Cred- Anil Kapoor Ad Campaign

So its IPL season again!

Better late than never

I have never been a die-hard cricket fan, but my parents are, and hence every year when its IPL time, we watch nothing else!

But this time around, even I was excited for it, for totally different reasons though.

IPL is also the time when all the brands come up with the best of campaigns to showcase during the commercials!

And thanks to that, I have a whole list of ad campaigns that I can talk about and share with you guys :D

One of the ads that grabbed my attention this time, well actually let me be honest here.

When I first saw this ad, I didn’t really get it, I mean what’s so different or unique.

But my friends asked me to analyze this one because they found it to be so cool.

And while actually working on the blog post, I found it to be super cool as well!

So here is my analysis on the same, before you read ahead, you can watch the ad below

Let’s start by talking a little about the app first

What is Cred?

Cred is a credit card payment app.

Its founder Kunal Shah is also the founder of Freecharge, an app, that works on similar lines but is still different.

The Cred app aims at making the whole process of paying credit card bills, a whole lot of fun and easier.

It also ensures that you have a good ‘credit score’ to be able to use the app, this helps in the long run because people would be more dedicated to paying their bills on time and keeping a good score.

The app looks pretty promising, given that in general, Indians love the concept of cashback or discount vouchers.

The way the app works is that each time you pay your credit card bill, you get rewarded in the form of coins, which you can either utilize to get coupons or ‘burn’ to get direct cashback.

Advertising Background:

Oh the amount of money you invest when aiming for a spot during the IPL!

But well, it’s also worth it, given the number of people watching these matches.

Cred currently has over 5 million downloads through Google play store, but clearly, the aim is to increase this number.

Partnering with IPL 2020 is a great opportunity for Cred to put forth their message to their target audience.

The app aims to promote ‘good financial behavior’ and the options of rewards through their communication.

Advertising Objective:

The objective of the brand was to promote more downloads of course, but they did that in a very unique way.

Looking at it from a broader perspective, if the message was that simple, they could’ve just put it out there in those many words.

But they decided to have an ‘entertaining twist’ instead to grab attention.

Advertising Execution:

This is actually the best part of the post.

Let's look at each of the smaller parameters that led to the success of this spot.

The communication is in the type of ‘Advertising within advertising’

By this I mean, you are promoting an advertisement within an advertisement by showing the casting efforts made.

I think the deciding factor for the communication to be loved, was the addition of Anil Kapoor.

And I am sure there is a deeper meaning attached here

Keeping in mind the target group of Cred, they kept in mind the likes and dislikes of the people who would actually be using the app.

No matter how many new actors come in, the 90’s feel will still be unique to both you and me.

That’s exactly the chord they wished to tag.

The tongue in the cheek approach of ‘Im too big for these guys’ works so well and the humor element ensures you remember the brand well.

Anil Kapoor’s style of dancing and his ever-increasing energy was a total crowd-puller even on Twitter.

Here are some tweets that created a buzz around the campaign

Advertising learnings:

My top 3 learnings from the communication

1. Deeply rooted love for your target group, works better

They could have got in a Ranveer Singh, maybe the energy quotient as portrayed by Anil Kapoor would be matched or exceeded.

But the communication would not have a similar connect, believe it or not, the 90s connect played a major role in the success of this ad campaign and not just the messaging

2. Keep it Simple

The overall message being communicated was very simple.

In fact, through the communication itself, they tried to portray that it’s so much better to just put your message out there instead of trying 100 variations.

3. What comes from within, is more likely to succeed

Now not every company or brand can do this, but Cred conceptualized the entire film themselves and only got the production guys to shoot it.

I feel this is really amazing because it speaks volumes about what the company truly believes in.

It can take forever for a company to exactly put forth their views to the advertising agency, and the communication may still not be as good.

So this one really stole the show in-house and how!

Oh and BTW, they recently launched a 2nd and 3rd spot on the same lines with Madhuri Dixit and Bappi Lahiri, that’s equally brilliant to, but my favorite is still the Anil Kapoor one!

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