The quest for vernacular advertising: How far did brands reach in 2021?

According to the IAMAI-Kantar ICUBE 2020 report, the number of active Internet users in India is expected to increase by 45% in the next five years and touch 900 million by 2025 from around 622 million in 2020. This increase will be driven by higher adoption in rural India, which has clocked a 13% growth to 299 million internet users, or 31% of India’s rural population, over the past year, the report said. Add this to a Google report from earlier this year that stated that 90% of Indian internet users prefer consuming content in their own language and one realises the mammoth size of growth opportunity brands can have if they target this local language speaking cohort. 

This means the need to create content in at least 22 languages apart from English, and drive it to more than 800 million people. As the year inches towards ending, exchange4media.com explores how much closer to this goal could the advertisers manage to reach in 2021.

Brands bend to advertising in local languages

The growth of the digital population was extensively fueled in the last year because of the pandemic and that was when brands too started taking their local language quest more seriously. 2021 saw some prominent strides in that direction. 

As FoxyMoron National Strategy Director Nakul Dutt shares, “We have seen so many of our clients taking the vernacular route this year. I mean sectors like BFSI and e-commerce were big on it for quite some time now, but several other categories are taking it more seriously now. The most interesting one is I think ad-tech; the players are trying to reach out to a wider audience now and they realise vernacular advertising  could be the key.” 

Kestone President Piyush Gupta adds, “The quicker growth of Indian language internet users necessitated the development of localised digital platforms. For any OTT or online material, including local language or translation to local language has become a requirement. Companies that need to reach out to remote markets, such as BFSI, FMCG, and pharma, prefer platforms in India that provide regional language alternatives.” 

Top languages dominated by the southern mix

Based on their own experiences and client preferences, the industry highlights Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Telugu amongst the most popular languages when it comes to advertising. 

Carat India VP - Digital Media Planning Megha Ahuja highlights, “Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali are the most widely used languages on the platform, growing by over 2X over the past 1 year. Bengali and Malayalam are witnessing the fastest growth in terms of adoption among new customers.”

Grapes COO & Strategy Head Shradha Agarwal notes, “Regional languages such as Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada and Marathi, among others are providing marketers with a perfect place to reach, and target effectively. Also, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu have witnessed a sharp increase in consumption. Our clients such as Gas-O-Fast, Health OK, Prega News and many others keep coming with regional content because they have a stronghold in their respective markets.”

Piyush Gupta gives further perspective in terms of numbers, “While Hindi is still the language of choice for most businesses, according to an internet usage research, Tamil (53 per cent), Telugu (44 per cent), and Marathi (34 per cent) are all among the top choices. Some languages, such as Gujarati and Malayalam, are not yet on the list of favourite internet languages, despite the fact that they are spoken by a large number of Indians.”

Albeit, Nakul Dutt adds that Malayalam and Gujarati are showing strong signs of growth and could take up a bigger share of the pie in the coming years. 

However, it seems that languages like Kashmiri, Konkani, Assamese, Dogri etc are still predominantly away from the eyes of the marketers right now. 

Another aspect that advertisers are currently not focussing extensively on is banking on various dialects to reach out to a more targeted audience, apart from a few content creator partnerships. In India, based on census data, there are more than 19,500 mother tongues. 

Agarwal points out, “As of now, marketers are focusing on those markets which have different languages. Hindi in UP or Hindi in Delhi doesn’t make a big difference. Hence, marketers prefer to use that spend in other languages. However, some brands are collaborating with influencers and content creators but only when there is a need.”

Ahuja adds, “Brands are using creator ads on social platforms to reach the audience in the local dialect. Majorly gaming, crypto, FMCG and Fintech.”

Swamy says, “Dialect is a very interesting yet difficult space to crack. The diverse options that the different states of India offer can be overwhelming for brands. I would say that not much has happened in this space yet. Some brands have tried where they want to hyper-localize their content communication. But if done right, brands can reap huge benefits for sure. It will be great to see national brands getting in an A-lister influencer like Rashmi Mandanna doing content in Kodava Takk accent for the hyper-local Karnataka audience.”

Brands still translating and not creating relevant content

Another issue that still dominates the local language marketing industry is that there are far fewer creators who can think and write in local languages. 

As Dutt points out, “Most of us think in English first and then try to translate it into other languages. But there are so many cultural nuances in India that get missed in the process. Certain things, if directly translated, would mean something completely different in another language. Marketers need to look beyond this formula now.”

Logicserve Digital Sr VP - Creative, Social, PR, Marcom Manesh Swamy agrees, “Hindi and, in some cases, English have been the guardrail when it comes to languages used for traditional advertising. But as the Indian audiences are building digital confidence, they are discovering information at their fingertips. The old model of creating communication in one language and literally translating into other languages will no longer appeal to this evolving audience.”

Influencer marketing is a key channel but not perfect

Another key aspect of local language advertising is the use of influencers but certain marketers are making a mistake in using them popularly as well. 

Nakul Dutt notes that around 60% of the influencers that the brands are trying to reach out to regional consumers are based out of metropolitan areas of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru etc. And while they might be skilled in communicating in certain regional languages, their followers might not actually be the right target audience for the advertiser. 

However, the space is still young and evolving and brands should be keeping an eye out for picking the right relevant talent, not solely based on the number of followers. 

Swamy highlights, “As audiences are consuming more regional content, regional influencers have scaled up their game in the last few years which has opened up doors for branded content creators as well. Google India has shared that regional YouTube is 21% of the overall user base, which is a huge opportunity for marketers and content creators.”

How the future looks like

The industry is quite bullish about the coming year when it comes to the growth of content and advertising in local languages. 

Ahuja says, “A majority of mobile users are using instant messaging and chat apps in the local language to communicate. These instant messaging apps are mostly used by users belonging to the age group of 45 to 55 years in the local language. Gen Z has more inclination towards music and video streaming apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube Music to consume content in the local language.”

Swamy notes, “Again, as per Google India, 20% of search queries in India are in vernacular languages, and, as a brand, it would be not right to miss this growing segment. Brands that are investing in building relevant experiences for regional audiences will see better business results. It will be great to see some hyper-local campaigns spread across the marketing funnel.”

Agarwal concludes, “90% of YouTube users preferred watching content in Indian languages. The adoption rate of regional languages on platforms such as Facebook, Google, YouTube, etc. has been consistently growing over the past few years. This stimulates the fact the local language market will witness greater acceptance from users as they find it more reliable and engaging to see the content in their native language. The gravitation of users to respond to a digital ad in their native language will push the growth of local language advertisements in the digital medium.”