Airtel reaches villages with new campaign

The on ground activity starts from northern Gujarat to promote Airtel Krishi Card

Airtel has come up with an initiative to generate awareness about Airtel Krishi Card, which aims to increase customer convenience and empower farmers by giving them access to vital agricultural information. The campaign informs farmers about the concept of Airtel Krishi Card and enables them to experience its salient features at their doorsteps.

The first phase of the initiative has been rolled out in North Gujarat and will be followed by similar activities in the major agrarian states of India such as Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. Through this initiative, the brand educates the farmers about the service, its availability in vernacular languages, delivered through SMS and voice, along with a well trained call centre support.

The campaign is a pilot activity conceptualised by SOI Live Marketing and Events. It involves spreading the message through two floats in North Gujarat and distribution of more than 1 lakh leaflets in the rural areas.

In the first part of the campaign, the closed floats play a teaser jingle on reaching a village. Along with announcements while making rounds in the village, die-cut agri-card shaped handbills are distributed from these floats. Subsequently, the floats are stationed at a suitable prominent location and opened up as exhibition units. The jingles are played all through the activity. Also, the activity engages the crowd through simple games, imparting education and providing the experience of the product.

Commenting on the activity, Shivan Bhargava, chief operating officer, Gujarat Circle, Bharti Airtel, says, "Krishi card service has been created by Airtel to address everyday occupational problems faced by farmers and fill the information gaps. As a mobile service provider, we understand the reach and potential of the medium and are committed to enhance the quality of lives and livelihood in rural India through our services. This initiative by Airtel will surely accelerate the pace of rural development."

Airtel Krishi Card will be available at all Airtel retail centres across India. Farmers can get scratch cards in various denominations. They need to dial a toll free number, 543218, to register at the Reuters call centre (Airtel has tied up with Reuters Market Light, a division of Reuters India) to receive regular updates on their mobiles for two preferred crops and three preferred mandis. With the launch of Airtel Krishi Card, rural farmers will be equipped with relevant information on a real time basis and will be able to effectively utilise resources to the optimum.

While talking about the insight of the campaign, Himanshu Shah, chief mentor, SOI Live Marketing and Events, says, "The key one liner insight of the campaign was to generate awareness about the agri card and at the same time, make the farmers experience the salient features of the card and know how they could benefit from it.

"Giving them experience and information in a memorable way was a must due to the complexity of the product. Since revisit to the same town/village would not be possible, there was a need for a very exhaustive exercise which would have very high percentage of touch points and reach the population of the village."