Cracking the CRED Code: A Deep Dive into its Advertising Mastery

This case study explores how the Indian fintech company CRED went from zero to hero thanks to its marketing team and advertising approach.

Introduction

CRED, an Indian Fin-Tech business, became well-known in India thanks to its creative marketing strategy. The sole objective of CRED is to educate Indians about money and establish their creditworthiness

Path to Tackling Challenges

CRED was able to pinpoint the difficulties customers had paying off credit card debt and other bills and unveiled a business plan centered on these issues. 

• EMI payments.
• Significant late payment fees.
• Hidden fees and additional interest

In response to the pain points, here’s what they provided their users with-

• Method for tracking bills
• On-time payment method with an automated payment option.
• Points for every payment of a bill and other features

Advertising and Marketing Campaigns

The primary goal of CRED was to successfully dominate digital marketing rather than conventional marketing. It used a variety of marketing techniques, some of which you may be familiar with.

Ad Campaigns

Here are some of the campaigns CRED has carried out leading them to become a unicorn start-up.

1. Celebrity Endorsements

CRED used celebrities from the world of sports and Bollywood in many high-profile marketing efforts to advance the brand. Because the notion was novel at the time, the brand used well-known faces to pique people’s interest while also fostering consumer confidence. CRED is famous for endorsing Famous 90s celebrities in its advertisements. For the initial part of their marketing campaign, their goal was to increase app downloads, and that’s exactly what they conveyed through their ads.

Indiranagar ka Gunda Ad

 

The ad showcased Rahul Dravid in a never-seen persona. The implication? Getting rewards after paying credit card bills through CRED was just as absurd as the chances of Rahul Dravid having anger issues. The ad trended #1 on Twitter. This was CRED’s highest-grossing ad. Within a week of its screening, it generated a wave of user-generated content, from memes to brand engagements. , 

By numbers,

• The ad generated over 3.6 million views on YouTube
• Garnered 114K in engagements within a week
• 31K mentions on social media
• Share sentiment of the ad was positive with 59%

 

2. Kunal Shah’s Personal Branding

Kunal Shah, the founder of CRED, is quite active on social media. He built his personal brand by selecting information on financial subjects, expressing his views on the startup scene, and interacting with other Twitter influencers.

In the last one year you’ve spent more time at:

— Kunal Shah (@kunalb11) July 26, 2023

 

3. Platform Marketing

The brand maintains a vibrant presence across several social media platforms, which has had a big impact on its performance. They interact with other firms’ tweets, entice celebrities to promote and retweet their material and use other marketing strategies to increase their audience base.

Do they not know about my Oscar?@CRED_club pic.twitter.com/BcW18zXLBO

— Anil Kapoor (@AnilKapoor) September 19, 2020

4. Content Marketing 

Furthermore, CRED also engages with its audience on YouTube. The company curates blogs related to the finance sector, releases podcast on topic related to start-up trends, money and much more.

Results

The marketing and advertising plan used by CRED was quite successful. CRED has effectively tapped all of the advertising’s potential. The IPL season of 2021 was CRED’s most prosperous marketing initiative. 

• App downloads increased by 700%. 
• Spent around Rs. 120 cr during its three-year affiliation with the Indian Premier League.
• Aimed to cut through the clutter and evoke nostalgia. 
• Emphasized simply one CTA—download CRED
• Has millions of active downloads and is RBI-certified. 
• Today, CRED processes more than 20% of all credit card payments made in India.

 

Today in India, Cred is among the brands that people are most familiar with. The influence that CRED has made can serve as an example for up-and-coming, innovative enterprises. CRED has created goods that people today would not have imagined using in the past. Their successful golden strategy of changing society’s behavioral design has turned them into a billion-dollar business and is an intriguing case study for India’s startup scene.

Read More: 10 Game-Changing AI Tools for Digital Marketing in 2023