Simply put, DPI is a critical enabler of e-governance that helps improve delivery of public services, economic opportunities, and social programmes to residents at scale. It will also help market players drive innovation.
Protean, through its new campaign, is establishing itself as a technologically and digitally forward organisation, and aims to get people talking about DPI.
Storyboard18 caught up with Gaurav Ramdev, CMO of Protean eGov Technologies, to talk about the reasons behind Protean’s rebranding, the launch of its first campaign in over 28 years, the services the organisation offers, and how it impacts consumers.
Edited excerpts.
This is your first campaign ever. Why now? What brought about the need for this?
As pioneers and leaders in DPI and given the equity we have enjoyed over the last 28 years, I guess we’re kind of like category captains. In FMCG, category captains have the onus to build the category and amplify it. Therefore, I see it as an opportune moment for Protean to come out with a campaign.
You would have noticed in the last six, eight months that the conversations around DPI have been really hot. In the recently-concluded G20 there was one full para on DPI, where India is set to position itself as the world’s provider of the largest digital infrastructure.
We were known as NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure Limited, and we rebranded ourselves around two years back to Protean e-Governance Technology Limited. So this campaign is to establish our new identity. Because the way the organisation is changing, with new business lines opening up, this is the right time to speak about Protean because we are not what we were 28 years ago.
There are six different business units that we run within the organisation. We wanted to showcase the combined power of this DPI.
Who exactly is your TG and how do you cater to them?
We have three different target segments that we speak to. There is, of course, the B2G part, where we have developed some critical infrastructure for the government.
The second is the B2B part, which is the data layer. Simply put, this pertains to the business of authentication. We enable other businesses to have seamless customer journeys.
Then there is the B2C part, which is very visible. If you want to get a pan card today, you will likely avail of Protean’s services. Similarly, if you are opening an account with the National Pension System (NPS) or the Atal Pension Yojna, you would most likely be using Protean. The B2B customer is the primary TG, and B2C, the secondary. And this is where we see our campaign making a difference.
Gen Z is digitally-forward. Do you have any plans to connect with Gen Z?
With this new campaign, we are taking the first step towards becoming a more contemporary brand and launching a new brand identity. Let me give you an example of how our businesses interact with Gen Z.
There are six different business units within Protean, that is six different infrastructure projects. Gen Z will interact with at least two or three of these. Gen Z, who are minors, can apply for a PAN card today using our infrastructure. Secondly, some of the new technology, like ONDC, where we are founding partners, is being made bearing in mind that the new generation will shop in a completely new manner.
Thus, the rails we have built or the digital infrastructure we create is relevant for millennials as well as Gen Z. We have launched new businesses like an open digital ecosystem, cloud services, information security consulting, and a data stack.
The infrastructure part of our business is like salt in the food. You never see the salt, but the food is not tasty without it. We are not an e-commerce app that you can open every day to check the latest prices and deals. We provide the infrastructure so that businesses can build on top of it.
The company has been around for almost three decades now. How have your services evolved over the years?
The two businesses on which the organisation was built was the PAN cards and the Tax Information Network (TIN), which modernised taxation. We then went into building the digital infrastructure for the NPS. Next, we went into authentication, because we run critical databases like those for the NPS and PAN. Authentication is a regulatory tech business, which includes e-KYC, e-signatures, Aadhaar authentication, PAN verification, etc.
Our third business line is what we call the sunshine businesses, like ONDC, which we hope will soon be as large as our PAN and NPS businesses. We have also forayed into the Info-Sec, or information security, business.
What is the India stack?
The India stack is just three things. ID (identity), payments, and data. We do ID and data. We see growth in ID because there will be a growing need for authentication in different ways. Today, we have a national ID for health, called Abha (along with Aadhar, PAN, etc.).
Second is the data aspect. We are becoming more mature as a society, we are creating more and more data businesses. We are very committed to our ID and the data businesses, and we see these thriving over the next three to five years.
What was the reason behind rebranding?
There are two reasons. One is a new identity for the six businesses we have, which takes us forward from here. The second is to speak about DPI, because now is the time for it.
Can you give us the media mix for this campaign? What percentage of the campaign will be visible on TV, outdoor, digital, etc?
This is our first attempt to go 360, which means that we are going to include everything from television, digital, influencers, out-of-home (OOH), etc. We are going to use a large set of media to really drive home our message.
It is a digital-first campaign along with a chunk of television. In terms of our ratios, it will be a 40-40 split between TV and digital, and the remaining 20 percent will be spread over influencer campaigns, OOH, print, etc.