How Visa is using its ‘cashless confidence’ campaign to promote digital payments

The growth of cashless transactions in India has surged due to the pandemic and the government’s initiatives to digitize the economy. According to a report by the RBI, the country’s payment systems experienced a significant 26.2% increase in volume during 2020-21, building on the 44.2% expansion from the previous year. To encourage this shift towards digital payments, Visa launched its ‘Cashless Confidence’ campaign in 2020, promoting the digital payments ecosystem.

Recently, Visa unveiled the latest installment in the series, titled ‘The Blissful One,’ as part of its efforts to motivate people to abandon traditional cash transactions in favor of Visa. Sujatha V Kumar, the brand’s head of marketing, shared insights about the campaign, its media strategy, and its potential to drive digital transaction growth in India.

Kumar explained that the ‘Cashless Confidence’ campaign began in 2020 to align with the government’s push for a cashless economy. The ongoing integrated marketing effort focuses on driving contactless and e-commerce payments, responding to the evolving consumer preference for digital transactions.

‘The Blissful One’ comprises three separate films showcasing various payment scenarios, emphasizing the convenience of using Visa over cash. The films highlight everyday situations where cash transactions are cumbersome, contrasting them with the fast, secure, and convenient nature of paying with Visa. The campaign aims to instill a preference for Visa by demonstrating the shortcomings of cash and the benefits of digital payments.

Visa’s media strategy for ‘The Blissful One’ involves collaboration with Publicis Groupe’s Starcom for high-impact ATL activities. The campaign targets a vast audience of over 800 million Indians through TV, cinema, online video platforms (YouTube and OTTs), and social media (Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter). The media plan also includes digital roadblocks and partnerships with AI-based platforms like Zappr to maximize reach and engagement.

The brand strategically launched the campaign during the IPL, leveraging historical data that indicates the impact of the cricket season on prime-time viewership. To address this, Visa adopts a two-fold approach, maximizing reach on non-sports TV channels and using AI-based partners to target audiences who may have missed the TV ads on digital platforms.

In the TV segment, Visa aims to reach audiences across key genres, including GECs, movies, news, and music, with over 30,000 FCTs and a non-primetime to primetime split of 60:40. The campaign is set to run until September 30, 2022. On the digital front, Visa employs a data-driven marketing strategy, utilizing proprietary tools to identify audiences, optimal frequency, and media touchpoints. The chosen channels include YouTube, Indian OTT platforms, Facebook, Instagram, and programmatic advertising, supported by digital roadblocks and rich media ads to ensure effective reach and recall.