Mumbai: Digital payments platform PhonePe on Thursday announced the launch of a new TV campaign for the gold category. On air for six weeks, the campaign comprises multiple 25-30 second ad films showcasing the ease and safety of buying gold on the PhonePe app. It will run on TV as well as on the brand’s digital platforms.
PhonePe has tailored the messaging to appeal to a diverse set of audiences by customising the storylines and actors. The campaign brings back the famed ‘Inspector Desai (played by Aamir Khan) and Shinde duo for audiences in the northern, western and eastern parts of the country. Additionally, it uses popular songs in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, and Malayalam to appeal to South audiences.
Commenting on the launch, PhonePe, head of mutual funds & gold, Terence Lucien, said, “Our aim is to help people from across India fulfill their aspirations of building their gold investments. We provide easy and secure access to the highest quality 24K gold coins and bars at the best prices that are safely delivered right to the customer’s doorstep by our gold partners.”
PhonePe launched the gold category over three years ago in association with MMTC-PAMP and SafeGold. Customers can click on ‘Buy 24K Gold’ under the ‘My Money’ section of the PhonePe app and order gold coins and bars starting from 0.5 grams. In addition to the best prices, they are also assured of insured delivery and tamper-proof packaging.
KOLKATA: In a bid to drive its reach and growth, digital payments platform PhonePe is betting big on the IPL by taking up six different sponsorships for this year’s edition. Besides being the official co-presenting partner for the television broadcast of IPL 2021 on Star Sports Network, PhonePe is also the associate sponsor for the digital broadcast of the league on Disney+ Hotstar. Additionally, the fintech start-up is also bankrolling four IPL franchises – Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Delhi Capitals.
This is the third year in a row that PhonePe is co-sponsoring IPL as the league continues to be the biggest sporting event in India, offering its advertising partners considerable national reach. This year, however, its IPL campaign will run equally aggressively across multiple platforms including TV, digital and social media platforms.
In the biggest-ever marketing push for the brand, its marketing interventions will run through the year with a focus on the upcoming IPL 2021. The crux of the marketing activities will largely be on expanding the user base from 280 million currently to 500 million by December 2022 and drive preference for PhonePe among millions of new-to-digital users.
PhonePe founder & CEO Sameer Nigam said, “We are kicking off our most aggressive national marketing campaign ever, starting with IPL 2021 next month. We have invested even more heavily on IPL this year, taking up six different sponsorships. As the category leader, it is our vision as well as our ambition to bring digital payments to every Indian household. Our aggressive marketing efforts are in line with this strategic priority.”
MUMBAI: Premium OTT platform Epic On has partnered with PhonePe to offer its subscription at a 25 per cent discount to PhonePe’s over 250 million users. PhonePe users can now get a six-month subscription to Epic On’s diverse mix of multiform content across genres and formats for just Rs 299 and an annual subscription for Rs 499.
With the country being hit by a pandemic and people forced to shelter in place, the digital wave got a massive boost and led to a sudden unprecedented surge in the demand for digital and OTT content. The introduction of new digital technologies at a lower cost had already made new inroads for the digital entertainment sector in India. In the past two years, India’s digital streaming industry eclipsed India’s film industry in size and the OTT industry grew by a whopping 240 percent between 2016 and 2019.
Epic On chief operating officer Sourjya Mohanty said, “Having seen the exponential rise in demand for digital entertainment content and digital payment solutions across India, we are excited to partner with PhonePe to leverage their subscription payment features. This will allow our users to utilise their option of easy payments while providing a 25 per cent discount for enjoying our premium content while subscribing from the PhonePe platform.”
PhonePe director of business development Ankit Gaur said, “In the current times, we have seen a rising demand for quality digital entertainment options that can be enjoyed from the safety of home. In line with this, we launched the Subscriptions category in April this year. Our collaboration with Epic On is another important step in providing our users with a seamless way to buy subscriptions at attractive prices. We are working to add more such entertainment options to our platform in the future.”
To buy a subscription, all that PhonePe users need to do is to log in to the PhonePe app and go to the Recharge & Pay Bills section. Then they just need to go to the Subscriptions category and select Epic On and pay for their subscription using UPI/debit or credit card/PhonePe wallet.
NEW DELHI: Kunal Dubey has joined Vedantu as head of marketing. He was previously working with PhonePe as head of business marketing and media planning, a brief stint of under six months. He had joined the cashless payments app in June 2020.
Prior to that, Dubey was with Dentsu India Slingshot as country head.
His longest stint has been at Flipkart between 2014 and 2019, where he served in multiple capacities such as director – brand marketing communications, and head of media planning and buying; associate director brand marketing and social media head; and others.
Dubey has an overall 14 years of experience in the industry. He has worked at multiple agencies and brands including eBay, Reliance Communications, McDonald’s India, and Reliance Communications.
PhonePe, India’s leading digital payments platform, today announced that it has sold over 5 lakh insurance policies on its platform during the period April – August 2020. This makes PhonePe the fastest-growing insure-tech distributor in India within just 9 months of the Insurance category going live on the PhonePe app.
PhonePe forayed into the insurance segment in January this year and was the first digital payment platform to launch international travel insurance for business & leisure travellers. Since April, it has launched 5 more insurance products which include COVID-19 Insurance, Domestic Travel Insurance, Hospital Daily Cash, Dengue & Malaria Insurance, Personal Accident Cover in addition to International Travel Insurance.
The short span of time within which these products were launched is significant considering the industry usually takes a few months to develop and launch similar products. What is also noteworthy is that PhonePe has timed its products based on market needs and has also partnered with leading insurers to offer customized products for its vast registered user base exceeding 23 crores. PhonePe launched a few cost-effective insurance products for COVID-19 in April & May when the pandemic was seeing a rapid spread across the country. With the lockdown ending and domestic travel gradually starting across the country in June, the company launched a comprehensive, industry-first domestic multi-trip insurance cover at just INR 499 for all domestic trips for a year. PhonePe soon launched sachet-based insurance products in July beginning with Hospital Daily Cash to enable customers to get an assured amount if they are hospitalized due to injury or illnesses including COVID-19. Keeping the upcoming rainy season in mind which sees a huge number of cases of mosquito-borne diseases across the country, it launched Dengue & Malaria Insurance in July.
The PhonePe app has seen insurance purchases from over 15,000 pin codes covering tier-1, 2, 3 and beyond reflecting the deep penetration of its platform and tremendous customer response to its offerings. Over 70% of PhonePe’s users come from tier- 2 and 3 cities with many users buying insurance for the first time. The leading tier-2 and tier-3 cities for insurance sales on PhonePe are Visakhapatnam, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Nashik, Vijayawada and Aurangabad.
Commenting on the milestone, Hemant Gala, VP Financial Services & Payments, PhonePe said, “We are delighted to have achieved the 5 lakh insurance policies sold milestone on PhonePe within a short span of 5 months. This is by far the fastest scale-up seen in the insurtech industry. We are thankful to our partners who have worked closely with us to innovate and co-create affordable products for our customers to cater to their specific needs. Customers continue to repose their trust in PhonePe as they find buying insurance on our platform affordable, simple to understand and easy. This is in line with our goal to be a one-stop destination for all insurance needs of our customers. We are in talks with multiple insurers and have many new products in the pipeline which will be launched in the coming months.”
Last week, Flipkart, a leading online etailer, started tweeting on its official twitter handle without using the alphabet ‘F’. Some of the words in its tweets were like ‘rom’, ‘itness’, ‘irst’, ‘inds’, and others.
Ideally, these words are not part of the English language but if we prefix the alphabet ‘F’ they made proper sense such as ‘from’, ‘fitness’, ‘first’, ‘find’ and others.
After the brand did its first tweet, several users pointed the error and asked ‘Where is the F’.
rom early morning jogs to late-night workouts head to our app or all your itness needs!
The etailer immediately responded with another tweet with missing ‘F’ and added a hashtag #WheresTheF .
We are still inding the solve. This is the irst time we are acing this problem, but i anyone knows or inds the missing letter, please tell us! #WheresTheF
It continued with a series of tweets for a few days with the missing word ‘F’ and engaged with the audiences asking them to find the alphabet ‘F’ for the brand while urging them to shop from the etailer across various categories of products present on the platform.
What seemed like un and games beore, has become serious now. Two whole days & we have not been able to type the letter “*”. We again request anyone with any inormation or clue, to come orward. #WheresTheF
On Sep 22, Samsung came to rescue Flipkart and suggested that it might know where the alphabet ‘F’ is. It tweeted a link in the ongoing twitter thread that took the audiences to the Flipkart store.
Samsung had taken the front page of the Flipkart store to promote its Samsung Galaxy F41 that will be unveiled on 8 October. The page further shared a few details on the new phone and urged people to explore it when it is unveiled.
The idea behind the activation was very clear as Samsung wanted to bring the focused audiences of Flipkart to its page to create buzz and excited about its new phone. The activation became even more exciting as several brands also jumped in to participate in the ongoing trend. This included the likes of Vedantu, Axis Bank, PhonePe, Myntra, Swiggy.
Interestingly, each of these brands utilized the occasion to talk about their offerings and interact with their audiences. For instance, Vedantu, an online learning platform donned the hat of a teacher; Swiggy, an online food ordering brand, related it with the food. The network brands such as PhonePe and Myntra also participated in the banter communicating their own positioning.
@Flipkart if it's Fs you're looking for, you're at the right place! Would you like a Fast Transfer in Five seconds? #WheresTheF
NEW DELHI: Cricket is the by far the best media vehicle for any brand if it intends to connect with masses at a pan-India level. The game cuts across all socio-economic boundaries, age-groups, geogrpahies and reaches to 196 million households with television sets. The brand can further amplify its reach by connecting with its audiences on the mobile screens. Be it IPL, T-20 leagues, one day matches or ICC World Cups, all of them have been able to deliver great results for the brands.
Currently, we are in the first week of IPL season 13 and going by reports, more than 200 million people tuned into watch the game on day one. The tournament has created history and is already delivering reach for brands. While the bandwagon of the teams, BCCL, and the broadcaster has a large number of traditional players, an equal number of digital first new age brands are also on the roster.
The count of the latter is growing year-on-year. These brands are spending big money around IPL to get more downloads, website visits, referals, impact, and what not. Spokespersons of many of these brands have mentioned that the viewership and reach of IPL is increasing year-on-year and the tournament helps them increase their brand recall and reach. IPL, which is also known as the advertising festival of the Asian subcontinent pushes the brand saliecy to the next level. It is important for these brands to strengthen their community and engage with newer audiences that sample its products or services
Brands across edtech, fintech, food delivery, fantasy sports, financial accounting, and healthcare are advertising across IPL season 13.
Here are some of the campaigns released by the digital first brands that are running during IPL.
Dream11
The fantasy app brand has taken the title sponsorship for the tournament. It has released a campaign #YeApnaGameHai that urges people to download the app, sample the game and continue with it. The brand leads the fantasy sports category with over 90 per cent market share.
Policybazaar
The fintech brand has launched its new television campaign “AapKiSideHai” that features its brand ambassador, Akshay Kumar highlighting the brand's promise of embracing a holistic customer-centric approach while helping to bridge the insurance protection gap in India. The new ad series also highlights the brands unparalleled support to customers, while providing them with the ease of comparing and buying term and health plans online with guidance at each and every step.
Swiggy
The online food discovery brand is urging people to order more during the IPL times and is offering discounts around it. The brand is running a strong media plan and is known for coming up with interesting ads during the IPL.
PhonePe
The Bangalore-based digital payments company is running TVCs featuring Bollywood stars Aamir Khan and Alia Bhatt. It has released five 20-second ads that tied together made one complete story: The guide to PhonePe. The ads tell us the story of Alia Bhatt who’s at the police station for her brother Tyson who’s behind bars because of an ambiguous road mishap. Inspector Desai (Khan) instructs her to pay a fine and she uses the PhonePe app to do so; the conversation from Desai’s instruction to Bhatt’s action is the sum of the five ads.
Khatabook
Khatabook, a business app that helps MSMEs streamline business transactions online has released it ad on the IPL. The ad features M.S Dhoni in different attires from Sharmile Sharmaji to Techno Tawde in the ads and showcasing distinct features of the app.
OkCredit
The brand has partnered with Delhi Capitals and running TVCs with the tagline – ‘Digital India ka Digital Bahi Khata’. It is a free-to-use accounting and ledger app that helps small businesses in India keep track of their digital transactions. The brand aims to engage with small, local brands and entrepreneurs for its expansion.
Byju’s
Byju’s is pushing its new offering – Byju’s Classes – to parents across the country through their IPL campaign spearheaded by its long term brand ambassador Shahrukh Khan. The ad highlights the key features of the product and Khan plays the role of a teacher to a group of parents and discusses the common worries they have regarding their children’s after-school tutoring needs. The campaign aims at redefining the concept of tuitions in an otherwise fragmented after-school tutoring market.
Great Learning
This IPL Great Learning released its first ever multi-film ad campaign featuring brand ambassador, Virat Kohli consisting a series of films titled, ‘Power Ahead – Jo Seekhta Hai Wahi Aage Badhta Hai’. The ad focuses on the importance of lifelong learning, and showcases how upskilling is a necessary step for students and professionals to move ahead in their careers.
MyTeam11
Their IPL campaign “India Ki Apni Fantasy App” aims to promoting the message of “Indian Brand for Indian People”. It aims to bring more people to commuinty and sample the game. The ads emphasize on taking pride in playing one’s favorite fantasy cricket game on a homegrown application which promises to bring the users closer to the experience of the actual matches of the league. The films witness several cricket experts recommending and creating their own teams in the MyTeam11 app.
Jio
Mukesh Ambani owned fiber brand Jio released its latest ad in the Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan series. This time it features Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh with several cricketers such as Virat Kohli, AB De Villers, among others. The Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan tune first arrived on the IPL advertising scene in 2017.
White Hat Jr
The edtech app that teaches coding to children is in vogue. People have been talking about it on the internet and the brand was recently acquired by Byju's for 300 million dollars. The online learning brand is running a TVC campaign across IPL to increase awareness and create brand saliency.
MediBuddy
The digital healthcare platform has launched its first TV campaign – ‘Aapka Health Buddy’ to communicate that MediBuddy is a friend that everyone can trust to address any healthcare need – 24*7, for the entire family. The TVC encapsulates the lives of families and seeks to impart the important message of not neglecting one’s health.
My11Circle
The fantasy sports app endorsed by former Indian cricketer and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly is asking people to come on the platform. The campaign is aimed at increasing the size of the community and getting more and more people to sample the product.
Amazon
The online shopping portal has started its festive season campaign with IPL. Their campaign #HarPalFashionable is focused towards pushing people to start their festive shopping from the platform. Over the years, the brands has been clocking massive GMVs during this time. It will be interesting to see how people reach to this years festive season.
Myntra
One of the biggest online fashion brands of India has joined the IPL bandwagon for the first time and partnered with Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Chennai Super Kings.
NEW DELHI: Some call it the biggest advertising festival of the Asian subcontinent; others equate it with the Super Bowl of India. Amid the raining sixes, cartwheeling stumps and crowds cheering their respective teams, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is the perfect platform that offers humungous reach, multiple brand integration opportunities and a billion plus attentive eyeballs. Which marketer would want to shy away from this offer if he has the budgets.
Initially, audiences were only watching the game in Hindi and English feeds but now the broadcaster is offering multiple feeds in different languages along with live streaming on Disney + Hotstar. The spectrum is wider than ever.
Despite Covid2019 pushing the the game to stadiums with no audiences in the UAE, the virus has not been able to deter the enthusiasm of audiences as well as marketers. This year multiple brands across categories have already signed on with team, broadcast rights owner, Star Sports and the BCCI to cash in on the pulsating excitement of sticky audiences, who will be witnessing a major live event after a hiatus of five to six months. The expectations in terms of viewership are huge as IPL will be a much-needed breather during these difficult times.
PhonePe, a popular fintech brand, has returned as the co-presenting broadcasting sponsor of IPL 2020, repeating the association it had with the league in 2019. With reason: director of brand marketing PhonePe Richa says it has sky high ambitions. Currently, 230 million consumers conduct transitions with the app; the goal is to take that to 500 million by 2022.
Says she: “The tournament helps to create visibility, reach, and high brand recall for PhonePe. It has also helped us create awareness around digital payments for different user segments in the country. Our IPL sponsorship will help us reach both urban and rural audiences alike.”
In addition to IPL, the digital wallet brand has plans to digitise 25 million offline merchants across all 5,500 talukas of the country in the next 12 months with the mission to make PhonePe a household name across the country.
The digital-first brand shared a piece of insight from its IPL 2019 data and indicated that the reach and viewership of the tournament have increased significantly with each season. During IPL 2019, the app platform launched the #DadduGublucampaign featuring Aamir Khan in an avatar not seen before; that of a doting but confident grandfather. Each TVC concentrated on a single feature of the app. For instance, one of the TVCs talked about how it serves all the payment needs of an individual. Another spot talked about the high level of protection and security that PhonePe transactions are armed with. With its smart marketing tactics, the app also took a dig at its rival brand.
PhonePe competes with Paytm, Google Pay, and several other players in the market. Media reports suggest that it has set aside a hefty ad war chest of Rs 800 crore to make its presence felt through a push both above the line and below the line. This will include a big advertising splash for television and digital outlets.
The over-arching theme that PhonePe has adopted for its advertising campaign for this season’s IPL is 'KarteJaBadteJa.’It includes four TVCs shot in different states and languages earlier this year, featuring Alia Bhatt and Aamir Khan. The ads educate users about the various services availableoin the app be it booking a hotel, recharging bills or transferring money to a friend.
Sharma asserts that in addition to the PhonePe TV commercials, the brand will also be on other media – social and digital, which she believes is essential to help build brand recall and reach.
“This year our campaign focuses on tapping into the large base of Indians who are all digital-savvy but for various reasons have not taken to digital payments yet. Being the category leader, it's our endeavour to handhold each and every Indian and get them to experience safe, fast and convenient digital payments through PhonePe,” she explains. “With that in mind, we launched our campaign almost a month back (18 August) with a series of messages around safety, trust, convenience to help our audiences understand the ease and security PhonePe provides for digital payments. We will continue to break new messages and going into IPL you'll see more new ads on the same creative theme. Alongside IPL on TV, we will also be utilising various social and digital platforms and the varied ad formats they offer to create a more holistic audience outreach.”
Sharma elaborates that customer acquisition and brand recall among the target audience are a few of the metrics that the PhonePe team looks at while measuring the effectiveness any brand association. “We aim to grow the pie of digital transactors in the country, especially from tier 2, 3 markets and beyond. We aim to drive greater awareness and preference for PhonePe's features and services. The key theme will be to catalyse progress for everyone through our brand platform of ‘KarteJa. BadhteJa,” she says. .
Last month, the brand rolled out a film titled ‘Unstoppable India’ sensitively conceptualized by Leo Burnett. The film portrays the despondency amongst all of us as we battle with the ennui and frustration of the covid2019 prompted change inour lives. But it also highlights the indefatigable, never-say-die spirit of Indians who are finding ways to get back to near normal in the new normal. And of course helping them in the journey back is the contactless payment app PhonePe which like Indians does not how to stop (Ruknatohhumeinaatanahin), which is the tagline of the brand in the film.
According to an ASSOCHAM-PwC India study, the Indian digital payments market is currently valued at $64.8 billion. It is projected to grow at a CAGR of 20.2 per cent to reach $135.2 billion in 2023.
Post demonetisaton, in 2016, and the government’s drive towards cash-less India, digital transactions have grown exponentially in the country. The pandemic has further accelerated contactless transactions, across income levels and geographies and amongst all age groups, but more so amongst millennials, for whom it has become a habit.
“We hit a record high in June 2020 in terms of our daily user activity as well as the total payment volume processed through PhonePe. Our transaction volume for July 2020 was at 620 million transactions that surpassed the February 2020 levels (pre-lockdown),” explains Sharma. “This was driven by continued user adoption of PhonePe across core use cases such as P2P payments recharges, and bill payments as well as the opening up of offline and online merchants across the country.”
The good thing is that Sharma is already seeing the signs of revival across industries. She acknowledges, “We are back to our pre-lockdown numbers. June and July have been our biggest month so far in terms of transactions.”
However, she acknowledges that the last quarter of the calendar year is very crucial for every brand due to the commencement of the festive season. “Luckily this year IPL is being held amid the festive season, creating a feel good factor and brands are hoping to get on the path of recovery very soon. IPL is the biggest sporting event in the country and has a lot of mass appeal. We are sure it will help lead to a revival in overall consumer sentiment who will go out and shop,” she concludes.
That would be good news for the economy. And more so for PhonePe if a large part of that consumer shopping is paid for by the digital payment app.
Mumbai: The latest promo for the IPL by Star Sports features members of a building society felicitating their security guard Alok who has been single handedly serving them during the pandemic lockdown period. A heart-warming and touching film.
The promo has also revealed another two associate sponsors’s Association of Mutual Funds of India (Mutal Funds sahi hai) and Gillette Guard 3 – to add to the earlier ones that had been displayed in the sponsorship plate of the first IPL film.
To recollect: the co-presenting sponsors are Dream 11, online shopping major Amazon, digital payments company, and edutech unicorn Byju’s.
The previously announced associate sponsors include: Cadbury Dairy Milk, Sunfeast, Coca-Cola, Polycab, Rummycircle, Kamla Pasand Masala and McDowell’s.
That takes the total number of broadcast sponsors on board the IPL at 13.
Experts expect Star Sports to touch last year’s sponsorship levels which is about Rs 2,200-2,400 crore, by the time the league ends in the UAE on 10 November.
Mumbai: The Disney Star India (read: Star Sports sales) team seems to have done it again: breasted the broadcast sponsorship tape for the IPL 2020 in good time, even as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has yet to close many of its deals.
The roster of sponsors, which was revealed in the first IPL promo look pretty healthy, clearly showing the confidence that brands have in the success of the tournament which is slated to flag off on 19 September in the Dubai International Sports Stadium in the UAE.
It’s digital first brands, as expected and predicted, that have come on board as co-presenting broadcast sponsors. This includes fantasy sports app Dream 11, online shopping major Amazon, digital payments company PhonePe, and edutech unicorn Byju’s.
Amongst the associate sponsors figure some old sports backers and some new ones: Cadbury Dairy Milk, Sunfeast, Coca-Cola, Polycab, Rummycircle, Kamla Pasand Masala and McDowell’s.
For this year, Star Sports claims to have already sold out 75 per cent of the IPL inventory. There are over 60 advertisers, including FMCG, auto, BFSI, online shopping, edutech, and other new-age brands, for spot buys, PPL shows, and features. Some of the brands in this list include Coca Cola, ITC, Mondelez, P&G, Nestle, Colgate, Britannia, GSK, and Reckitt. Star has also indicated that the number of advertisers and the amount of ad spends is higher than the usual. The network claims to have witnessed heavy demand from brands as Dream11 IPL cuts across gender and ages
The broadcaster reveals that brands from BFSI categories have shown great interest in this season of Dream11 IPL. They are seeing it as a unique combination of festive and a high impact opportunity to engage and influence consumers whose buying behaviour has been disrupted.
On the programming front, Star Sports has increased its content for pre-shows thus making more inventories available for this popular asset for brands that want to participate in this high impact property during the festive season.
IPL is the biggest live sporting event happening in the subcontinent after a hiatus of nearly five months. People are keenly awaiting the tournament to begin. It is expected that the viewership of the game will be higher as audiences have sorely missed live sports. As per BARC, currently, TV consumption is higher over pre-Covid2019 times as people are restricted to their homes. The matches, this year start at 7:30 pm and will increase audience availability by more than 20 per cent, as per BARC.
Over the years, the league has been regarded as the biggest platform reach and engagement for brands as it has continued to set viewership records across demographics year-on-year. The twelfth edition of the league witnessed 613 million viewers (consolidated + PPL + Surround). The broadcaster will continue with its focus on regional channels. IPL 2019 also saw some record-breaking numbers through women viewership. Nearly 175 million women viewers aged 15 years and above watched Vivo IPL across India between 23 March and 12 May 2019. As per the data from the broadcaster, the top 50 shows among women include cricket and IPL dominates primetime with 3.5 per cent leadership margin.
