Driving non-CICO product uptake through last-mile marketing innovations

• Aug 14, 2025
• 1 min

MSC partnered with Airtel Payments Bank (APB) to help diversify its offerings at agent points beyond traditional cash-in and cash-out (CICO) transactions. Through this partnership, we sought to scale the uptake of Suraksha, a bundled product that combines a digital savings account with an embedded insurance cover. We worked to strengthen APB’s last-mile communication and marketing ecosystem to boost agent confidence, build customer trust, and drive product adoption.

A risk of limited product understanding and mis-selling persists among rural and peri-urban agents with whom APB works. MSC sought to overcome these risks and designed a behaviorally informed communication toolbox for APB. This included culturally nuanced posters, banners, and localized pitch templates. We also developed WhatsApp-ready creatives, audio-visual content, and easy-to-explain scripts to support agents to engage customers proactively and address common concerns around savings and insurance. Our team used insights from rapid market studies to advise APB on customer persona-based targeting and nudging strategies across the marketing funnel, from awareness to activation.

These interventions translated into a 31-fold increase in agents who actively sold Suraksha, from 4,023 in May 2023 to more than 124,000 by March 2025. At the same time, customer engagement with Suraksha increased 138 times, from fewer than 15,000 to more than 2 million subscribers. As a result, Suraksha emerged as APB’s flagship product. It earned a position in the market as a “safe second savings account” and enhanced both agent viability and enterprise profitability.

The Gates Foundation commissioned this project.