Unacademy, an edtech start-up, recently announced several cost-cutting steps, including dissociation with IPL, in advance of an anticipated IPO in the following two years. The announcement comes at a time when several edtech companies are being scrutinized for their extravagant marketing costs while they continue to post losses.
When Unacademy let go 1,000 staff earlier this year as part of a cost-cutting effort, it also received a tonne of online criticism. Here is a look at Unacademy’s past advertising and marketing efforts as the brand prepares to revamp its tunes and marketing tactics One of its creators, Gaurav Munjal, founded Unacademy as a YouTube channel in 2010. Having been an engineering student himself at the time, Munjal used this channel to teach Java code, which was a huge success.
On Quora, Munjal rose to the position of one of the most popular users. Munjal was inspired to expand the platform because of its popularity. In 2015, Munjal registered Unacademy as a brand under the parent company Sorting Hat Technologies Pvt. Ltd. with the assistance of the other co-founders Hemesh Singh, Roman Saini, and Sachin Gupta.
During the first three years of existence, the portal provided free classes; a subscription-based business model was first introduced in 2019. On the third anniversary of the company, Munjal stated in a blog post, “The idea was of the Unacademy Educator App and a platform. The educator app would reduce the preparation time for courses from three to four hours to three to four minutes. It would be quite simple for teachers to develop instructional classes that will be posted on a platform. The platform of Unacademy. Students can learn everywhere that teachers can teach there.
Early on, Unacademy primarily engaged in BTL advertising; its first ATL campaign didn’t launch until 2019. According to the financial accounts, Unacademy presented to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, it spent Rs 6.97 lakh on marketing and other promotional activities in its first year. The biggest association for Unacademy was with the Indian Premier League (IPL), which is a paradise for advertisers. The company inked a three-year deal with the BCCI, which will finish in 2022, after being selected as the official partner for the men’s cricket series in 2020. Over three years, it reportedly spent upwards of 120 crores.
According to sources, the brand spent Rs 30-35 crore for brand activation in 2020 in addition to sponsorship. Cricket and its courses were intriguingly combined in its “Cracking the Game” marketing. Through digital activations like “Unacademy Ask the Expert,” “Unacademy Learn from the Best,” “Unacademy Fan of the Match,” and “Unacademy Cracking Sixes,” the brand also took advantage of the chance to connect with its customers.
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