Paytm gained 1 million users in just 1 month using this amazing guerilla marketing campaign 👇

‘Sweet Change’ campaign led by Paytm (One97 Communications)

“Don’t always expect the change; Bring the Change.”

👆🏽 This is not a motivational quote but problem that every other shopkeeper faces in India.

Spare change has been a major issue for shopkeepers. And to address this problem, they keep candies priced at ₹1 or ₹2 to hand them over to the customers in absence of ‘spare change’. Even though giving out candies can be a revenue source for them, it definitely is a pain for the customers. But Paytm, one of the major fintech companies of India that revolutionized digital payments did something that led to massive promotion drive managing to gain 1 Million users in just 1 month.

Follow me through this post to see how Paytm solved the process of giving out change through a guerilla marketing campaign using ‘candies’ 🍫

🚀 Paytm pushing the need for digital payments using ‘candy’?

In 2018, Paytm created candies named ‘Sweet Change’ that were handed over to the customers as change. The candies had amounts that can be redeemed for their real worth. The ‘Sweet Change’ were available in 4 denominations — INR 1, 2, 5, and 10 and were distributed in New Delhi. This solved the issue of handing over the change to the users and at the same time pushed the need for digital payments in India. The idea was to give these candies to the customer who then redeems the amount in their Paytm wallets & thus solves the problem of change.

🎯 3 problems 1 solution:

1. Customers didn’t have to take waste their money on candies that they didn’t want.
2. Shopkeepers got another way to give out spare change while still making some money out of the campaign. (I am assuming Paytm paid the shopkeepers a good margin as well)
3. Paytm got great visibility, ready user & adaption for its wallets. (As one had to use the Paytm wallet to get the money.)

🏆 Results:

1. One million app downloads during the campaign that lasted for 1 month.
2. This brought the cost of customer acquisition down from INR60 to INR12.
3. 36% of the users got retained & became a long-term users of the app.

With this simple yet pinpointed campaign, Paytm executed this marvelous idea and brought the ‘change’ all Indians deserved.

Did you like this? Do follow me for more such amazing marketing pieces. Also Comment about any such guerilla marketing campaigns that you recall. ( Would love to know about it. )