By Rachit Sharma
Axis bank has touched the lives of people belonging to every economic status. Being titled as third largest private sector bank in India according to Indian companies. It has expanded its services to cater to every need of its customers. According to the official website, the Bank has a large footprint of 4,594 domestic branches (including extension counters) with 11,333 ATMs & 5,710 cash recyclers spread across the country as on 31st March, 2021. It always opened its gates to inculcate the technological trends in order to provide the best possible banking experience to everyone. With such great advancement in technology it made banking easy for all. But the issue of security restricted many from doing banking digitally. The way in which Axis tackled this issue started a revolution in the banking sector. Through The Thought Factory.
What is Thought Factory?
On 27th August 2016, Axis Bank launched India’s first ever innovative lab dedicated towards banking solutions with the help of new technology in Bangalore. Thought factory is a one of its kind lab that will collaborate with startups having innovative and talented minds, to revolutionize the banking sector. In return these startups will receive guidance, funding, infrastructure, and exposure. Through the course of time, Axis Bank will, with the help of this initiative, incorporate block chain, cloud, and artificial intelligence to improve their banking services. But why does there arise a need to take such a huge step when everything is working just fine?
- Fintech companies and startups have recently gained popularity among the general public because of its convenience and use of technology.
- Banks have established a wide network of branches all over the nation and even overseas. It has helped them to have a better reach and develop customer relations. But what once seemed to be an advantage is now becoming a liability; operation cost of such a huge number of branches is way higher.
- Feeling of security is something which everyone wants from a bank. Although digital banking is convenient but a huge number of people still don’t see it as a safe option.
Call for Action
Axis Bank understood the gravity of this situation and took the necessary step to convert their challenge into their own advantage. Axis Bank’s Thought Factory will give them an upper hand over other banks. This will give them the focus of using these new era technologies as solutions to disruptive banking and to build something far more innovative.
This brain child of Axis Bank will give a major boost to the industry-start-up collaboration by hosting a number of events and workshops in Bangalore. It will thus make Axis a part of the FinTech Revolution taking place in India. Axis also realized the importance of influencer marketing and utilizes it to make Thought factory launch a big hit. Results were visible as #AxisThoughtFactory was trending nationwide on the day of its launch.
Using Influencer Marketing
Before going forward let’s take a look at some stats related to Influencer marketing.
- Global influencer marketing platform market size to grow from USD 0.88 billion in 2015 to approximate USD 24.1 billion by 2025, research report by Scalefluence:
- 448 million internet users in India in January 2021, a rise of 78 million users from 2020 to 2021.
Influencer marketing has turned out to be a tool of great use in this tech savvy environment; it is of great importance to reach out to your target audience. Influencer marketing is turning out to be a gamechanger in the world where traditional marketing rules are no longer relevant.
Brands have realized this potential of influencer marketing and are reconsidering their thoughts of putting a billboard as their major marketing technique. The amount of awareness and reach which is achievable through this is not possible through traditional ways. Influencers know their audience and engage with them regularly which make them trustworthy. Thus, brands can utilize this trust to promote their products.
This pandemic has changed the world around us at a rate nobody has ever imagined. It forced us to find alternatives that are more feasible and easy to use. Influencer marketing is that alternative and the future of marketing too. This is a fact which the world is accepting to be part of this change.
Implementation Of Influencer Marketing By Axis Bank
In order to implement it, Axis collaborated with various blogging sites to reach all the potential bloggers and social media influencers to invite them to their launch event. They majorly targeted micro and nano influencers to maximize their reach and get greater engagement. The following were the goals which Axis wants to accomplish with this strategy:-
- Awareness about their lab in the market is what they want. This will attract more and more startups to join them.
- They specifically targeted technology bloggers to cover their event this gave them the advantage of reaching their target audience which was tech savvy startups.
Axis achieved its goals by riding on the influence of technology bloggers. And that is what made this campaign a success story. The results which they achieve say it all for them.
Results
Popular technology bloggers attended this event. These bloggers who attended this event covered about the same on their technology blogs as well as live tweeted the event on twitter and live streaming on YouTube, giving sneak peeks and interesting details about the event. The influencers also shared their blogs across various social media platforms to amplify the blogs’ reach. On an average, the blog posts had 1000+ views. The technology influencers we signed up with on an average have 23000+ unique page views and 3500+ twitter followers.
The hashtag used for the Thought Factory Launch event – #AxisThoughtFactory was trending nationwide on the day of the launch.
These astonishing results proved to be of great use in gaining publicity for the event and made it reach to the target audience, hence ensuring its success.
Conclusion
Axis Bank’s Thought Factory campaign is a story of initiative and innovation. It’s progressive and futuristic vision have made a mark in the banking world.
If you want to make a change, you need to understand the current scenario and the need of the hour. Making the right move at the right time is what makes you the master of your game. Accepting the change and challenging itself is what Axis bank has done.
Hobo.Video has also challenged itself and taken an initiative in making a major change in the world of Ecommerce. Here you will find live video feeds about fun topics and hottest products available online. Hobo’s social video-commerce platform is a place where your fellow mates, buyers and resellers interact with each other and find products or services best suited for you. Due to its unique approach and progressive vision it has made its own mark. Hobo also provides information on how millennials and gen Z influencers can make the best use out of social media, and can generate a steady source of income using it. If you are also an Influencer and want to grow fast then you can also be a part of the family and earn by simply registering yourself.
Axis thought Factory campaign is just one of many examples present out there. Brands are quickly realizing how crucial influencer marketing is to reach their potential customer in a way more effective than their traditional methods.
Check out the following case studies of brands and how they harnessed the power of social media:
Case Study: Baggit #PlayTheLifeGame Influencer Marketing Campaign
Pepsi #YourWildestDreams On Triller: Influencer Marketing Case Study
