Every night, as we curl up in our beds and switch on the television or scroll over the phone, a barrage of advertisements interrupts our favourite shows. The majority of the advertisements we see are generically absurd. And the same thing happens repeatedly. Which, of course, most of us don’t mind at all. However, among the ocean of random ads, there are a few iconic ones that are difficult to forget because it’s a natural human behaviour to look out for anything that is different from normal. Cred ads are one of the most popular examples of iconic ones. They’re really messing with the air.
Cred is a startup founded in 2018 which is led by Kunal Shah and a skilled team. CRED is a members-only club that rewards people for paying their credit card bills on time by offering them exclusive deals and access to premium experiences.
Cred was announced official partner of the IPL, in September 2020. The Indian Premier League is one of the most watched sports of all time. IPL is in a league of its own, with the right combination of cricket, Bollywood, and huge money. Though the franchise is well-known for its cricket, it is also well-known for its profits. Cred paid a significant amount to become the official partner of the IPL.
This is a brief overview of the company. Let us now discuss the campaigns that it runs. If you’ve spent any time online in the last year and a half, you’ve probably come across these. The company ticked all the boxes in terms of its advertisements.
IPL 2020 Ads
In 2020, Cred advertisements show celebrities Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit, as well as musician Bappi Lahiri, auditioning for the campaign. As a tagline, they opted for “Not everyone gets it.”. In order to be chosen, the advertisements featured celebrities dancing and singing on strange dance numbers. They were rejected because ‘not everyone gets it.’ And, one of the jury members ultimately suggests that they keep it simple and use a voiceover to say, ‘Download CRED.’
The campaign went viral by having top celebrities and singers dance to hilarious songs.
IPL 2021 Ads
Another campaign that was shot and became a hit around the time of IPL 2021. The tagline this time was “Great for the good.” That is to say, Cred is great for the good. Putting the emphasis on rewarding good behaviour. Because the company has packaged itself into a reward-generating app. That is only available to people with good credit.
The campaign featured celebrities in new unimaginable roles. These went viral even faster than the previous one.
One of the advertisements depicted Kapil dev acting like Ranveer Singh.
Kapil Dev imitates Ranveer Singh’s fashion sense and vibrant style in the 38-second video clip. In the advertisement, he impersonates the Band Bajaa Baaraat actor, perfectly imitating his high-energy persona. Kapil Dev appears in the ad wearing outlandish outfits such as an all-pink cricketing costume or even a leopard print suit.
The former cricketer’s transformation astounded social media users. On social media, many memes about the advertisement began to circulate.
Another one had Rahul Dravid as “angry” in a road rage situation.
In this advertisement, we see Rahul Dravid, one of cricket’s most influential figures, losing his cool. Netizens praised the idea of presenting a new public image for the 48-year-old cricketer. People who had never seen Dravid yell before were amused to see his dark side.
CRED created the meme-worthy term #IndiranagarKaGunda during this campaign, which was widely used on social media. And additional engagement through influencers followed made the ad a successful viral marketing campaign.
Later the Youtube Description of the Video – ” Hi, this is Rahul Dravid writing the description for this video. Sorry, I lost my temper there. I am meditating these days.” made the campaign more engaging.
Next, Kumar Sanu sells insurance by singing.
In this advertisement Kumar Sanu depicts how the company offers rewards in the form of Cred Coins for paying one’s credit card bills. In the ad film, Sanu uses his singing to sell insurance.
While sharing the ad on YouTube, the description was: “Reading the description? Kumar Sanu, the insurance agent, will be proud of you. He, too, wants his clients to pay attention to the details and read the fine line in the documents they sign. But his clients would much rather have him sing it to them. After all, that’s a more rewarding experience.”
Due to the absurdness, all the above ads were a hit.
IPL 2022 Ads
CRED is back with its latest advertisements, which play on nostalgia and this time the tagline is “Play it different”.
The 2022’s first ad made for Cred is the recreation of the vintage Nirma ad from the late 80 and early 90. The advertisement features actor Karisma Kapoor, who introduces the CRED bounty and the mega rewards that CRED members can win during IPL 2022.
In this ad, Karisma is dressed similarly in a white saree and utilizes most of the same lines and manner of speech as in the original. The ad is a frame-by-frame, more or less line-by-line throwback to a Nirma commercial. The original ad, which launched in 1989, starred famous TV actor Dipika Chikhlia, best known for her role as Sita in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan.
Even advertising experts are impressed by the creativeness created by team Tanmay Bhat, who have been persistently producing out-of-the-box ads for the brand, in every IPL. However, it seems that advertisements may fall short of clearly communicating the brand’s bounty message.
But, the throwback was a hit with both fans and celebrities. Singer Rekha Bhardwaj commented on Cred’s video, saying, “This takes me back.” Several fans also commented on Karisma’s post. “Full nostalgia trip,” one fan wrote, while another added, “This has such a cool 90s vibe. Those ads were great.”
CRED has created a second advertisement for 2022 with an Antakshari twist. And, yes, it has undoubtedly gone viral on the internet.
Contestants are seen playing Antakshari in the now-viral video. As in the past, Annu Kapoor and Renuka Shahane host the show. Instead of singing famous Bollywood songs, the competitors sang about CRED Bounty in the fun CRED Bounty Antakshari.
CRED posted a video of the advertisement on their Twitter account on April 3rd, and it has received over three lakh views so far.
The caption of the post reads, “The only way to play Antakshari,”
The advertisement video made netizens nostalgic for the good old days.
“I don’t even use CRED, but I use CRED ads to forget about everything else going on in my life,” one of the Twitter users said. “Cred has always produced many masterpiece ads and this is the new one among those, keep it up CRED to chin up our faces for a moment,” another user commented.
As we saw, this year a fintech company CRED is recreating advertisements from the 90s for CRED, let’s see which 90s ad will be the next.
Whether it will be a Dhara Oil, Pepsi or Nerolac Paints
Dhara Oil
This is one of the most touching commercials we’ve ever seen. Without a doubt, Parzaan Dastur became our favourite kid after the jalebi advertisement, and it would be difficult to replace him.
Pepsi
Remember when Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Mahima Chaudhry played the beautiful girls next door in this advertisement? So,yehi hai right choice baby, CRED what you say?
Nerolac Paints
Do you remember this? Now sing along, Nerolac Nerolac, “jab ghar ki raunak badhani ho, deewaron ko jab sajana ho. Nerolac Nerolac”. Oh, the memories!
What do you think guys? Please let us know in the comment section.
