“Success is moving both brand equity & business metrics in an incremental way” – Abhishek Shah
“I do take decisions based on gut feeling sometimes. However, when it comes to designing brand campaigns that can connect with a set of target audience and drive high impact, I believe that doing consumer research is the right approach.”
– Abhishek Shah, Head of Marketing, BharatPe
BharatPe has come up with an interesting campaign where they tried to bypass the traditional approach of getting the logo on players’ jerseys and yet associate cricketers to drive the message.
We talked to the Head of Marketing – Abhishek. He trained in seven countries for Marketing, skied in the Swiss Alps, scuba-dived in the Strait of Malacca, road-tripped across Europe, and climbed up an active volcano in Spain.
Read on to learn more about him and the exact story behind the campaign.
1. What was your thought process when you were planning this campaign?
Cricket is an ‘unrivalled’ communication platform in reach, engagement, and therefore, impact.
We have always connected with small merchants through authentic, credible communication by keeping it light and fun like in last year’s campaign with Bollywood superstar, Salman Khan.
The objective of the new campaign is to build demand for our products and services and to humanize the brand. The campaign will serve as a quirky reminder to team up with BharatPe to grow your business.
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2. Please tell us the story behind this campaign.
The idea came up in an internal discussion. The brainstorming session was around how we can disrupt the cluttered marketing in IPL and create a high impact.
We have seen that to associate with IPL, multiple brands try to pick up logo placements in different team jerseys in the IPL. The costs tend to be high, the ROI may not be in line, and it is already done to death.
The discussion was to do something that is unheard of, so we can stand out and make a big impact. Cricket was a good bet as it is a great unifier and connects across our diverse cultures.”
The campaign was devised around the concept of #TeamBharatPe which supports small shop owners in growing their businesses.
We decided to go ahead with a team of 11 cricketers as we wanted to bring home the message that our team of financial products can help SMEs scale their businesses and make more profits.
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3. What is your distribution methodology? How do you measure the success of the campaign?
Our media mix consisted of news across Hindi and regional channels as our objective is to drive reach in the most cost-effective way. TV as a medium has worked in moving both business & brand equity metrics for us.
For us, success is moving both brand equity & business metrics in an incremental way. We have our market research programs running all across the year on the ground to measure the brand equity metrics and monitor the daily movement in the business metrics to beef up the campaign as and when required.
4. According to you, how important is creativity in advertising, and how to make sure it delivers results as well?
I believe in using Creativity as a competitive advantage.
Creative practices such as design thinking and human centered design put a strong emphasis on problem solving through innovative ideas, generating a memorable customer journey and developing products and services that solve a specific problem and create real meaning and value for the customer.
I do take decisions based on gut feeling sometimes. However, when it comes to designing brand campaigns that can connect with a set of target audiences and drive high impact, I believe that doing consumer research is the right approach.
This is because it helps you better understand the customer sentiment, design your campaign based on what works well with your audience base and hence, increase the possibility of success.
Data and in-depth analysis enable intelligent and informed decision making.
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5. Please name the team behind this campaign.
Brand Head – Abhishek Shah,
Director – Puneet Malhotra (who directed Student of the Year 2),
Director of Production- Kiran Deohans,
Producer- Tejinder Singh with the Agency – ArtE Media Pvt. Ltd.
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About Abhishek (in his own words)
My passion lies in crafting strategies & communication that cut through the clutter to deliver exceptional business outcomes.
Being an IIFT MBA graduate, I have an extensive marketing career spanning- Brand, Media, Marketing Research, Analytics, and Digital Acquisition Marketing.
I am the man behind building one of the strongest FinTech brands in the country today. Before BharatPe I worked with IPL, IKEA, ShopClues, and the TATA group companies.
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Vidsaga is a global marketplace for Organisations to create Videos. Consider it as “Upwork/ Fiverr for videos” with Creative script writing and professional project management.
