PayMate India calls for creative and media pitch

PayMate India, a mobile commerce solutions company, is on the lookout for creative and media agencies to communicate the launch of its signature product, PayMate, which was officially launched in July 2006. PayMate is an SMS-based mobile payment service, which enables you to make payments using mobile phones.

Akshay Sharma, assistant vice-president, marketing, brand development and PR, PayMate India, says, “Marketing PayMate involves a lot more than just selling its user benefits. Consumer adoption here is our biggest challenge, so we need to take a step back to change consumer behaviour and mindsets with regard to conventional payment methods.”

“Till date, consumers have not even been exposed to the idea of mobile payments, so marrying something as serious as money transactions with something as casual as your mobile phone will take a considerable amount of effort,” he adds.

According to Sharma, PayMate takes care of all loopholes and has a stringent security system in place. Even if a person duplicates a number, simulates the SIM card, or knows the PIN number, PayMate’s alpha code will take care of all the ensuing problems. The company has signed deals with several merchants in various fields such as online shopping, online travel, airlines, insurance companies, cable and broadband operators, multiplexes and telecom players. Consumers can make payments for any of these services using PayMate. A ceiling limit has been affixed on the transactions, depending on the category.

Talking about what makes this account unique for creative and media agencies, Sharma says, “This is one of the few opportunities to launch and build a non-existing but promising category, and not just another differentiated product among existing ones. We want PayMate to be a consumer brand and not just a back-end technology provider.”

“As this is a unique category that we are launching, we need to have an open mind and approach it innovatively from both a creative and media buying perspective,” he adds.

The company’s campaigns will be divided into phases, the first phase involving spends of around Rs 3-4 crore. These will be stepped up significantly in the later phases. There will be four-five campaigns in a year. In the first phase, the task will be to address the mindset of the consumers and get them warmed up to the concept of making payments through mobile phones. The second phase will encourage people to conduct more and more transactions through their mobiles phones. This will be done by showing ads with specific benefits (such as an airline ticket purchase or a payment for a broadband service) as well as generic ads.

“We would like our agency to be involved deeply in the work, not just for the money, but as a part of this evolution into m-commerce,” says Sharma. “They need to be thinking beyond just conventional methods to market PayMate without compromising on the quality of communication, its reach and effectiveness.”

PayMate India is open to both conventional and non-conventional modes of advertising.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!