CRED Ads
Entertainment at the COST of Targeting
CRED Ads are creating a lot of buzz in popular media. Cred is an Indian fintech company, based in Bangalore, founded in 2018 by Kunal Shah. Cred app’s main feature is reward-based credit card payments. CRED is a members only credit card bill payment platform that rewards its members for clearing their credit card bills on time.
From the early days, CRED ads have adopted a unique theme and execution style. In fact many of their ads look like some crazy work bordering around nonsense. Cred ads got the media attention with their famous Indira Nagar ka Gunda ad starring the Mr. Cool Rahul Dravid. In continuation to that ad, they featured 1983 World Cup winning team Captain, Mr Kapil Dev in a ‘Ranvir Singh’ avatar’.
Recently, CRED ads used the nostalgia element in their promotions for #CREDbounty campaign. Nostalgia is one of the most powerful emotions. They created a modified version of the iconic ad of Nirma Super. The original ad featured Dipika (who played the unforgettable character of ‘Goddess Sita in Ramayana’. In the modified version, Karishma Kapoor played the character. The ad was very similar to the original ad in terms of background settings, dialogue, and retro style.
On the same nostalgic theme, another CRED ad used the very popular ‘Antakshari‘ tv serial of yesteryears featuring Annu Kapoor and Pallavi Joshi. Both the ads received wide praise and kudos from popular media. These ads are high in entertainment quotient and captures one’s attention without trying too hard.
But the issue is that no one talks about an inherent problem. The problem of ‘targeting’. Any successful marketing campaign depends on whether you are able to reach and appeal your target customer or not! For example, diaper ads should reach mothers of infants first to make any impact on revenues. The problem with CRED ads is too much focus on entertainment. May be the campaign managers are reading popular press and patting them on the back about the wonderful job they have done. They should be asking what is my target customer and am I able to reach and influence them?
Typically, the target of CRED is young affluent segment. Now the million dollar questions is whether that segment has any clue about the old legacy ads? Or, for the heck, whether the consumer was even born when these original ads appeared or Antakshari was topping all the charts? The segment is watching Squid games, Scam, or Money heist. Do they really care about such old ‘boring’ stuff?
Isn’t the communication confusing for the core targeted consumers? Do these CRED ads convey the proposition of being unique and different as in earlier ads? Well, someone needs to ask the simple yet tough questions about the objectives of the campaign? Is it for getting accolated in press or getting your consumers on board?
Just to put things in perspective, the Karishma Kapoor ad has 366,500 views on YouTube, and the old ad has whopping 5.2 million views? Is the current ad driving traffic to the old ad and may be helping Nirma (Long tail concept)? A cursory look at the comments shows that people are talking about brining childhood memories back. But the question is – are these people your target consumers? Need a really hard thinking about positioning CRED guys!