This Diwali, Axis Bank Asks Indians to Pause their Love for Bargains

AutumnGREY has launched a new festive campaign for Axis Bank. The campaign #PauseTheBargain intended to highlight the struggles of small and medium businesses and also mobilise sentiment towards supporting SMEs in these current, challenging times. 

The campaign idea stemmed from the insight that as Indians our love for bargaining during shopping is legendary, an age-old Indian shopping behaviour that has survived several eras while everything else changed with time, but today as a society we all need to step up as a nation and put a hold to this age-old practice as a mark of solidarity with those whose livelihood depends on their small, local businesses. AutumnGREY’s campaign resonates deeply in helping SMEs in getting back on their feet, even if in a small way.

 

 

Rajiv Anand, executive director - wholesale banking, Axis Bank, said: "Bargaining is a very deep-rooted phenomenon in our culture. We do it without a pause. But 2020 and 2021, without a doubt, have been the hardest years for small businesses. With #PauseTheBargain, our primary objective was to start a new initiative, where all of us could do our bit, to help get small businesses back on their feet. Hence, can we, for some time, #PauseTheBargain."

 

Bodh Deb, senior vice president – integration & growth, AutumnGREY, said: “Initially the campaign was called #StopTheBargain, but later we decided to change it to #PauseTheBargain as the core idea was not to ask people to permanently let go of their much-loved bargaining tradition but to mobilise their sentiment towards supporting SMEs in these current, challenging times. The campaign has been designed to run for 5 months – August, ‘21 to December, ‘21, as this is a crucial period for local businesses - Independence Day, Navratri, Diwali, leading up to Christmas and New year, are all celebrated during this period and the awareness needed to be sustained across these 5 months to really help make a difference to local businesses."