Paytm’s “Sweet Change” – A Genius Move

Authored by Umar Kayamkhani | Club Executive Marketing Club

The Problem:

In the year 2017, it was no secret that Indians preferred to pay with cash rather than using digital modes of payment. As a result, 96% of all the transactions in India were carried out in the form of cash so, Indian digital wallet brand Paytm felt the need to provide Indians an experience of the simplicity and benefits of using digital payment.

Opportunity Spotted:

Now how many times did shopkeepers handed you a candy citing the lack of rupees change ? Did you ever feel that you were losing out on money ? don’t worry cause you are not alone as regardless of how tasty that candy was, it did feel like a forced change for many of us.

This act of handing over candies as a change is very common in India.

Creative Execution:

· This thought gave rise to a creative idea. To solve this forced candy problem, they released a campaign by launching another candy called "Paytm Sweet Change".

· Like ordinary candy, the shopkeeper would hand the Paytm Sweet Change. Unlike ordinary candies where customers like us lose money, the brand's candy could be easily redeemed for their real value by downloading the Paytm app and entering the code on the back of the candy wrapper.

· They incentivized shopkeepers for the storage and delivery of Paytm Sweet Change candies to customers instead of change or other candies. Throughout the event, almost all the Delhi, NCR grocery stores and shopkeepers stocked Paytm Sweet Change.

How successful was this Campaign ?

· This helped them attract 1 million people to become Paytm users.

· The cost of acquiring new users was reduced from 60 rupees to 12 rupees.

· More than 35% of downloaders remained active users.

· This event led to an increase in conversations on social media. Thus reached to people living outside of NCR Delhi. This has had a positive impact on the brand, even in cities where this event never happened.

· Later in view of the success of this event in NCR Delhi, Paytm Sweet Change had also been launched in other parts of India.

· McCann India won Gold for this newly released Creative eCommerce class for Paytm ‘Sweet Change’ marketing campaign.

· This same marketing campaign additionally won a Silver for the agency.

· An elated Prasoon Joshi, chairman of McCann World group Asia Pacific and CEO of McCann World group India stated at the victory, “It’s been a tremendous adventure to accomplice the boom trajectory of a brand like Paytm.”

· Shankar Nath, SVP, Paytm sharing his satisfaction at the victory added, “This is further recognition of the consumer centric approach that we try to adopt at Paytm. Our effort has always been to build a narrative which resonates with our users, using realistic and simple situations to explain features and product details.”

It’s true that “The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.”