PhonePe plans biggest-ever marketing splash this year

Looking at acquiring a fresh set of users in rural areas as it focuses to digitise around 25 million kirana stores across India, Walmart-backed PhonePe is planning to launch a massive advertising campaign that will be spread across TV, print, digital and outdoor.

The fintech platform that had earmarked Rs 800 crore for advertising last year is planning to go even bigger this year. “We have planned the biggest-ever marketing push for PhonePe this year,” a company spokesperson told BestMediaInfo.com.

PhonePe has associated with four different IPL franchises this year — Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals. It is also the official co-presenting sponsor for the television broadcast of IPL 2021 on Star Sports Network and the associate sponsor for the digital broadcast on Disney+Hotstar.

While it believes the Star Sports and Disney + Hotstar sponsorships will offer two of the biggest platforms during IPL season to broadcast its communication to the country at large, partnering with some of the IPL franchises will offer an avenue to forge a stronger association and become more relevant to the audiences due to a local connection.

“TV viewership on IPL definitely gives us a lot of visibility. Hence we are the official co-presenting sponsor for the television broadcast. This year we have also partnered with Hotstar as an associate sponsor of IPL. Digital being a dynamic platform allows for a lot more contextualisation and curation of experiences to drive the brand story in a rich, relevant and engaging manner,” the spokesperson added.

The brand will soon come up with a new campaign for IPL, which will run aggressively across multiple platforms, including TV, digital and social media equally.

Speaking on the kind of ROI the digital payments platform is looking at in terms of its IPL association, the spokesperson said, “As for ROI, we look at brand perception and mind measures along with business growth in terms of user acquisition. This is the third year in a row when we are associating with the IPL. We have seen a strong positive impact on both brand and business through the years and hence the continued association. We are partnering with India’s progress by liberating when, how, and where a billion Indians access money and services to fulfil their aspirations.”

All of the brand's marketing efforts are focused on expanding its base to 500 mn users by December 2022. At present, it has 280 million registered users.

The brand is hoping to strengthen its presence in the much more lucrative financial products segment.

“We will double up our category-creation efforts for all financial services products that include insurance, mutual funds and gold, currently. Our next area of focus will be the kirana stores. We are going very deep on the rural side to acquire customers and on the back of that network, we aim to digitise over 25 mn kiranas by the end of 2021,” the spokesperson said.

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