Summary
Forge With PayU' is unlike any run-of-the-mill testimonial campaign. It is a 6-episode series of digital-led videos that highlights the unique stories of some of our SMB/startup partner brands. These are the stories of bringing about change with rock-solid resolve to succeed and create impact. Through these stories, we show how PayU empowers these entrepreneurs to realize their true potential and create inspiring stories of success, achievement, and growth for other young entrepreneurs.
Challenge
PayU is a well-recognized brand name in payments among large enterprises. The main challenge was that the preference and brand recall for PayU were relatively lower among small-scale businesses run by young entrepreneurs. Another challenge was figuring out how to talk about our products, as these are technology solutions, not tangible products. Hence, people cannot touch and feel them to experience them. So, the second challenge was making an intangible product appealing to the relevant audiences. So, we picked up start-up brands with exciting stories that other emerging businesses can relate to, look up to, and get inspired by. The stories are about how these businesses broke into niche markets and excelled with support from PayU. Through the video campaign, we wanted to build recognition and relatability among SMBs/startups by garnering high engagement.
Objective
We aimed to create advocacy for PayU among SMBs/startups through customer testimonials from brands perceived as exciting and innovative. While these were customer testimonials, we wanted these videos to be all about much more than why PayU is great or what it does. We did not want these stories to come across as scripted and forced. The idea was to let the stories of these fantastic entrepreneurs shine, allowing them to be the heroes and only showing PayU as an enabler. Through their stories, we also wanted to inspire other young entrepreneurs to dream bigger and see PayU as a partner that can fuel their growth. The approach of these testimonial videos resonates with PayU's personality – the one that empowers. We named the campaign Forge With PayU for a few reasons. The word forge means "to create (something) strong, enduring, or successful".
Strategy
We ran the campaign in multiple formats. Apart from the main film, we created 6 master videos – Forge With PayU x SUTA, Forge With PayU x MIVI, Forge With PayU x Bamboo India, Forge With PayU x Sleepy Owl, Forge With PayU X Cleartrip and Forge With PayU X FnP. We also converted each video into 30-sec reels, video cuts, and supporting banners for consumption on different platforms, including social media. The campaign was created keeping 3-4 set target audiences in mind. Our core audience sets were: New audiences: lookalikes, industry-specific SMBs, people who follow relevant YouTube channels, sellers, people searching for relevant keywords, targeting based on job description – managers/leaders/CXOs on LinkedIn. Remarketed audiences: website visitors, social media followers, and users who have viewed/engaged with ads in the past. In-market mixed with affinity segment. These audiences were further segmented using location/age/device/etc. filters. We performed optimization activities, such as: SEO optimization – titles that spark interest, meaningful descriptions, keywords, and hashtags Videos placed as a playlist for discoverability, with links and thumbnails. Clear, strong calls to action (CTAs) used to encourage viewers to watch other videos in the series Pushed to suggested videos to increase organic traction For distribution and promotion, we went with display, sustenance social properties, polls, and merchant and internal communications across email/WhatsApp. Heavy promotion activity done across social media platforms – LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram Display and discovery, with a focus on LinkedIn and YouTube Merchant and partner communication across touchpoints, including promotion mailer series Internal communication Programmatic
Data
#ForgeWithPayU has seen huge success across social platforms with a total of – 17Mn+ impressions 12M+ reach 1.2M+ views 100% Y-o-Y increase in traffic through social media 57% growth in social media engagement
Solution
Forge With PayU' is unlike any run-of-the-mill testimonial campaign. It is a 6-episode series of digital-led videos that highlights the unique stories of some of our SMB/startup partner brands. These are the stories of bringing about change with rock-solid resolve to succeed and create impact. Through these stories, we show how PayU empowers these entrepreneurs to realize their true potential and create inspiring stories of success, achievement, and growth for other young entrepreneurs. The stories like the following of Suta and MIVI is what we are able to bring out by means of ForgeWithPAyU. The founders of SUTA left their corporate jobs to start a business. They have made a mark in the textile industry by making comfortable yet stylish clothing more accessible. Similarly, MIVI is revolutionizing manufacturing with its women-dominant workforce. Bamboo India was born when its founder saw a massive opportunity in using one of the most sustainable materials on earth – bamboo – to create products of daily use and make them more widely accessible. The founders of Sleepy Owl brought a wide range of flavors for coffee lovers in India. Cleartrip was born with the idea of making planning & travel easy whereas the travel sector was mainly disorganized & chaotic then. And Ferns & petals was born to organize the flowers & gifting sector and with the idea of getting your gifts delivered when you are away from your loved ones.
Results
#ForgeWithPayU has seen huge success across social platforms with a total of – 17Mn+ impressions 12M+ reach 1.2M+ views 100% Y-o-Y increase in traffic through social media 57% growth in social media engagement This video series has also won us IAMAI IDA's Best Digital Content award.
