Here’s Why Your Brand Needs Regional Language Advertising
A few days ago, during my umpteenth scrolling on social media, I saw a new Telugu ad for ThumsUp featuring their iconic Toofani style and the trending style icon Vijay Deverakonda. I liked the fact that a national brand focussed on regional marketing, that too featuring one of the local mass heroes. It was refreshing, much like the beverage.
I continued my scrolling to come across another ad from ThumsUp. I started questioning Thums Up’s audience targeting techniques. But to my surprise, it was not the same ad! This ad was in Hindi and featured none other than King Khan. While the concept remained the same, the story and action were completely different from the Telugu ad. Now, why are they spending more on shooting two different ads, with different stars, in different languages? But the product remained the same & so did the concept. I was confused and started researching. That’s how I realized what a genius ThumsUp is.
Catching consumers’ attention in this age of media overload is a challenging task. If you are a local brand, competing with national brands is a David vs Goliath battle. Similarly, if you are a national brand, penetrating the local market well can be too intimidating. But what if I tell you, you can have the best of both worlds cost-effectively?
Today, we bring you a hack that will give you an upper hand while advertising your brand in regional areas. It doesn’t matter if you are a local or national brand, this hack will surely give your brand that much needed boost. It is known as Regional Language Advertising. Let’s understand how and why regional language advertising is a great advantage for brands nowadays.
Understanding Regional Language Advertising
Regional Language Advertising is not something new and has been there since the inception of TVC advertising. India has 22 official languages and over 100 major languages. Obviously, brands had to tap their target audience in different regions. But what makes them unique in today’s scenario is the addition of accessibility through social media. Social media gives the required boost you need to increase your reach among the target audience.
Even in regional advertising, there is a thin line between dubbed ads and regional shot ads. It doesn’t feel like much of a difference but it can make or break your content & here’s how. Dubbed ads are originally shot only once and are dubbed into different languages for varied regions. India’s diversity also gives birth to a diverse audience. So, they quite don’t catch the cultural & language nuances that well. Often it changes the meaning of the ad completely and sometimes it ends up being ridiculous.
On the other hand, advertisements shot in regional languages give the campaign a unique touch. It is more relatable and people find it more convincing. It doesn’t pretend to be culturally correct, it is. Such ads catch the cultural essence of a region in a more convincing manner. These kinds of ads give you the freedom to work on research-based facts and talk about relatable issues your brand is solving.
Get Regional Control over many mediums
But it’s not just about video ads. The Internet has made it easier for brands to communicate with their consumers in many innovative ways. You can modify your medium to suit your consumers’ language needs. Whether it is a google search or a Facebook post regional languages reach faster and are more comprehensible in nature. It makes people react to your ad more positively.
Netflix recently made efforts toward entering the regional markets in Tamil, Telugu and other regions and launched a full-fledged marketing campaign in all mediums and platforms and the results have been phenomenal.
Netflix revealed that they are seeing tremendous success for films in regional languages. Their recent Tamil anthology film ‘Navarasa’ was in the Top 10 in 10 countries including India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. More than 40 per cent of the viewers were from outside India.
Whatever the Platform: Success is Guaranteed
Many brands make the mistake of thinking that there’s no future in regional ads. But recent studies have shown that Indian regional language internet users grow at 18% every year, compared to growth in English users at 3%. Plus, 90% of Indian internet users consume content in regional languages. That talks a lot about the target audience’s preference.
Right now, even with proven success, regional language advertising has still not reached its true potential. That is because people are just discovering it steadily. So, start your regional language ad journey today with the best advertising agency for your brand.
Sanket Communications is a seasoned name in regional advertising, especially in the sphere of social and digital media marketing. It has established many big brands in the last few decades, with its innovative ideas in branding. Check our proven track record here and contact us to start your marketing journey towards success!
About Author
Sandeep Hati is a copywriter at Sanket Communications. He is passionate about advertising trends and stories. He aims to explain the many intricacies that run the advertising and marketing world. When he’s not working, you’ll find him buried in a book or watching period cinema or failing gloriously on the same level of video game infinitely.
