Ather Energy is an Indian electric scooter startup that has seen success through experiential marketing, concern-based advertising, and storytelling. They educated customers on electric vehicles' benefits through experience centers and ads addressing common concerns. Storytelling campaigns like "Meet the Owners" highlighted how the scooter improved people's lives. Live racing events also convinced skeptical riders of electric vehicles' performance. Through these marketing strategies, Ather Energy has become a leading electric two-wheeler brand in India.

1. How India’s First Intelligent
Electric Scooter is Riding into the
future: One Market Share at a
Time
A case study of Ather Energy’s Marketing
Strategy
By: Eyitemi Adebowale

2. Background
Bright colours, busy roads, and lots of dancing
are the words that’ll come to mind if I am asked
to describe India in three-words. If you relate
with any of the words above, then Bollywood has
been successful.
But there’s more to this country than meets the
eye.
Home to the world’s largest democracy and
holding a population of over 1.39 billion people,
India is an Emerging and Developing Economy
that is rapidly gaining traction in the startup
ecosystem.
This piece puts the spotlight on an innovative
brand operating in the Electric Vehicle (EV)-
transportation industry – Ather Energy.

3. Context
The Indian transportation industry is a peculiar
one largely because of its population. As at
2011, the country’s transportation industry
catered to the needs of about 1.1 billion people,
contributing 5.5% to the nations GDP.
That figure became 6.3% as at 2020 and has
been on the rise as population surged.
Of all the means of transportation available in
India, the road sector holds the lion share with
more than 50% of freight and 90% of passenger
traffic handled by road.
Unfortunately, the road network has brought
tremendous set back to the transportation
industry because most of them are narrow,
congested, having poor surface quality.
To crown it all, 33 percent of India’s villages do
not have access to all-weather roads.
Where many saw challenges, this StartUp, Ather
Energy, saw an opportunity and they set out to
provide a solution.

4. India’s Start-Up Space
Did you know that as at 10th of January 2022,
India had a rough estimate of 61,400 start-ups?
And in 2022, India emerged as the most
represented country, outside of the United
States at the Y Combinator accelerator batch.
With a 4.1% share of Unicorns on a global index,
India is no doubt a country worth paying
attention to and this time, our ping has landed
on an innovative startup crafting the narrative of
its people, merging tech and transportation.
0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000
USA
India
UK
Top 3 Countries with the highest number of
Startups
USA India UK
63,703
8,301
5,377
Source

5. Introducing Ather Energy
Ather Energy is an Indian electric vehicle
company, headquartered in Bangalore, India,
designing and building intelligent electric
scooters for its teeming population.
Since their inception in 2013, Ather has
experienced immense growth. What started out
as an idea by two IIT (Indian Institute of
Technology) graduates , Tarun Mehta and Swapnil
Jain, has become a globally competitive
organization with 750 employees, a funding of
$160 million as the December 2021 and a
valuation of $187 million.
The founders of Ather, Swapnil and Tarun , were
drawn to the idea of providing mobility solutions
for India’s fast-growing economy, but then again,
the two-wheeler market in India was a peculiar
one riddled with opportunities and challenges.
Ather Energy is disrupting the transportation
industry with technology and maximizing
people’s desire for connectedness, seamlessness
and freedom.

6. A Quick Overview
HQ:
Bangalore, India
L-R: Swapnil Jain & Tarun Mehta
Founders
Year Founded
The automobile industry is in the midst of a huge technological disruption.
Today, electric is the preferred choice because of its inherent efficiency that
will shape urban commute and the cities of tomorrow. In parallel, the world
around us is getting connected, enabling integration of devices and making
our life experiences seamless. Intelligent vehicles will revolutionize our
commute experience in the future and the Ather 450 stands at the cusp of this
exciting reality.
The Ather Story
Funding Type: Series D
Total Amount Raised:
$160M
Employee Size: 945
( As at March 2022)
Retail Revenue as at
October 2021:
$8,500,000
Top 5 by Market Share
Hero Electric Okinawa Autotech
Ather Energy Ampere Vehicles
Hero Electric
– 30%
Okinnawa
– 20%
Ather -11%
Ampere -8%
P
u
r
e
-
7
%

7. The timing of Ather Energy’s entry into the market played
a huge role in how they grew. Here are some of the
opportunities and challenges they encountered.
Opportunities Challenges
80% of two-wheelers made up
India’s vehicle sales
The lack of a nationwide charging
infrastructure. If you are going to
make electric scooters, people
need to be able to recharge it
right?
Public transportations are grossly
inadequate, and cars are not
affordable by most people.
A general misconception, by
Indians, that petrol two-wheelers
were stronger, faster, and more
durable than Electric Vehicle (EV)
scooters
Indian roads are cratered with
potholes, streets with no names,
chronic traffic congestion,
confusing city layouts, and free-
for-all driving - making two
wheelers the preferred form of
mobility.
Competition from other brands in
the industry
India was witnessing a rise in
environmental consciousness.
There were enabling policies by
the government to drive the
countries electrification goal by
2025, and an emission goal to
reach net-zero by 2070.

8. Ather
Energy’s
Marketing
Approach

9. 1. Experiential Marketing
Recognizing that their offering is product heavy,
the Ather team prioritized getting consumers to
not only be aware of their products, but to also
educate them in an experiential way.
According to sales force, experiential marketing
also known as engagement marketing is a
strategy that immerses customers within a
product, engages them, building emotional
connections through memorable and unique
moments. This was exactly what the team at
Ather set out to do with their customer
experience center.

10. Owing to the misconceptions
by Indians about EV two-
wheelers compared to its
petrol counterpart, Ather
decided to deploy what I
term a from the ground up
strategy.
Why?
Because they understand that
in marketing, anything
consumer find difficult to
understand faces two
outcomes: they are either
undervalued or ignored.
The Electric component of
the scooter was new, the
smart features were new, the
level of performance was
new, hence the Ather team
prioritized getting people to
understand their product.
A marketing strategy that
came alive in the Ather
Energy Experience Centre.

11. The Ather Experience Center designed an
environment that embodies innovation and
dynamism. Every part of the centre was curated with
an objective to ensure an immersive experience.
There are spaces to experience technology behind
the product, spaces for discussions with prospective
customers, and spaces to initiate conversations with
first-time users.
The goal of the team’s experiential marketing effort
was to:
Teach consumers
everything related to the
product experience they
can worry about
Help consumers experience
the brand, the product and
what the product can do for
them.
Provide an enriching
brand interaction that
prioritizes visitor
engagement and
familiarization with the
product over pure sales

12. Ather Energy used experiential marketing as an
avenue to educate their customers.
They recognized that the Electric Vehicle (EV)
needed a higher consumer education, due to it
novelty, and the brand took this seriously.
The result?
• a strong demand from the consumers and
dealerships and an exponential rise in the
number of test ride requests the company
received since the launch of Ather 450X.
• a 5X growth demand in all the markets that
they have entered
• An increase in positive consumer sentiment
around EV

13. 2. Deploying Concern-Based –Advertising
The second strategy deployed by this ingenious team
was the use of concern-based advertising to educate
their customers and allay their fears.;
The digital campaign did three things effectively in 20
seconds
• Educated the consumers
• Addressed their concerns
• Highlighted unique features of their scooter:
(Fast charging, long battery life, a top speed of 80
km/hr, a range of 75 km and an acceleration of 3.9
seconds from 0-40 km/hr , parking assist, which
allows riders to reverse into tight parking locations,
touch screen dashboard, and Google maps on the
dashboard)
The principal idea was to emphasize and help
customer envision how their products could improve
their lives. Hence the campaign was built on the
insight of the shortcomings of a conventional, petrol,
two-wheeler.
See campaign previews

14. The Get Out of a Tricky Situation Ad
This 20sec ad highlighted the reverse feature of the
Ather 450x in comparison to the conventional petrol
scooters.
Watch Here

15. The Refuel While You Recharge Ad
This 20sec ad highlighted the comfort Ather scooter
owners enjoy; the ability to recharge themselves
while they recharged their scooters. They never have
to visit a fuel pump.
Watch Here
Watch More
Videos Here

16. 3. Storytelling
Storytelling marketing, done right, helps your audience
feel emotions that eventually drives them to action
In their ‘Meet the Owners’ campaign, Ather Energy tells a
compelling story of its product through the lens of users.
In this campaign, the Ather team brings a lot of creativity
and originality to the table as they highlighted the varied
things the Ather 450x means to different people.
Nonetheless, one thing stood out; that is the trope of
freedom, convenience, dreams and fulfillment.
The video below is one of my favorites, watch here
Watch Another Beautiful One Here.

17. This is another form of experiential /event marketing that
the team at Ather pulled of to show consumers what their
scooters can do.
Unlike most traditional automobile events, this one gave
the motorcycle enthusiasts, professional riders, industry
journalist and potential customers a chance to
experience the performance of an electric vehicle.
Six internal combustion engine-driven motorcycles were
pitted against the Ather 450X at this event in a series of
intense and fun challenges.
The goal- to give hardcore bikers and auto enthusiast a
feel of what an electric vehicle can do.
3. Live Product Testing

18. What happened ?
The day started with skepticisms, including questions like
‘Are you sure an electric scooter belongs at a race track?’.
And it concluded with disbelief on the part of the riders,
who experienced first-hand just how well an electric
scooter matched up to more powerful machines.
Participants ended the day taking dozens of additional
laps on the Ather 450X even after the challenges were
completed, and it managed to bag positions in top 5 for
most of the races including a very close 3rd in the
obstacle race.
The beautiful things about this experience was that Ather
Energy created an experience, generated awareness,
killed skepticisms, answered questions, and positioned
their brand as a premium Electric Vehicle.

19. • Prioritize consumer education and weave it into your
content / marketing strategy
• Leverage the use of your environment to help
customers experience your brand
• Be clear on the solution your brand is providing and
consistently highlight it.
• Leverage testimonials for storytelling. The Ather team,
told a story through the lens of those who had bought
their products in the ‘meet the owners’ campaign.
• Create a product that is solving a problem. Good
products sell themselves.
Note Worthy Learnings,

20. From enthralling experience centres to live races and well
defined advertising, this ingenious company is gathering
momentum steadily as they climb to the top.
Some of their achievements so far include:
• "Scooter of the Year" & the "Best Two-Wheeler
Design of the Year" awards for Ather 450 at the
Assocham India Auto awards
• Sold 2591 of the their new Ather 450x since it’s
debut two-years ago as at March
• 120% sales growth as at March 2022
• A Year on Year (YoY) growth of 366%
While the journey ahead of them is a long one, with
challenges such as affordability of their bikes, delayed
production as a result of supply chain issues, availability
of charging stations for their users, new competition into
the market, Ather Energy has catalysed a disruption, and
it looks like nothing can stop them from dominating the
market.
In conclusion,

21. Researched and written by Eyitemi Adebowale.
Eyitemi is a Communications Professional with a Pan
African experience in in Marketing, Public Relations,
Campaign, Content, Brand Strategy and Corporate
Communications. Over the years she has worked with
luxury brands, media agencies and is currently with
Platform Capital where she manages the brands presence
in four (4) African regions and the organisations’ social
impact activities.
She has a Bachelors degree from Covenant University, a
Masters in Media & Communication from Pan Atlantic
University and is passionate about research and
deconstructing ideas.
You can find her on LinkedIn, Medium and Twitter