Summary
The campaign that helped India beat China by 2.5x to become the world's largest digital payments ecosystem with over 4 billion transactions by volume and 7.68 Lakh Crores by value. From being the world's largest cash economy to the world's largest digital economy, made possible by UPI Chalega
Challenge
India is the worlds' largest cash economy. At NPCI our mission is to make Indians move from cash to digital payments. UPI seeks to empower every Indian to make and receive payments digitally.
Objective
Our objective was to create a tectonic behavioural change in every Indian to embrace digital payments in a big way. We had two challenges to solve, 1) Acquisition of new users to UPI 2) Increase adoption and frequency of use. The barrier to change was whether UPI will work for all payment purposes
Strategy
Thus, the UPI Chalega campaign was born to make people believe that wherever a payment needs to be made, UPI Chalega. The campaign was launched through a series of content films, paid media and influencers led by our protagonist Mrs. Rao. However, as the pandemic hit and everyone was in lockdown, we were faced with a challenge and an opportunity to disrupt conventional payment behaviors to further our mission. UPI launched the #PaySafeIndia campaign asking people to adopt digital payments while staying safe. The campaign relying on simple 3 step commandment, a three step visual device that everyone was asked to adopt and spread awareness. 1) The payment sign, 2) The digital sign and 3) The safety sign. The campaign was launched by the MD of NPCI, Dilip Asbe, and it immediately went viral with the who's who of the payment industry joining in. Celebrities, Film stars, and sports stars joined the campaign to create their own #PaySafeIndia videos. The campaign was picked up by the general public and thousands of users started participating in the viral trend. With over 10,000 celebrity videos, 500,000 user generated videos #PaySafeIndia delivered an exponential growth to UPI. The crowning glory of the campaign was a public endorsement by the prime minister Shri Narendra Modi, who took to Twitter asking Indians to #PaySafe through UPI.
Data
Data of user payments is the fundamental pillar of the planning behind the campaign. The creatives, media and influencers were selected basis the cash circulation percentage and historical digital transaction velocity data. Throughout the campaign data on user adoption and usage formed the basis of creative optimizations. Primary research was conducted to track brand scores and barriers to adoption which was used in the creative messaging construct to increase usage. Monthly data dashboards were created to highlight the impact of the campaign to the digital ecosystem and the economy which helped further refine the campaign efforts
Solution
UPI was well on its way to become the primary mode of peer-to-peer transfers and payments in India. And then we were hit by the second wave of the pandemic threatening to derail the economy once again. UPI decided to reinforce the need to be responsible and further adopt digital payments by launching the #ZimmedarRahoUPIKaro campaign. A massive digital campaign was launched to increase adoption and usage through a series of product films, how to films as well as slice of life films. We even created a series with the "Sharma Family" to target users who were still skeptical about using UPI. The campaign was then promoted through celebrities and influencers and even general users and trade partners joined the campaign making it one of India's largest Digital payments campaigns.
Results
The impact of the campaign was phenomenal with all major publications talking about it generating earned media value of over 100 million rupees. 1) UPI reaches 95% unaided awareness. 2) Merchant usage grows from 75% to 83%. 3) Net promoters score increases from 70-81%. 4) Over 300 million Indians adopt UPI payments. 5) 4.1 billion monthly transaction volume in Nov 21. 6) Rupees 7.68 Lakh Crores UPI transaction value at in Nov 21. Thus, #UPIChalega helped India surpass China by 1.6x and USA by 21x in digital transactions, making UPI the undisputed leader in digital payments in the world.
