Visa's business is dependent on getting more people to use their cards (in India, their debit cards specifically) for their everyday transactions. But Indians love cash. As a result people know and use their Visa debit cards only as ATM cash withdrawal cards.

On 8th November 2016, the Government of India announced the ban of all ?500 and ?1000 bank notes (86% of the cash in circulation) to crack down on corruption and black money. There was chaos all around with a sudden shortage in cash with millions of Indians lining up in front of banks and ATMs to get the new currency notes.

In this context, our brief was to empower cash loving Indians with the knowledge and know-how on how to make cashless transactions with their debit cards to alleviate the pains of demonetisation and promote the habit of using their debit card for everyday transactions.

In India, film is the most powerful medium to get people’s attention. So we launched the ‘#KindnessIsCashless’ movement with a heart-warming film about a role-reversal where a student gave his teacher the most important lesson that the whole country could benefit from.

Next we used radio jockeys, rappers, YouTube celebrities and war photographers, whose moving and inspiring images were turned into recruitment ads, social posts, calendar and exhibitions, to reach out to as many youth as possible.

And to reach remote areas like the slums of the country, we created a new and unique medium – the ATM security guard. Here we tied up with security agencies and trained their guards for free. These guards in turn taught Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, how to go cashless in a simple and engaging manner… using Indian rhymes and Bollywood songs!

And all this kindness, did help India in becoming more cashless.