Navigating Cultural Diversity: Martech Strategies For Targeted Advertising In India
In today's globalised marketplace, understanding and effectively engaging with diverse cultures is paramount for successful marketing strategies. Nowhere is this more evident than in India, a country renowned for its rich tapestry of languages, religions, traditions, and lifestyles. Navigating the complexities of India's cultural diversity requires not only sensitivity but also strategic prowess, especially in the realm of marketing technology (Martech).
The fusion of cultural insights with cutting-edge martech tools has become imperative for businesses aiming to penetrate the vast and heterogeneous Indian market. From personalised advertising campaigns to tailored messaging, the convergence of cultural understanding and technological innovation holds the key to resonating with India's diverse consumer base.
BW Marketing World spoke to industry experts about how martech strategies adapt to the diverse cultural landscape of India to ensure targeted advertising, as well as the significance of storytelling in martech campaigns aimed at diverse cultural groups in India.
Adapting To The Diverse Cultural Landscape Of India
In the whole scenario, the most obvious question that comes to mind is - how do martech strategies adapt to the diverse cultural landscape of India to ensure targeted advertising resonates with different regional preferences?
Prabhvir Samhey, Senior Director India, Samsung Ads understands that the default promise of any marketing technology is bespoke advertising or personalised advertising. “That means you will get to see ads basis your preferences and so would other individuals where it normally becomes challenging in a market as diverse as India if you start to cater to very micro-segments. The cost of producing creative assets is quite a lot. Maybe AI will solve some of it, but at this stage, a lot of personalisation is language agnostic.
You will see the brand logo, brand imagery, and the colours come through, but because of the finer nuances, language is still, a couple of steps away. But personalised advertising in general exists, which means you are shown ads based, on what you're browsing, what you're watching, where you went, etc. The language element is yet to play catch up given the complexity of producing it.”
Manas Gulati, Co-founder & CEO, of Arm Worldwide, reveals that 30 per cent of businesses and brands have started using vernacular advertising in day-to-day. For instance, for a financial player that they work with – Arm Worldwide identified the Google search volumes for different brands in different languages which helped them establish how much vernacular content should be used depending on the search keyword volumes.
He specifies, “We have seen that on social platforms and awareness platforms in specific, the engagement rates go up by close to 30-40 per cent if it's vernacular-led content targeted to an audience which is native - either Hindi-speaking or a state or a regional language, and it has helped us get more conversions. So I'm just extrapolating and thinking that this might work well in different categories as well because local platforms have been consuming a lot of content in local languages, and the receptivity of ads in local languages has grown a lot. People tend to think that this brand has made an effort to talk to me in my language, which is why it seems like a customised thing for them and helps enhance the conversions and engagement overall for any marketing campaign.”
Amitabh Bishnoi, President, Valueleaf points out that when it comes to adaptation of martech strategies, that would depend on the martech that they are working with. “There are multiple platforms. We have a DSP platform called Whistlefeed, whereby we have an option of reaching out vernacularly – the same creative is addressed in vernacular for the language that the particular platform or publisher utilises.”
I strongly feel that the martech platform creators should understand that they should be agile enough to provide their advertisers with the feasibility, accessibility and ease of creating, addressing different audiences in a different format, not just in vernacular or English, but having a different communication through a simple, single campaign. So today we can do that through Martech. With our platform, Whistlefeed, we allow the advertiser to have multiple creatives within a campaign. Each creative can be directed. So when I'm talking about multiple creatives it could be multiple creatives within English or a particular specific language, or have multi-lingual creatives. And each of the creatives can be targeted to a very specific audience.”
He adds, “An advertiser can verify whether that particular creative is working better or it's another communication that is working better in a specific market. So now martech has and needs to evolve to a level to allow that ease to the advertiser.”
Significance Of Storytelling In Martech Campaigns
Considering that India is a country with vibrant cultural nuances, what is the significance of storytelling in martech campaigns aimed at diverse cultural groups in India?
Samhey states that he comes from a generation where we have seen the likes of Cadbury's ad, the Pepsi ad, etc, while in between there was a period where a lot of advertising was focused on quick messaging. “But now we're seeing a comeback of story ads. We've even seen ads which are as long as two minutes which try to tell how the brand is interwoven in everyday life. So, telling that story makes people relate to the brand's promise better. And I think India as a market in general is a market of storytellers. We forgot about it and it's now making a comeback.”
Gulati fathoms that storytelling is very important. “You will always remember the Nirma ad, not in the number of places you've heard it, but because of the jingle, which resonates with you. So storytelling across is something which will work very well.
All analogies, all things which can touch a softer emotional chord of people - that's something which lasts, as opposed to product selling. This trend is very much in vogue in India because we are all funded by new start-ups - they can't talk and don’t know so much and know how to tend to and touch the emotional cord of people, but only to showcase the features. And this is of benefit to you.”
He goes on, “Advertisers and marketers probably do their ads on a certain cricketing tournament and think that they've done a great job, but it will not have a lasting impact. And there would be no brand serials which would be created because the messaging in itself was very product and feature-centric and didn't add any value to a customer. And as opposed to some sort of storytelling in which there is general human interaction happening.
And that's something which finds mention as an ad which I liked and moved me. So I think storytelling is very important, and that's what all of us emphasise too - to an extent that a lot of brands would play on nostalgia, some would be doing it even on AI - people are playing around with characters which had been existent in the past and bringing them up to life so that there's a sense of nostalgia. So different feelings, if adopted in the right manner for the brand, I think it will help establish good brand recognition for a brand.”
Bishnoi explains that knowing that India is such a diverse country, you can't even look at or treat a state as a single format. “I feel that we should have multiple creatives, have a different communication strategy - not just based on the region, but also address the kind of audience that we are going to reach out to from a specific campaign or through a specific inventory. So you will have probably a different strategy for influencer marketing and a different communication completely for your OTT platforms. You will have a different communication within a state. So we've noticed that there are times when vernacular works best with Tamil Nadu, but it does not work very well in Chennai.”
He highlights, “You have a very different communication strategy for city-wise, whereas at this single city, for example, Chennai, there are certain platforms that respond very well to vernaculars, but there are certain other platforms that perform extremely well with English. So, in India, you have to deep dive, understand the audience that you're going to address to a specific platform and have your communication with.”
Very clearly, through a blend of cultural intelligence and technological sophistication, businesses can forge deeper connections, drive engagement, and ultimately, cultivate lasting success in one of the world's most diverse markets.
