Summary
Headline – Airtel Prepaid's Digital Leap: Achieves 65X Growth in Customer Acquisitions Airtel Prepaid aimed to revolutionize digital customer acquisition by launching online SIM delivery in 2022. The goal was to achieve sustainable customer acquisition cost (CAC), catering to the mass prepaid market, and attain a remarkable 65X growth in customer acquisition. Recognizing the need for a seamless customer journey, Airtel strategically partnered with UPI platforms, Insider, Orbital Ads, Sharechat, and e-commerce.
Challenge
With a vision to swiftly expand its digital footprint, Airtel Prepaid set an ambitious target of achieving a 60% serviceability penetration across India's geography. However, the challenge was formidable, catering to the highly competitive and price-sensitive mass segment of the prepaid market. The key objective was to attain sustainable customer acquisition cost (CAC) while ensuring profitability, given the modest average ticket size of the prepaid business.
Objective
Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, a digital revolution was underway in India. According to a Nielsen survey, smartphone availability surged from 36.5% in 2018 to 61.8% in 2020 and further to 67.6% in 2021. Additionally, the concept of Home Delivery seamlessly embedded itself into the fabric of various services. Whether it's e-commerce or food, the yearning for the convenience of timely deliveries became a universal sentiment. In the year 2022, against this backdrop of changes, Airtel embarked on a digital transformation journey for its Prepaid card business. Acknowledging the changing demands of consumers, Airtel introduced a groundbreaking initiative in the telecommunications industry by digitizing the SIM card and offering doorstep delivery – a pioneering move in the sector. This strategic leap aimed not only to meet the current demand but also to bridge the gap between traditional and modern customer acquisition methods, solidifying Airtel's position as a trailblazer in the digital era.
Strategy
Airtel Prepaid used a multi-faceted approach for unlocking the market: The strategy involved strategic partnerships, use regional communication, automation for efficiency, and a tailored customer journey, contributing to the successful expansion into previously untapped markets and establishing a robust brand presence in the prepaid services industry. Details below: 1) Multilingual Communication Strategy: • Developed creatives in seven languages (Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam) to resonate with diverse regional audiences. • Utilized Rocketium, a third-party vendor, for dynamic creative generation and seamless communication adjustments for various markets. 2) Partnerships for Deep Market Penetration: • Leveraged partnerships with platforms like Sharechat, Facebook, and Search ads for deeper penetration into tier 3 and 4 markets. • Recognized the importance of a regional approach and collaborated with Sharechat for its substantial reach in these markets. 3) Automation for Efficiency: • Employed Orbital Ads, a third-party vendor, for automated optimization on Google search and dynamic creative adjustments on social platforms. • Enabled a unified view of daily metrics, facilitating quick actions for campaign optimization. 4) Tailored Customer Journey: • Collaborated with Use Insider, a third-party vendor, to dynamically change the landing page communication based on the language used in creatives. • Ensured a seamless customer journey from initial contact to conversion, addressing language barriers and enhancing user experience. 5) Inclusion on E-commerce Platforms: • Recognizing the product proposition of doorstep SIM delivery, listed SIMs on e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart. • Informed consumers about the convenience of acquiring SIMs alongside their routine online purchases. 6) Targeting UPI Platforms: • Explored partnerships beyond Google and Facebook, tapping into the significant growth of UPI transactions in India. • Formed partnerships with top UPI players to broaden the consumer base, targeting specific audience segments based on behavior.
Data
Embedding Data Strategy into Business: • How It Worked: We used data insights at every step of our Airtel Prepaid campaign, from planning to execution. We relied on data to identify the right audience segments, optimize channels, and refine messaging for better engagement and conversion rates. • Real-Time Monitoring: We kept a close eye on how well our campaigns were doing by continuously analyzed key metrics like CPL, the number of leads we got daily, and how many people actually signed up (activations). This allowed us to change our approach quickly when needed to get better results. • Segmentation and Personalization: By understanding how different groups of people behave and what they like, we made our messages more personal and relevant to each group. This made craft highly personalized campaigns, ensuring our messaging resonated effectively with different audience groups. Sustaining and Overcoming Challenges: • Data & Analytics: Challenges primarily centered around ensuring data accuracy, integration, and interpretation. Maintaining data accuracy across various platforms and systems, alongside interpreting complex datasets for actionable insights, demanded skilled resources and sophisticated analytics tools.
Solution
Results
• Prepaid online acquisition business grew by a whopping 65X in just 6 months. • CAC reduced by 50%. • Customer acquisition rate in tier 1 and tier 2 grew by 25%
