Axis Bank, India’s third-largest private sector bank, has ‘Open’ as its brand philosophy. This philosophy has been projected on numerous occasions keeping accessibility, absence of bias and openness at the core of the Bank's communication. Walking the talk, Axis Bank came up with a campaign idea urging people to embrace the philosophy of 'Open' and support those small businesses that were shut during the lockdown.

As the lockdown began to ease, these small-scale vendors like tea stall owners, laundries, electricians, mobile phone repair shops, and many such others, needed money to restart their business and put their livelihood back on track. These are the same people/shops, where one would keep a credit account, colloquially known as a ‘Khata’, that allowed regular customers to pay what they owed at their convenience. And it was time to return the favour by reversing this ‘Khata’ (credit account) and paying for these small businesses’ products/services in advance.

'Khata' is not only a transactional bond but also an emotional connect between two people. A sign of trust. And hence the simple message was to appeal to the collective goodness in people by asking them to #ReverseTheKhata (reverse the credit) for these local shops and financially support the ones who have been keeping account until now.