MUMBAI: Credit card payments app Cred has been grabbing a lot of eyeballs for its latest series of ads coming against the backdrop of the Indian Premier League, featuring actor Jim Sarbh and a host of other celebrities – from cricketer Rahul Dravid, to actor Jackie Shroff and playback singer Kumar Sanu. The Dravid one, of course, hit the ball out of the park with the memorable ‘Indiranagar ka gunda’ quip, sparking a great deal of buzz and meme fests.
But while the ads were a superhit, the brand itself came in for some nit-picking and fault-finding from a section of netizens over the usage of the app, with folks cribbing about not knowing what to do with their accumulated Cred points. Soon, other brands piled on too.
Piggybacking on the visibility earned by the Cred ad and riding on the ambiguity element surrounding its “Cred points”, rival brands Magicpin and CashKaro have now released ads, lampooning it with their “bread” and “bed” point metaphors. The message is unambiguous: users want to earn asli (real) savings and actual money – “not just collect Coins or Points” and wonder “what’s the point?!”
"We've all watched Rahul Dravid, a distinguished, well-loved celebrity, lose his mind on TV. We love it too. But do we know how this much-touted rewards program even works, or what the reward "coins" are even worth? One insight we encountered was that most Cred users have lakhs of points, but don't seem to know how or where to use them," online business discovery and rewards platform Magicpin said in a press statement.
Magicpin has collaborated with actor Vijay Raaz known for his down-to-earth, plainspoken and dry persona for their ad. And contrasted it with the polished tone and tenor of Jim Sarbh in the Cred ad. With this, the brand hopes to position its own rewards program as the straight-talking, 'Asli Savings' option for everyone.
It released another ad in the series, which directly takes a dig on Cred's hit creative featuring Rahul Dravid in an angry avatar, by having Vijay Raaz talk about coming to the point without even getting angry.
Homegrown cashback and coupons site CashKaro has also rolled out an ad film about “The Magic of #CashOverCoins”. The video, featuring no known faces or celebrities, talks about how we all want to “earn MORE Money & not just collect Coins or Points that we can’t easily use”. It also claims that CashKaro gives its users actual cashback & money on each transaction made via the site.
Conceptualised in-house, the film takes a dig at Cred's ads featuring celebrities and, in a way, is also a cheeky dig on Magicpin’s ad. The campaign consists of a film which is shot on a set similar to Cred, just like the Magicpin ad.
Created on a lighter note, both these ads give a humorous spin to celebrity endorsements by conveying tongue-in-cheek that you don't need to resort to gimmicks or big celebrities if your product is genuine. While it's entertaining for the consumer, it remains to be seen which brand gets the most mileage from these amusing brand wars.
