Pay10 signs Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma as global ambassadors ahead of UPI rollout

Fintech launches are crowded. This one just made room for itself by signing the country’s most bankable duo and timing the reveal into peak festive discovery. The move signals three things. First, intent to play at national scale on day one. Second, confidence in product readiness that can withstand attention spikes. Third, a creative platform that can speak to value and trust without sounding like a lecture.

The pairing solves a classic payments problem. UPI utility is identical across apps for first-order use. Differentiation lives in trust, UX sharpness, incentives and brand warmth. He brings mass reach across metros and heartland with a credibility halo around performance and discipline. She brings film-fashion adjacency, urban female skew and a tone that carries lifestyle narratives. Together they bridge daily money chores and aspirational purchases, which is exactly where a challenger wants to live.

How to deploy them without burning through attention. Think three waves. Wave one is identity. Thirty and six second spots that introduce the promise with a single benefit each, a mnemonic you can hum and a device demo that mirrors the first task users do after install. Wave two is habit. Short, vertical stories around everyday rituals that reward repeat actions. Bills on week one, splits on week two, rewards on week three. Wave three is trust. Safety explainers, limits education and clear red-flag guidance delivered by the ambassadors in plain language so families feel comfortable onboarding elders and teens.

The media stack writes itself. National TV for credibility and recall, but weight the plan toward high-frequency mobile placements where micro conversions happen. Pack creator collabs that cross sport, fashion, food and personal finance. In retail, partner with consumer durables and grocery chains for tap-and-win moments that reward first actions with something tangible. In app stores, build preview videos that replicate ambassador flows frame for frame so the journey is seamless from ad to install.

What to measure. Beyond installs, track day seven and day thirty actives, repeat UPI sends per user, bill-pay adoption and merchant QR mix. Monitor trust signals like dispute resolution satisfaction and time-to-refund for failed transfers. Celebrity lift that does not convert into habit is sugar. The goal is compounding cohorts and a curve that stays fat after festive.

Risks and mitigations. Overreliance on faces can mask product gaps. Run a ruthless bug bash before wave one. Another risk is tone. Money is intimate. Keep humour warm and avoid gags that trivialize loss or delays. Finally, incentives fatigue is real. Tie rewards to useful behavior and sunset gimmicks fast.

If the rollout hits its marks, the couple becomes more than recall. They become the faces of a payments routine families repeat every month without thinking. That is the only fame that matters in fintech.

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