Cred Ads: How Cred is Reinventing the Advertising World?

Think about this, You met two people, one of them is a normal repetitive behaving human and the other person is wacky or amusing. Who, out of these two people, will you like more and thus befriend them? If your answer is the wacky casual person, then you belong to the majority of people who chose this.

This is normal human behaviour to look out for something that is different than the rest. Something that is unique to the herd. This analogy does not only apply to people but everything. By everything I mean, quite a lot of things.

Speaking of differentiating factors, let us talk about something that we all are always covered with. 'Advertisements'. ‘Go anywhere and you shall find ads’. This is not a movie dialogue, but it can be, who knows the future? Most of the ads we see are generic bull crap. Same repetitive things over and over again. Which most of us of course don't mind at all.

We ignore most ads except a few iconic ones. Those are the ads with wacky traits ! One of the trending examples are for instance Cred ads. They are really turning the air. This is an article about those ads and why Cred has resorted to having these ads.

What is Cred?
The Wacky Cred Advertisements
Efficacy of the Cred Ads
Follow ups and downs of Cred Ads
FAQ

What is Cred?

Cred is a 2018 startup. Lead by Kunal Shah and a smart team. It primarily rewards people for paying credit card bills on time. The company is quite making the headlines. From going a unicorn to making funny ads on the internet. Cred is a member only club that entertains only some people with a certain credit score.

In its future, it will become a big club of trustworthy people. Individuals that can be trusted with money. This group once made can be made or converted into many useful permutations. Imagine using it as a dating platform of trustworthy people.

Suppose it is a platform where trustworthy people get more and better discounts than others. This in the long run is expected to make everyone want to be trustworthy. So it rewards people who pay bills on time. Moreover it urges everyone to honor their commitments. This is the end goal of the company according to the charioteer Kunal shah.

Cred was officially announced as official partner for IPL. IPL is one of the most watched sports of all time. With the perfect mix of cricket, Bollywood, and big money, IPL is in a league of its own. Though the franchise is loved for its cricket, it thrives on its profits. Cred paid a huge amount to be the official partner for IPL.

This is a little about the company. Now let's talk about the campaigns it does. If you live online, like most people in the last one and a half years, then you must have come across these. The company is quite famous for its hilarious advertisements.

The Wacky Cred Advertisements

If you notice everyone talking about a funny advertisement, you can safely assume that Cred is stirring the trend. The reel shows celebrities doing weird and funny things. Activities that are not in their set of usual behaviour. We can call it anti behaviour. For instance, Rahul Dravid having anger issues, Kapil Dev the OG, acting like Ranveer Singh. However weird the ad may seem, they are the ones who set the charts now.

Auditioning celebrities

During IPL 2020, videos of celebrities getting auditioned for Cred ads went viral. They were thoughtfully made to propel views. As we told earlier, Cred is a members only app. They kicked “Not everyone gets it” as their tagline. The ads showcased celebrities dancing and singing weird dance numbers to get selected. They were not selected because ‘Not everyone gets it’.

Making top celebrities and singers dance on hilarious songs, made the campaign viral. They are shown as if you were watching a funny meme video.

The Concept behind the 'Not everyone gets it' Ad

When we look at these ad campaigns, we become a little perplexed. What is the purpose of these baffling ads ? The answer is, to get as much attention as possibly one could. Or to get as many impressions.

The reason for tickling your funny bone is to make you remember. However if you look at the description of the video, you will see, “We are not in the ad business but in the credit card business", "Our search for the next ad continues, till then voice over has to be done”. This subtly tells the motive behind the company ads.

Generally speaking, the motive of any advertisement is to get the message of the company to the public, In a clear and precise manner. This is exactly what the “celebrity auditions” did. It showed stars not getting selected for Cred ad. This showcases exclusivity. Which is the basis of the credit card reward club.

Great for the good

At the time of IPL 2021, another campaign that was shot and became a hit too. This time the tagline was “Great for the good”. Which simply means that Cred is great for the good. Shifting the focus point on rewarding good behaviour. As the company packages itself into a reward generating app. That is exclusive for creditworthy people.

The campaign starred celebrities, yet again in never seen before roles. These went more viral than the previous.

One of the ads showed Rahul Dravid “angry” in a road rage.

Another one had Kumar Sanu selling insurance via singing.

Kapil dev acting like Ranveer Singh.

Neeraj Chopra going frenzy over his own achievement and more.

All these lineups of ads were a hit, instantly. The reason is the ‘absurd’ behind these videos.

The Concept

The concepts of these ads are unbelievable. Which lays the foundation of the advertisement itself. It shows how Cred rewards are unbelievable. It shows how the idea of ‘paying your generic credit card bills’ and getting rewards is unbelievable.

This clearly communicates the idea of what the brand has to offer. Cred has to offer rewards to bill payers. The fact that you are getting incentivized for good behaviour is unbelievable. This marks the inception of this campaign.

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Efficacy of the Cred Ads

Efficacy means the ability to produce desired or intended results. It is a medical term but we are using it in this context. The ads are doing well. They are quite able to stir the trends here and there.

I mean, if you see Virat Kohli tweeting about an ad or Deepika Padukone posting on IG captioning “Indiranagar ki gundi hoon main” or “I am Indiranagar’s gangster”, you know it's a quirky Cred ad.

They are criticized by some for being too much, but the majority just enjoys it. They are quite far successful in creating a stir. Their app as of now has more than a crore installs. The only thing left here is to look at what this startup achieves at this scale.

Follow ups and downs of Cred Ads

So we all read about how Cred is making their own sort of advertisements. It has started a cult of quirky marketing campaigns. For instance, the ad video of Magicpin that follows the exact analogy as that of a Cred ad. The company came into the picture to dig out the point of apps that reward points.

The video had comments, some criticizing the Cred ad and some appreciating the good parody. This clearly shows how the internet janta, is of various views. Some criticize the pointless points that these apps provide. Some frequent users are good with getting better deals with these points.

The video was aired on 16th of April. Here we are quoting Kunal’s tweet that was posted on the same date. It can be related or it cannot be related.

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Conclusion

Not just tickling ads but Cred is also making a social presence. The startup is also focusing on creating content around the domain of money and investment. They are hosting a YouTube series titled “On the money”. They also hosted a playlist named “Cred curious” in the past.

If you visit their Instagram handle, you will get crazy insights on how money and economy works. Moreover, they also manage a blog of the same nature. So ads are just the upfront to add a pinch of quirk.

These advertisements, due to their peculiar nature are both criticized and praised. If we notice skewness of data, we will find praises more than critiques. With our attention spans getting lower and lower, we want concise information. This is when meme marketing comes to mind. Some people like to follow the trend while companies like Cred like to reinvent the wheel again.

With every advertisement campaign, Cred keeps increasing the bar. whatever they will do in future, “Paying your bills on CRED hits all the right notes”. This far, they are quite successful in clubbing trustworthy people. This is a good view of their goal as well as ongoing efforts on building a brand value. So, next time you see a celebrity acting all frenzy, you know it's a Cred ad.

FAQ

Why Cred is advertising so much?

Cred is investing in advertising campaigns to highlight the use of the Cred app and the rewards that one gets on paying credit card bills.

Who are the competitors of Cred?

CRED's primary competitors are MobiKwik, PhonePe & Paytm.