Swipe Elite Launch: Behind the Scenes

It has been an exciting time for us at Swipe this month. With the soon to launch Elite Smartphone, we have been working non-stop to bring this Smartphone to the market.

Elite is a revolutionary new Smartphone that has been in research and development for about a year and is designed especially for tech-savvy, online customers.

Founder and CEO of Swipe, Shripal Gandhi made a personal visit to the factory in China where the Elite Smartphone’s are being made. For Shripal, it is all about paying attention to detail and making sure that everything was done perfectly. As he says, “We are thrilled to announce the newest ONLINE ONLY offering ELITE, that far surpasses all competition in terms of build, design, functionality, specifications and price. We look forward to push sales in both the budget & premium segment & intend to disrupt the market with similar innovations in the near future!”

Releasing a new Smartphone can be a daunting task. With the constant influx of new phones in the market every week, making a dent is not that simple. However, Ashwin Bhandari, Vice President of Strategy & Products, started with doing a tremendous amount of research to see how Elite could increase the online spread and business contribution for Swipe. It was with this knowledge that Elite came into being.

The process of bringing Elite to life was not that simple. From getting the design right, to making sure the technology could fit into the design was difficult. As Ashwin says, “It was a challenge, but we had to get it perfect. There wouldn’t be a point in doing this otherwise.” After countless back and forth between design and technology, the phone was ready to be released.

The effort paid off as one the most remarkable features of Elite, is that it comes equipped with a 2.5 D touch panel, which completely enhances the user experience.”

For AVP of Marketing, Sharda Rivankar, it was essential to create a marketing campaign that would capture the essence of Elite. As she put it, “The entire Swipe Elite roadmap planning was done many months ago. The power of Word-of-mouth is known to Indian marketers. We chose bloggers community & influencers to spread the word about Elite. The demand that they have generated with raving reviews & very cool un-boxing videos have created hype and that’s a testimony to the power of Elite being Sold Out!”

Talking about the online only brand ELITE & partnership with Flipkart, Sharda Rivankar says “We have set new records with the Swipe Elite. Selling all units available in just couple of days was very overwhelming. Our partnership with Flipkart gave us unique exposure to demand creation. This is a definite indicator of the fact that online shopping in India is becoming favorable for end consumers. More and more consumers are willing to experiment and as long as they see value in it.”

To generate curiosity in the online space, the team put together a campaign that would cover social media platforms and the world of tech zombies. They organized Blogger Meets and Press Conference to unveil Swipe Elite, teaser campaigns on social media, digital marketing and kept these mediums highly interactive. The whole team’s effort was to highlight the distinct uniqueness of Elite and generate the buzz needed to make the campaign a success.

Another important factor in the campaign was to create a product video that would showcase the Elite as a Smartphone that has it all, from the look and feel to the OS.

Saunak Banerjee, Creative Visualiser at Swipe, realized that Elite is no ordinary Smartphone. He therefore took a different approach towards the video and used Elite as a source of inspiration. One of the best facets of Elite is that it has a very high display quality and thus it was necessary to ensure that the video would have a look and feel that matched. He also took the dark blue and black colours of the device and created a video that showcased the beauty of Elite.

You can watch it here:

One of the most difficult aspects of getting a Smartphone ready for a launch is the logistics of the distribution, warehousing, inventory control and shipments. It was thanks to the meticulous nature of General Manger- Commercial, Dharmendra Sharma, that the entire process for Elite, went ahead seamlessly and without any glitches.

The last few weeks at Swipe, have been a whirlwind of activity, sleepless night and a whole lot of excitement. But in the end, it gives us great satisfaction that we are part of something that will change the Smartphone and technology market.