BharatPe, India’s largest merchant payment & lending network company That is committing to enable SMEs with end-to-end financial services that can help scale their business.
Ahead of the festive season, BharatPe has announced its mega TVC campaign with the theme -‘Hum hai Team BharatPe – Jo har dukandaar ke saath hai khade’ featuring the 11 cricketers who are BharatPe’s brand ambassadors . The series of Ad films showcase the product portfolio of BharatPe and highlight how they can help merchants increase their business.
Subhasis Beura, Head – Brands and Commerce, BharatPe on the latest campaign, and way forward for the APP……..
Today after the clarion call by the Prime Minister to go digital, many App’s were created, how different is BharatPe?
BharatPe is India’s leading fintech platform with merchants. It is committed to offering end-to-end financial services to enable SME merchants to grow their business. We are one-of-a –kind as we are only in the merchants/B2B space, while most of the competitors focus on the consumer side. Also, our offerings are unique – we launched the country’s first interoperable QR with 0% MDR in 2018. Recently, we also launched Bharat Swipe card machine with zero rental and zero transaction fee. Our range of lending products is designed to cater to the requirements of SMEs.
Let us talk about the campaign, what was the strategy behind it?
We wanted to leverage the TV campaign to communicate clearly that BharatPe is committed to help small merchants of India to grow their business. To deliver this message we chose cricket as it has high affinity amongst our TG. The idea of team BharatPe was conceived to create awareness about our team of financial services amongst the merchants.
What was that one big Idea which made you want to do this campaign now?
This is the start of cricket as well as the festive season and hence, we planned to roll out our campaign now. We decided to go ahead with cricket stars for the simple reason that cricketers find resonance across the length and breadth of the country. In India, cricket and Bollywood are the biggest unifiers. We signed up 11 cricketers as we wanted to create our own Playing XI that can talk about BharatPe’s portfolio of financial products designed to help merchants scale their business. In addition to the above our loyalty program is also designed around cricket, wherein merchants earn runs on transactions and can redeem the same to get cricket goodies or meet their favourite cricket stars. Taking all this into account the timing is just right.
Were Cricketing Legends chosen as the IPL is taking place currently?
In India, the 1st thing that comes to one’s mind when one hears the word “team” is the Indian Cricket team. The idea of signing up 11 cricketers as brand ambassadors had the genesis from that central thought. This gave us the right connect to leverage Team BharatPe to showcase our team of financial products for the small merchants. We were the first fintech brand to do so.
We believe that this concept will help us break through the clutter and carve a niche for ourselves in the busy fintech industry.
The brief to the agency and how was this campaign created?
Our brief to the agency was simple. We wanted to communicate clearly that BharatPe is committed to help small merchants of India to grow their business. We wanted to drive this message through creating awareness about our portfolio of financial services amongst the merchants.
What has been the response so far?
Since the campaign is not even a week old, the numbers are still coming in. Having said that, the initial response has been very positive.
What would be your Marketing mix as we are seeing a surge on Digital viewing?
We have a well-rounded marketing strategy. Our marketing mix includes TV, digital, and OOH and Radio in selected cities.
What would be your other initiatives for the festive season?
This is our key campaign from a marketing standpoint. We will be focusing on adding new merchants to our existing base and creating awareness about our product offerings.
Way forward and where do you see yourself in the next 3 years?
We want to be the ‘partner of choice’ for financial services for SMEs across the country. We intend to be the preferred end-to-end fintech platform for businesses across India and partner with them in their growth journey.
