How CRED broke the Internet

By now, everyone must have watched the latest ad by CRED, the one featuring Indian cricket legend Rahul Dravid. If you haven’t done so, here’s the link below.

Now, what makes this ad so brilliant. Well, the obvious answer is the presence of Rahul Dravid and his mannerism in it. The cool and composed Dravid has always been known as a gentleman and probably one among those who have enabled cricket to be named as the “gentleman’s game”. He has always been the symbol of patience, perseverance, good behaviour, and calmness in the game. Heck, one of his biographies is also titled “Rahul — The Nice Guy Who Finished First”.

A Biography of Rahul Dravid: The Nice Guy Who Finished First

Now, to get “The Wall” to act like an angry man was a masterstroke. But if you look closely, the subtle intricacies present in the ad make it all the more brilliant. For example, the manner in which Dravid says “Come man, come.. you come man”. It is in the perfect Bangalorean accent and one of the most common English phrases you would hear when people are arguing in the city.

Screenshot from the video whose link has already been given above

Secondly, Dravid says “HoDaak biDteeni” in Kannada which translates into “I’ll smack you”. Now, this is one of the most commonly used slangs in Kannada and it was brilliant on the part of the ad-makers to provide the local touch in the whole ad.

Screenshot from the video whose link has already been given above

Now, finally, Dravid says “Indiranagar ka goonda hoon main”, meaning that “I’m the thug of Indiranagar”. This is another exhibition of brilliance on the part of the ad-makers for Indiranagar is where Dravid grew up and spent a large part of his life. I’m not sure whether he still lives there but it showed that the ad-makers had done good research before coming up with the content for the video.

Screenshot from the video whose link has already been given above

The ad obviously went viral and numerous celebrities themselves tweeted it including the Indian cricket team’s captain Virat Kohli.

Former Indian cricketer Dodda Ganesh who represented Karnataka in first-class cricket also chipped in with a little bit of nostalgia.

As the ad started getting popular, #IndiranagarKaGoonda started trending on Twitter and other business handles also chipped in with their tweets.

The Dunzo one is my personal favourite as it got the geography of Indiranagar spot on along with incorporating Dravid’s nickname “Jammy”. What made CRED’s ad a masterstroke is that it got numerous people curious as to what exactly the company does and what the business is. So, how did CRED pull this off?

1. Chose the perfect personality for the ad. People haven’t seen an angry Rahul Dravid. An angry Virat Kohli or even for that matter, an angry Sachin Tendulkar wouldn’t have worked.
2. Incorporate the local flavour. Bangalorean lingo, Kannada slang, and the Indiranagar connection all were a brilliant inclusion in the ad.
3. Sounds cliched but use of the hashtag #IndiranagarKaGoonda made it all the more attractive which was used by other business accounts as well.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, ads like these are not just an example of brilliant marketing but rather they are bigger for they can break the Internet like how this one did perfectly.