upGrad’s latest campaign deploys micro-targeting to highlight its upskilling solutions

Imagine being so invaluable to a company that during a fire emergency, its first priority is to save you. If one is to believe upGrad's latest digital campaign, one doesn't have to be in the top management for this to happen. Just upskilling oneself with courses offered by upGrad, can make one invaluable.

Wittily depicting the value of techies in organisations, the campaign highlights the need for upskilling across technology domains, through courses powered by upGrad.

The digital-first, gender-specific campaign deploys micro-targeting to offer viewers solutions of their choice, across tech domains, including blockchain, full stack development (FSD), big data, DevOps, cyber security and cloud computing. With close to 10 different versions, the campaign aims to micro-target users, who are seeking to upskill themselves, by showcasing creatives and ads that align with their gender and subject interest across tech programs.

With increasing intent and interest for tech skills among women as witnessed by upGrad, the campaign is improving efficiency by aligning with audience preferences. A female viewer who is interested in DevOps, will only be shown women-centric DevOps ads and creatives. Through this method of intuitive targeting, upGrad is emulating audience preference and gender by sharing the exact information that the audience is seeking out.

There is an increase in interest from women across upGrad's tech offerings. So, the campaign aims to encourage more women professionals to upskill and scale up their tech careers, across the industry.

There is an increased interest by women professionals across coding and software programs. So, upGrad's campaign reinforces the importance of women coders by representing female protagonists in the ads. The film showcases women learners upskilling with upGrad's tech courses to become 'very very important' team members.

Conceptualised by The Womb, the film showcases the mayhem that ensues when there is a fire in the office, and who the team rescues.

Ankit Khirwal, head of marketing, upGrad, said, “We can no longer pretend that skilling is not important, especially in the field of technology, where human-machine interactions, Web 3.0, brand building in Metaverse are happening, as we speak. Following this trend, we have witnessed an increase in interest from women coders for our tech offerings across blockchain, FSD, DevOps, cyber security, and more.”

“Therefore, to encourage them further to upskill and fast forward their careers, our digital campaign will undertake a micro-targeting approach, to showcase the right offering to the right viewer based on their interest and profile, to help them navigate their upskilling solutions.”

upGrad learners have received an average career hike of 51 per cent while getting placed with companies like Uber, Flipkart, Meesho and Razorpay.

“When there’s fire in the office, who will you save? Yourself, your boss or the most important employee in the office? That’s the premise Gunjan Gaba (part of the creative team) cracked when thinking of this campaign. The chaos added to the drama, the twist added to the fun and, thus, we found a creative way of highlighting the importance of tech courses in today’s world,” said Suyash Khabya, creative head, The Womb.

The campaign has been directed by Roopali Singhal, of Chrome Pictures, and is live on digital.

Agency credits: The Womb Communications

Founding partners: Kawal Shoor, Navin Talreja

Creative team: Suyash Khabya, Gunjan Gaba, Paritosh Lonkar

Planning team: Sneha Raina, Ipshita Khan

Account management: Heval Patel, Richa Shah

Production house credits: Chrome Pictures

Director: Roopali Singhal

Producers: Napolean Daniel Amanna, Kush Malhotra