MAM
Cred enables users to redeem their points to donate Oxygen
MUMBAI: As India struggles to keep up with the growing demands for oxygen and healthcare amid the second Covid wave in the country, several start-ups and corporates have pitched in to aid the efforts. Kunal Shah-led Credit payment platform Cred too has come up with one such initiative. The fintech announced Monday that it will allow its app users to donate their Cred coins to help send oxygen for those in need. The start-up stated that it has partnered with Milaap, India’s leading healthcare fundraising platform for the cause.
It may be noted that Cred coins are points earned as reward by its users for paying their credit card bills on time. Each of these coins represent every rupee in credit card bills that the customers pay using the app. Trading in 10,000 Cred coins lets you donate 1,000 litres of oxygen, 25,000 Cred coins gets 2,500 litres of oxygen, and so on. Cred says that for every donation made by users, Milaap will channel the funds raised to their partners, and will buy as well as deploy oxygen concentrators for hospitals and healthcare non-profits across India.
The payment app announced the initiative on its social media platforms :
Redeem your CRED coins to donate oxygen: https://t.co/a3vw582qLX
Campaign in association with @milaapdotorg pic.twitter.com/xy9RoLmG0b
— CRED (@CRED_club) April 26, 2021
Update: CRED members can now donate CRED coins towards buying oxygen concentrators for hospitals, healthcare orgs across India. With a goal of 1 billion litres, we’ve partnered with Milaap to ensure contributions reach hospitals in need.
— Kunal Shah (@kunalb11) April 26, 2021
Cred founder Kunal Shah shared, “We have seen how mobilisation of ordinary people, their time, resources, and energy has created change and action.”
He went on to add, “You can also help by sharing ideas on streamlining oxygen supplies on oxygen@cred.club. The Cred Oxygen Fund will consider all ideas, evaluate and provide support needed.”
Update: CRED members can now donate CRED coins towards buying oxygen concentrators for hospitals, healthcare orgs across India. With a goal of 1 billion litres, we’ve partnered with Milaap to ensure contributions reach hospitals in need.
— Kunal Shah (@kunalb11) April 26, 2021
Shah shared his donation certificate from Milaap, post donating CRED points:
The gesture won lots of appreciation and plaudits, with many welcoming such an initiative when the country really needed it. Many users tweeted they would willingly and happily give up their CRED coins, for such a noble cause, with some even adding tongue-in-cheek that they “anyways did not have much use for them”.
The news was received with some scepticism too.
How are you guys planning to do this? How many oxygen concentrator machines do y’all plan to donate in order to achieve 1 billion ltrs of oxygen?? @cred @milaapdotorg @kunalb11 pic.twitter.com/B12s9JgP2y
— Ashish (@ashishunplugged) April 26, 2021
Update: CRED members can now donate CRED coins towards buying oxygen concentrators for hospitals, healthcare orgs across India. With a goal of 1 billion litres, we’ve partnered with Milaap to ensure contributions reach hospitals in need.
— Kunal Shah (@kunalb11) April 26, 2021
Some called it “Undoubtedly the best use of cred coins”!
Redeem your CRED coins to donate oxygen: https://t.co/a3vw582qLX
Campaign in association with @milaapdotorg pic.twitter.com/xy9RoLmG0b
— CRED (@CRED_club) April 26, 2021
Many Twitterati felt the exercise should be more transparent to build trust and confidence in it:
Update: CRED members can now donate CRED coins towards buying oxygen concentrators for hospitals, healthcare orgs across India. With a goal of 1 billion litres, we’ve partnered with Milaap to ensure contributions reach hospitals in need.
— Kunal Shah (@kunalb11) April 26, 2021
Update: CRED members can now donate CRED coins towards buying oxygen concentrators for hospitals, healthcare orgs across India. With a goal of 1 billion litres, we’ve partnered with Milaap to ensure contributions reach hospitals in need.
— Kunal Shah (@kunalb11) April 26, 2021
Several sought to know how the scheme works: “How are the cred points acting as a currency to purchase/donate oxygen concentrators (esp when they are in such short supply) and if the cred points are able to purchase it, why aren’t they available via INR in different points of sales.”
Another netizen pointed out : “Sir- With all due respect- we have an availability problem. Please urge all your customers to donate plasma if they have survived the infection.”
While quite a few wondered how Cred would implement this cause, considering that there’s oxygen shortage, many netizens termed it a marketing gimmick to increase engagement on the app.
One netizen even criticised the action saying, “If free coins can buy oxygen, please generate as many as you can, and buy the damn oxygen. Why ask people to donate theirs?”
Others tweeted :
Yes exactly! Nobody in the comments thought they should ask how this works. Shame how gullible we Indians can be at times.
— Ritik Verma (@iamritik) April 26, 2021
Exactly while @kunalb11 profiteers during the pandemic by increasing engagement on his app.
Happy to be out argued on this one, but this is how it appears.
— highker_ani (@highker_ani) April 26, 2021
Some users hoped that there would be a report published at the end of this on how effective these contributions are and what difference it has made, while a few canny netizens pointed out: “Off late, many marketing campaigns are only created to create traction with users but no significant impact.”
Well, for all the sceptics and for those who are worried that this will be just another fund which has no transparency, the company has put out a notification. The firm says that starting 3 May, there will be daily updates published in the Cred app giving you the status of exactly how the oxygen concentrator deployment is happening across India.
Meanwhile, Milaap co-founder Anoj Viswananthan took to Twitter to share an update on the initiative: “UPDATE: We are incredibly grateful for the tremendous support shown by the CRED community @CRED_club towards @milaapdotorg initiative for oxygen concentrators in the last 24 hours.”
You can read the complete update here:
UPDATE: We are incredibly grateful for the tremendous support shown by the CRED community @CRED_club towards @milaapdotorg initiative for oxygen concentrators in the last 24 hours. (1/n)
— Anoj Viswanathan (@anojviswanathan) April 27, 2021
MAM
VML India lands two finalist spots at Cairns Hatchlings 2026
The Mumbai agency is back in Australia with two teams, a UN brief and 24 hours to impress
MUMBAI: VML India is heading to Australia again. The Mumbai-based creative agency has secured two finalist spots at the Cairns Hatchlings 2026 competition, one in the Audio category and one in Design, making it the only Indian agency to have reached the finals in both editions of the contest since its launch in 2025.
Four people will make the trip. Senior copywriter Shilpi Dey and senior art director Raj Thakkar will compete in Audio. Art directors Shabbir and Shruti Negi will go head-to-head with the world’s best in Design. The finals take place at the Cairns Convention Centre from 13th May, culminating in an awards ceremony on 15th May.
The work that got them there is worth examining. For the Audio category, Dey and Thakkar tackled a brief for LIVE LIKE MMAD with a campaign called Inner Voice, Interrupted. Using spatial audio techniques, the campaign recreates the overwhelming self-doubt that descends after a long workday, physically panning negative thoughts left and right before cutting the noise entirely to reveal a confident inner voice. Strategically targeted at commuters via Spotify during evening rush hours, the campaign reframes the hours after work as an opportunity for personal growth and charitable action.
For the Design category, Shabbir and Negi worked on a brief for Canteen’s Bandanna Day, a campaign highlighting how cancer pushes teenagers out of their own defining moments. Using a pixelated design language to create stark contrast between a blurred world of isolation and a focused world of connection, the campaign, titled The Flipside of Cancer, shows teenagers fading into the background of birthdays, skateparks and school proms. As a Canteen bandanna appears, the blur flips and the teenager snaps back into sharp focus.
Kalpesh Patankar, group chief creative officer of VML India, made no attempt to disguise his satisfaction. “We are immensely proud to see our teams consistently excel on the Cairns Hatchlings platform since its inception,” he said. “They have masterfully tackled challenging briefs across diverse categories, demonstrating both layered storytelling and a unique creative approach. This exceptional teamwork is truly inspiring.”
Dey and Thakkar, returning to the finals after last year’s run, were candid about the demands of the audio medium. “It’s one of the most demanding mediums, where we only have a few seconds to capture a listener’s world with sound alone, so absolute clarity is essential,” they said. “The true measure of creative work is its ability to create positive change, and our audio submission was made to help those who need it most while encouraging people to silence the inner voices that hold them back.”
Shabbir and Negi, competing in Design for the first time, described the experience as “a completely different beast.” “We see it as an opportunity to showcase our expertise, raise the bar, and challenge ourselves in new ways, while also learning from creative minds from across the globe,” they said.
In Australia, the four finalists will face a live 24-hour brief from the United Nations before presenting in a live pitch session. Twenty-four hours, one brief, one shot. VML India has been here before. It knows exactly what is at stake.
