 "Modi: Will check records since Independence for 'black money', no violator to be spared")
On November 8, at 8:00 pm when Prime Minister Narendra Modi started his address to the nation, most employees at Paytm were winding up for the day. The office was emptier than usual as their top boss Vijay Shekhar Sharma had allowed them to work from home, given the smog in the Capital then.
Sharma was at an event in Mumbai, when suddenly his phone started buzzing furiously. Starting from his top management leaders to youngest person in the tech team, everyone was alerting him about the scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes. A few quick calls later, Sharma gave a go ahead for sending out a requisition for a full page advertisement thanking the PM for the 'boldest decision yet.'
Mobile wallets Paytm, FreeCharge, and others worked at breakneck speed on the night of PM's address elbowing each other to be the first ones to thank the PM for bringing in the digital money revolution.
Full page jacket advertisements were issued at premium rates because of the last minute requisition. "As soon as we got the go ahead from the top management, we started working on the design, the text, and idea of the advertisement. This is what we had been waiting for these many years. We got in touch with the major national dailies, asked them if they could bring out our full page advertisement. By 11.30 pm we had sent out the advertisement content to the newspapers," said a senior executive at Paytm.
The scene was similar at the Snapdeal office in Gurgaon, who just took an hour to design, conceptualise and send out advertisement to a few national dailies. "We started working on the advertisement at 9 pm and within an hour it was ready and sent to the newspapers. This is what FreeCharge and its employees stand for - carrying out transactions as well as marketing with agility. This is a huge opportunity for us," said a Snapdeal spokesperson. FreeCharge is a digital money platform owned by Snapdeal.
Other mobile wallets Mobikwik, Oxigen and others also soon followed suit and brought out digital advertisements encouraging people to shift to digital cash. Industry experts believe that the biggest beneficiaries of the PM's move would be fintech and digital cash companies, as the increase in the number of takers for such wallets increased almost 200 per cent within 72 hours of the announcement.
Marketing is one of the major expenses for mobile wallet companies for reaching out to prospective customers and finding more takers. Paytm has allocated more than Rs 600 crore as marketing budget for next year, Snapdeal spent Rs 200 crore on marketing during the Diwali season. Since the ban, advertisements in newspapers, radio and television other than on internet have doubled.
However, these advertisements drew flak from some quarters. Questions were asked on micro-blogging site Twitter as to how these companies knew about the decision and were able to give out advertisements so soon.
Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal, one of the most vocal critics of the Prime Minister, tweeted, "Paytm biggest beneficiary of PM's announcement. Next day PM appears in its ads. What's the deal, Mr PM?"
Terming it 'utterly shameful', he questioned the use of PM's photo for the advertisement. "Utterly shameful. Do people want their PM to model for private companies? Tomorrow, if these companies do wrongdoings, who will act against them?"
