With IPL association, our aim is to become a generic for investing: Kavitha Subramanian

Founded with the vision of making financial investing easy, equitable, and accessible to all Indian investors, Upstox (also known as RKSV Securities India) offers online investments in Stocks, Derivatives, Commodities, Currencies, Mutual Funds and ETFs for investors and traders. The company currently has close to 3 million customers and aims to reach users deep within the country. Its vision is to make financial investing easy, equitable, and affordable to all so that everyone can do more with their money. 

In an effort to push and promote their brand, the company has associated with IPL this season to generate quick awareness and high visibility for the brand. Upstox is the first broking firm that has partnered with IPL since the cricket league was launched in 2008. 

The multimedia marketing campaign includes commercials on television, OTT, digital, and social media platforms. While digital and OTT platforms are employed to reach out to target segments in metros and big cities, television dominates the media mix for Tier 2, Tier 3, and Tier 4 towns. The campaign will run till the IPL Final on May 30. The campaign features a series of videos capturing insights from everyday situations. People find it difficult to do regular tasks such as touching one’s toe and taking an escalator, but find investing through Upstox easier and more engaging. 

Watch the ad films here: 

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In an exclusive interview with Adgully, Kavitha Subramanian, Co-founder, Upstox, speaks at length about the company’s association with IPL and how they plan to leverage the mega tournament to promote their brand and increase engagement. 

IPL is only becoming a bigger and better platform for brands to engage. What triggered a financial brand like Upstox to get associated with IPL? What is the expectation set out of IPL?

In India, cricket is more than a sport; it is an important part of our culture and social life, with a huge following among the millennials. The Indian Premier League has made cricket fun and engaging and kept alive the aspirations of a New India. Likewise, at Upstox, we are seized with the idea of creating an investing culture, where one does not look at investing as a chore but finds it easy and engaging through a tech-enabled, intuitive platform. This is what sparks a natural connection between both the brands. With the IPL association, our aim is to become a generic for investing, and the platform of choice for young Indians. 

Last year, CRED and PhonePe benefited from the IPL. So, what’s going to be your communication strategy, and how do you plan to position your service in a low involvement category?

Our strategy is to pique the interest of the millions of young people who want to manage their finances better. Through our campaign, ‘Start Karke Dekho’, we wish to target first-time investors and increase financial participation in the country by emphasising on the need to take the first step and how it is far more easier than one thinks when they just start. The user experience on the platform further demystifies investing, especially for a first time investor.

Just a week into the tournament, we have received an overwhelming response to our campaign. We are confident of playing an important role in transitioning India’s investment culture, especially for the mobile-first young generation.

The television commercials of Upstox will feature through the course of the IPL on both linear TV and on India’s premier video streaming platform. 

Who are you targeting by being part of the IPL? Can you elaborate the profile of your target audience?

IPL is a unique property as it binds a cross section of audiences and has unparalleled reach in deep India. We intend to leverage the popularity of IPL among millennials and target consumers in Tier 2 and 3 markets to build brand awareness. Our target audience include DIY traders and investors, millennials and the young adults who want to manage their finances better.

The focus is to empower every Indian with an easy-to-use and simple investing platform that offers a varied bouquet of investment asset classes such as Stocks, Mutual funds, Digital Gold, Derivatives, and ETFs. 

It is an expensive affair to be present in the IPL. How do you plan to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaign and test your awareness scores? Has any measurement process been devised to measure the ROI?

We have partnered with IPL with an aim to take our message to a vast audience and offer them a platform that is engaging, seamless, and intuitive. Our approach is holistic and geared towards generating customer engagement, which will help us create brand recall and strengthen brand loyalty.

The objective behind this partnership is to be able to drive extensive financial awareness in pockets of the country where financial inclusion is low or negligible. We strongly believe that the measurement of effectiveness will depend on qualitative and quantitative metrics such as brand recall, new customer acquisition and customer engagement with the Upstox app. 

How do you plan to supplement the IPL campaign? What kind of engagement strategy are you looking at on a continuous basis even after the IPL to build the brand and increase registration?

Our strategy is to reach out to those interested in wealth creation, churn out their portfolios, and diversify it across the wide range of financial instruments available on Upstox that suit their needs and goals. We want to be present on all the platforms where millennials are, to connect and engage with them. We will continue to invest in building awareness on the ease and the benefits of creating personal long term value through investing. 

Finally, what is the future looking like for online broking firms? What is your roadmap and where do you expect Upstox to be in the next 3 years? Are you planning it to take it global?

We are living in a time characterised by rapid innovation and a digital revolution that extends to every aspect of our lives. Technology has played a key role and will continue to remain one of the most crucial factors for driving market participation for broking firms. The industry has already automated several recent past processes from AI-powered chatbots to digital onboarding without any human interface. In the future, we will likely see more automation coming into play.

We foresee 3x-4x growth in 2021 as we did in 2020. We want to be the partner of choice for the upcoming new generation of traders and investors. Based on current trends, we believe that Tier 2 and 3 towns will lead equity participation in the country. We will continue our efforts towards building a seamless user interface and offer unique customer experiences that will make it even easier for retail investors – from all walks of life and all segments of the society – to join Upstox and enjoy a range of financial products and services.

We aim to build a diverse suite of investment products for customers and be a one-stop-shop for every one of their investment needs.