MxMIndia

Tag: FreeCharge

  • A new digital campaign addresses need to 'take charge' of your finances

    Freecharge drives better financial planning

    By Our Staff

     

    Freecharge, the digital financial services platform, has launched a series of digital videos on the necessity of being financially independent.

     

    Commenting on the launch of the new campaign, Siddharth Mehta, CEO, Freecharge said, “Freecharge with its continuously expanding portfolio in digital financial services aims to instil confidence in users, when it comes to managing finances. A facilitator, equipping them with financial tools that work for them, help them prepare goal saving plans or handle exigencies, get easy access to credit, or make timely payment of dues. We hope this digital campaign hits the right chord with our consumers and pushes them to actually ‘take charge’ towards making rational financial decisions”.

     

    Added Shweta Singhal, CMO and Head of Growth at Freecharge: “Our new logo revealed with this campaign is in sync with the brand positioning – Freecharge helps you take charge of your finances, so you can live the way you want to. The campaign establishes Freecharge as challenger of status quo. Each of the films are designed to bring out the different features built within the Freecharge platform; be it goal based investing, or the tool to assess your financial fitness, or the easy access to credit to manage both small expenses and big ticket items, or the safe and fast payments”.

     

     

  • The campaign has been conceptualized by Lowe Lintas

    FreeCharge launches new digital campaign – ‘Sirf App Nahin, Appreciation’

    By A Correspondent

     

    FreeCharge has launched its new digital campaign ‘Sirf App Nahin, Appreciation’. The campaign, conceptualised by Lowe Lintas, has been crafted to celebrate even the little efforts that we make every day to address our basic necessities, which otherwise go unnoticed.

     

    Commenting on the launch of the digital campaign, Sangram Singh, CEO, Freecharge said: “We are continuously focusing on innovative storytelling to build deeper connect with our consumers. The campaign has been weaved around an insight from the real-life situations of young professionals, who are constantly looking at validation both personally and professionally. Freecharge as a facilitator of easy and seamless payments appreciates the effort a customer makes, recognizing that everyone deserves to feel the work they are doing however mundane it may seem, is contributing to something worthwhile.”

     

    Added Amar Singh, Regional Creative Officer, Lowe Lintas: “The idea was to talk to people who’ve spent enough time at work to realize that the appreciation they were expecting as a natural response to their efforts, is a rare bird to spot. Conceived by Rajat Dawar and Abhishek Dey, the creative device of Omkar playing a melancholic melody to depict the protagonist’s dispirited state of mind, gives way to joy when FreeCharge arrives with rewards for even the small stuff. And in so doing, builds an association for the brand with the much-valued feeling of being appreciated.”

     

     

  • The focus of the week-long trip is to invite the Chinese companies to set up in India

    Kunal Shah leads IAMAI CEO’s trip to China

    By A Correspondent

     

    Kunal Shah, Founder & CEO, FreeCharge and Chairman of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) would lead 20 CEO’s for a week-long trip to China, beginning June 24.

     

    Members of the team include: J Murugavel, Founder & CEO, Bharat Matrimony; Amarjit Batra, CEO, OLX India; Pawan Gadia, CEO Retail & Online, FernsnPetals; Ms Neelu Singh, CEO Ezeego1; George Antony, MD, UAE Exchange; Dippak Khurana, Founder & CEO, Vserv & Vmax; Nitin Gupta, Co-founder & CEO      PayU India; Ankur Singla, Founder & CEO, Helpchat, Vivek Pani Co-founder & CTO, Reverie; JRK Rao, Founder & MD, Rage Communications; Badri Sanjeevi, CEO, Mauj Mobile; Manish Chopra, Co-founder & CEO, Zovi; Sahil Chalana, Founder, College Dunia; amongst others.

     

    The focus of the week-long trip is to invite the Chinese companies to set up in India; invest in Indian start-ups; gain Ideas for new businesses and exchange insights for scaling-up.

     

    The delegation will meet officials from Alibaba, Baidu, Ctrip, Cheetah Mobile; Xiaomi in Beijing and Shanghai. The team would also meet investors like Ant Financials and Start up Street during the week-long trip.

     

    Speaking about the delegation, Dr. Subho Ray President, IAMAI, said, “Scale and scalability is one of the most important things to learn in China.  Apart from key meetings, the delegation will also visit large internet and ecommerce companies to get first hand feel of scalability.”

     

  • In a related move, Kunal Shah, currently the CEO of FreeCharge will now be the Chairman of the Company

    Govind Rajan elevated to CEO at FreeCharge

    By A Correspondent

     

    FreeCharge has announced the appointment of Govind Rajan as the Chief Executive Officer of the company. Govind, joined Freecharge in August 2015 and is currently the Chief Operating Officer at FreeCharge.

     

    In a related move, Kunal Shah, currently the CEO of FreeCharge will now be the Chairman of the company. Kunal Shah is the co-founder of the company, along with Sandeep Tandon. In April 2015, Snapdeal had acquired FreeCharge in the biggest deal that the e-commerce sector has seen in India till date.

     

    In October 2015, within five months of the acquisition by Snapdeal, FreeCharge launched its wallet. The FreeCharge wallet is now the fastest growing wallet in the country, with exponential growth both in terms of users and number of daily transactions.

     

    Commenting on the elevation of Govind Rajan, Kunal Shah said, “Govind has led with great insight and initiative. His understanding of the payments industry and its future trends is equally matched by his discipline and ability to get things done. In Govind, we have an exceptional leader, who will lead FreeCharge to become the No. 1 player in the payments ecosystem in the country.”

     

    Reacting to the appointment, Govind Rajan said, “FreeCharge is built on a robust foundation of cutting-edge technology, superlative customer experience and a deep understanding of consumer needs. Kunal has built a great tech team and an iconic brand. It is a privilege to take the baton from him. We are fortunate to have his guidance as the Chairman and mentor-in-chief. I am very excited to carry forward our mission to build FreeCharge as India’s digital payments OS”.

     

    In his previous stints, Govind was the Chief Marketing Officer (B2C) at Bharti Airtel and concurrently also served as the CEO for Airtel Money. An alumnus of Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Govind spent the first 15 years of his professional life at Hindustan Unilever, where he served in various marketing and leadership roles. Govind’s experience of nearly twenty years has seen him drive exceptional results across building market share, driving revenue and building marketing capabilities.

     

  • The TVC is in Hindi and translated in other regional languages such as Tamil, Telugu and Kannada to strengthen brand awareness

    FreeCharge Launches ‘#ReverseTheCharge’ Campaign

    By A Correspondent

     

    FreeCharge has unveiled its new brand campaign called ‘#ReverseTheCharge’. As part of the larger campaign, the new TVC re-in forces the brand’s connect with the youth and builds a stronger brand connect. The new campaign explores the youth-parent relationship with a twist by adding a flavour of role reversal. The youth is portrayed as more responsible and helping parents understand the new-age ‘fizool kharchi’ following a pattern from the earlier TVC ‘Recharge Nahi FreeCharge’ where parents were blaming the youth for fizool Kharchi. The ‘#ReverseTheCharge’ campaign is targeted at the urban youth living in top metros.

     

    The TVC is in Hindi and translated in other regional languages such as Tamil, Telugu and Kannada to strengthen brand awareness and recall and penetrate deeper into the Indian market to attract new users on board.

     

    The pan India TVC campaign will cover 30+ channels on national television spanning major GEC’s and English channels. The campaign will leverage both offline (TV, Radio) and online (Paid Digital, Newsletters, Notifications, Social Media) platforms to reach out to the target audience.

     

    Talking about the new TVC, ‘#ReverseTheCharge’, Ashish Virmani, Head, Marketing, FreeCharge, said, “FreeCharge as a brand understands youth and their needs deeply. With FreeCharge, they just don’t recharge but in a way FreeCharge helps them solve their problems smartly. With this campaign, the youth has evolved to the point where they can charge their parents for being spendthrift. This campaign will be an integrated marketing plan leveraging TV, digital and radio primarily and aims to build the already strong appeal for the brand.”

     

    Created by Lowe Lintas, ‘#ReverseTheCharge’ campaign resonates with the youth of today who are more tech-savvy and know how to best use the online platform. The campaign name reflects FreeCharge’s aim to reduce users’ time and money wasted in offline transactions.

     

    ‘#ReverseTheCharge’ TVC Campaign is an extension of FreeCharge’s overall brand goal of driving the shift from offline to online transactions across the country and get existing users to transact more and more online. The new TVC is focused on building excitement and anticipation amongst the youth audience in a quirky manner, driving conversations around encouraging smarter ways to pay and recharge while getting rewarded.

     

    Talking about the campaign, Arun Iyer, CCO, Lowe Lintas, says, “For the launch phase of the campaign, we had established Freecharge as a brand that frees young people of various money-related charges placed on them by their parents. In this phase, we thought we’d flip the dynamics of this relationship. The young Freecharge user is a step ahead of the game and knows how to save so well, that in addition to freeing himself/herself of all charges of being spendthrift, he/she can now in fact, go ahead and place the same charge on his/her parents.”

     

  • Through their offer in partnership with Ola Cabs, consumers can avail free Ola cab rides on recharge of Rs 50 or more on prepaid and postpaid numbers

    FreeCharge unveils campaign announcing new offer with Ola Cabs

    By A Correspondent

     

    FreeCharge has unveiled its new campaign titled ‘FreeCharge Ola Offer’ that premiered across traditional and digital media on10th March during the ICC World Cup 2015. Through their offer in partnership with Ola Cabs, consumers can avail free Ola cab rides on recharge of Rs 50 or more on prepaid and postpaid numbers.

     

    Keeping in tandem with the previous campaigns by FreeCharge, this 360 hi-decibel integrated media campaign too brings the joy of recharging online by giving consumers a rewarding experience. Conceptualized by Lowe Lintas and directed by Deepti Rao of Spotlights, the TVC’s that premiered during the World Cup have received a good response from consumers, especially the youth, garnering more than 1 million views in just 10 days into the campaign on YouTube.

     

    Speaking on the campaign, Alok Goel, CEO, FreeCharge said, “Consumers are shifting to making transactions from their smartphones and it is FreeCharge’s mission to make those transactions joyful and rewarding. This latest initiative is another step in rewarding users who recharge with FreeCharge.”

     

    The offer entails consumers to recharge their prepaid or postpaid number for just Rs 50 or more and in return, get an Ola cab ride free anywhere in the country worth Rs 250.

     

    Arun Iyer

    Speaking on the campaign, Arun Iyer,  National Creative Director, Lowe Lintas, said “Keeping in sync with the key campaign insight that “the youth of today are charged with being irresponsible with their money” and the brand’s role in helping the youth shed this tag, the Ola offer and communication was a perfect fit and enabled the brand to strengthen their position in this insight space.”

     

  • 1,00,000 consumers across, Mumbai, Bangalore & Pune will receive a message, which will play the FreeCharge video directly without requiring the consumer to click on a link

    MEC, FreeCharge explore new smart messaging platform

    By A Correspondent

     

    MEC along with FreeCharge have harnessed a new ‘Smart Messaging Platform’ to reach out to consumer’s mobile phones with branded high quality, rich media such as videos, images, audio clips and more, directly, rather than having to push links.

     

    The smart messaging platform commonly known as MMS+ technology merely requires the consumer to have a data-enabled mobile phone. It works across all platforms - iOS, Android and Windows and does not require users to download any application to support it.

     

    For the very first time 1,00,000 consumers across, Mumbai, Bangalore & Pune will receive a message, which will play the FreeCharge video directly without requiring the consumer to click on a link.

     

    Sidhraj Shah, National Director Activation, MEC, said “The MMS+ technology offers hyper-personalisation opportunities including tracking consumer reaction to the call for action, which is not possible with the current SMS platform. At MEC, we are constantly scouting to offer new experiences and technologies for our clients, to engage with their customers. With ‘Smart Messaging platform’ we have only scratched the surface.”

     

  • The insight was that today's youngsters are smart problem solvers and they will figure out their way out in life despite what life throws at them

    Lowe Lintas rolls out youth-oriented campaign for FreeCharge

    By A Correspondent

     

    Lowe Lintas has been appointed as the creative agency for FreeCharge, India’s leading online platform for recharge, utility payments, promotions and couponing. As part of the alliance, Lowe Lintas has been tasked with the mandate of making Freecharge a go-to and top-of-mind brand in India. Lowe Lintas fended off competition from six other agencies that were in the fray before it was chosen.

     

    FreeCharge is a pioneer in the online recharge space with a unique business model. FreeCharge doesn’t just make the process of recharging convenient, it also makes it rewarding, by way of discount coupons. For every recharge done on FreeCharge, the company gives customers discount coupons from top food joints and popular retailers, equivalent to your recharge amount, delivered to their mobile, inbox or even doorstep. These coupons can be used to save money when customers eat out, watch movies, book travel tickets, shop online, visit a salon, go gaming, pick up books, music, groceries, and live a rewarding life!

     

    Sharing his views on appointing Lowe Lintas as the creative agency, Alok Goel, CEO, FreeCharge said, “FreeCharge is a youth brand and hence we wanted to figure out a campaign idea that will connect with today’s youth at deep emotional levels. Lowe team came up with phenomenal insight. The insight was that today’s youngsters are smart problem solvers and they will figure out their way out in life despite what life throws at them. The insight was so original and emotional that we felt Lowe team will be great partners for this campaign.”

     

    To drive FreeCharge’s marketing objectives, Lowe Lintas has unveiled a campaign – ‘Recharge nahin… FreeCharge’ that depicts FreeCharge’s core proposition of being an ally for the youth and how it plans to alter the recharge landscape in India by offering rewarding coupons and offers. The campaign is live online and will soon be seen across other traditional media.

     

    Speaking on the launch of the campaign, Kunal Shah, Co-founder of FreeCharge said, “We want to completely change what people expect from the simple act of recharging a mobile phone. It is no longer just a payment, but a rewarding experience which delivers joys to our customers. We felt that Lowe Lintas’ campaign idea captured this in a surprising and insightful way. We are confident the youth of today will connect with the brand and engage with it for a long time to come.”

     

    The youth is often stereotyped by parents for being spendthrifts who don’t value money. Lowe Lintas’ consumer-research revealed that in fact, the reverse is true today. The digital-native youngsters are quite smart and inventive when it comes to stretching their means to the max.

     

    Sharing his thoughts on the creative approach taken for the brand in a crowded marketplace, Arun Iyer, National Creative Director, Lowe Lintas stated, “We felt that our campaign needed to do more than land the product and its benefits. We needed to connect with our rechargers at a real level. We hit upon an insight that the youth of today are ‘charged’ with being irresponsible with their money. This simple app is their ally and just one re-‘charge’ fittingly answers all these charges.”

     

    The campaign aims to build further on the brand’s key offering through relevant tie-ups.