How Grey India's culture-first idea helped Axis Bank boost consumer trust

Time of India

3 days ago

With digital scams on the rise,
Axis Bank
wanted to fundamentally rethink how India creates and remembers its PINs. Most people rely on predictable patterns while generating their banking PINs - birthdays, anniversaries, or repeated digits.
Axis Bank and its agency partner Grey India cracked a code to combat scams stemming from poor-strength PINs. That's how the
Devanagari PIN campaign
was conceptualised. It's an innovation born out of India's most widely used script. The agency and brand built a proprietary tool that uses familiar words to generate unfamiliar, hard-to-crack PINs by revealing digits embedded in the ancient script's design. It became a culturally rooted campaign that turned typography into technology and secured millions in the process.
According to Harsh Kapadia, Chief Creative Officer, Grey India, "Brands need to anchor themselves in an obsession, one that not only drives business growth but also delivers meaningful value to consumers." When that obsession serves both the brand and its audience, it creates a powerful feedback loop: focus for the brand, and utility or reassurance for the consumer, he believes. That's one of the many lessons brands can pick up from Axis Bank's
Devanagari PIN
campaign.
In an interview with ET Brand Equity, Kapadia walks us through the insight, the innovation, and the impact behind one of India's most talked-about fintech campaigns of recent times.
What was the brief given to Grey India?
The brief was to build on this positioning of trust and safety, while creating something that meaningfully celebrates the spirit of India's Republic Day.
What is the origin of the idea? What was the inspiration?
Across banking and UPI (Unified Payment Interface) platforms, the average Indian user manages 8 to 9 unique PINs. To simplify this cognitive load, many fall back on familiar numeric patterns such as birthdays, anniversaries, or repetitive sequences making their accounts more vulnerable to breaches. Our objective was to disrupt this risky behavior by encouraging a shift from predictable, personally linked PINs to secure, non-obvious combinations that are significantly harder to decode.
At Grey India, the breakthrough came from a simple insight: people remember words more intuitively than random numbers. While exploring this, the team made a fascinating discovery—India's ancient Devanagari script visually has digits from 0 to 9 embedded in them when viewed through the right lens. But for the idea to be truly effective, every numeral had to be authentically found within the script, without modifying any existing typeface. The solution had to feel native, anchored in culture, legible in design, and seamlessly woven into the typography we see around us every day.
Could you share the key strategies and insights that went behind the making of Devanagari PIN campaign?
The tool was designed with simplicity and accessibility at its core. It needed to seamlessly convert any user input word into a secure, four to six-digit PIN. To maximize impact and drive broader behavior change, we made it available to all banking users, not just Axis Bank customers, reinforcing the brand's leadership in safe and secure banking for everyone.
Given the sensitivity of the subject, data privacy was paramount. The platform was built to be fully secure, with no storage of user inputs or generated PINs. To amplify reach and engagement, the tool was supported by a fully integrated digital campaign leveraging social, search, and influencer touchpoints to spark national conversation and encourage millions of Indians to rethink and regenerate safer PINs.
What were the KPIs you were tracking to measure the success of these campaigns? Could you share some key highlights in terms of results?
KPIs tracked:
Shift in consumer sentiment toward a more positive perception of Axis Bank
Increase in organic talkability and brand association with "secure and safe banking"
Results:
Most shared and engaged campaign in Axis Bank's history, driving unprecedented digital traction
Achieved 98% positive sentiment, reinforcing trust and brand affinity
Axis Bank ranked #1 in safety perception among 128 competing banks, with 35% attribution directly linked to the security-focused messaging.
Reached 137 million Indians, with 1 in 4 users actively discovering and generating stronger, more secure PINs.
What can other brands pick up from this piece of work?
Brands need to anchor themselves in an obsession, one that not only drives business growth but also delivers meaningful value to consumers. When that obsession serves both the brand and its audience, it creates a powerful feedback loop: focus for the brand, and utility or reassurance for the consumer. In a category where most offerings feel interchangeable, Axis Bank's commitment to safe and secure banking became a clear and ownable differentiator, one that set it apart in a sea of sameness.
What's your hot tip to brands that are looking to solve simple business problems through creative solutions?
In today's attention economy, sameness is suicide. Yet brands keep chasing celebrity glitter, hoping it will distract from average ideas. The truth? Familiar faces can't rescue forgettable thinking. When every other brand is using the same endorsers, real impact comes from bold, original creativity. The kind that stops people mid-scroll, sparks conversation, and actually builds brand memory. Don't rent fame, create it.
Axis Bank and its agency partner Grey India won 'Disruptive Brand of the Year' at the ET Shark Awards 2025 for their 'Devanagari PIN' campaign.