app downloads and usage. Recently, we saw  Alka Yagnik- Udit Narayan auditioning, which makes me think that the brand missed an opportunity in using influencers and UGC.

    In another version of this, you have the same proposition and intent but the playground and the story changes. The episodes remain independent and complete in themselves. It works brilliantly with a simple message and some emotional engagement.

    Dream11 seems to have been successful in campaigns in this style of multiple ad films. Dream11 last year #YehGameHaiMahan with multiple fils – Bush or pipeline, Dhobighat, old friends etc. pr the campaign #kheloDimaagsey. This year the Dream11 campaign #YehApnaGameHai features Dhoni, Shikar, Rohit and others.

    One of the best examples of it is Thanda Matlab Coke. Here Aamir Khan played different roles from the Punjabi farmer, Pahadi guide, to Bengali babu and some more. Well, one can not forget the ZooZoos.

     

    The Serialised Ad Film

    Here the multiple ad films that are following a pre-defined narrative. There is a link between them. Sometimes subtle and sometimes overt. They are best watched in series or totality.

    The story moves forward with each ad film, keeping the audience engaged in the campaign. There is a surprise packet of what next. The character layers get unravelled with time.

    Some years back we saw Amazon  Chokpur cheetahs; India Ke Sapno Ki Apni Dukkan. A small town bunch of cricket players and their coach. The ad films are still remembered with films like Dhyani’s Birthday, Introduction, Kab Khelenge 2020 and official song among others.

    Nowadays we are seeing something of serialised ad films by PhonePe ads featuring Aamir Khan and Aliya Bhat. The Chaiwala,  Kiskepass, safety and more. This time, the functionality is overpowering, it is making its point, and the interplay of characters is excellent. However, will it really become a true serialised ad film set is yet to be seen?

     

    The best I have seen in the Indian context is Tata Sky Chota Recharge. The campaign kept the audience glued. In fact, they were rooting for the teenagers to meet and love to blossom. The brand message delivered simply. In such cases, when the audience gets hooked, they want more of it.

     The attempts of true serialised campaigns have been far and few. Such creative requires commitment and a willingness to carry the collective risk. But like gambling, the response and gains are equally large. 

     

    Reminder: How Many Ad Films?

    :: Always look at multiple Ad Film from Brand and the strategy point of view.

    :: Always evaluate the content and multiple ad films in the context of the newness of the message, brand, service, media budgets and complexity or simplicity of communication.

     

    Invest in creative development even at the cost of media budgets. An excellent creative product exposed less will always pay back far more than a bad/mediocre/average creative exposed more number of times.

    Evaluate from consumer interest engagement point of view than the jury and judges at the awards point of view.

    No need to make more films just because you have a good script. As you may end up hitting marginalised returns and underexpose other films.

    Go ahead and do multiple ad films if they really add to the brand message understanding or clarity, emotions and association.

    Maybe Dream11 did not need all the films and Cred could benefit from serialised rather than a series of films. Perhaps, the client-agency-media teams on these brands know better the reason for multiple ad films, and when did they hit the curve of marginalised decreasing returns or maybe they can do with some more films.

  • The concept behind the launch film was to bring to life Cred's attributes

    Supari Studios executes launch campaign for Cred

    By A Correspondent

     

    Supari Studios has created the launch campaign of the members-only platform, Cred that allows users to manage their credit card payments from one place.

     

    Said Akshat Gupt, Co-founder and CCO, Supari Studios, and Director of the film: “When Cred approached us to create this launch film, their ask was simple: ‘Make this the best fu**ing film you’ve made’. Keeping that in mind, I really wanted to experiment and do something we’ve not pulled off before. In terms of production, we challenged ourselves and wanted to do a couple of long one- takes. We put significant effort into the production process and did several things in-camera itself rather than in post – used single-takes where we felt it could really elevate the script and narrative, rigged every light from the main source down to the smallest practical and timed them, allowing transitions from one set to another to be as smooth as possible.”