Maddies: ShareChat 'Brands for Bharat' Award hails brands breaking lingual stereotypes

exchange4media's mobile marketing awards property Maddies 2021, which was held last week in Mumbai, had many firsts to it. One of the key innovations was the introduction of "Brands for Bharat" Awards category instituted in collaboration with ShareChat, a homegrown social media app that is pioneering hyperlocal mobile advertising in Indian languages. 

According to marketing experts, the language-first Bharat audience, which primarily resides in Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets, is proving to be the growth engine of the economy. However, they are still being overlooked by a significant number of brands and businesses when it comes to marketing and targeting.

"The ShareChat “Brands for Bharat” Awards category is to acknowledge advertising which broke the lingual stereotype, used deeper cultural nuances and diversity of India to form a deeper engagement with consumers. We all know that happens only when we start using ecosystems that are primarily built to cater to the larger India and connect with audiences in the language they are most comfortable with. If we believe that the next decade belongs to India, then it's absolutely key for brands to grow in Bharat than just in metros and become key drivers of the economy in India. The Maddies was an obvious choice to integrate for this category owing to its legacy of recognising all such marketing stories that employ an effective mobile marketing strategy," says Ajit Varghese, Chief Commercial Officer, ShareChat & Moj.

The special category was introduced to acknowledge the brands that crafted innovative local language campaigns. There were three sub-categories within the main category including 'Best Multilingual Campaign in Bharat', 'Best use of influencers/content creators for Bharat', and 'Best campaign for a Product/Service launch in a new regional market'.

Another creative revolution that’s taking the digital world by storm is the era of micro-influencers. Putting the phenomenon of language and regional connect into motion, micro-influencers and creators act as catalysts of engagement. These influencers have a concentrated reach and targeted audiences who engage with their content and help brands build credibility and drive sales. Micro-influencers may be small-scale influencers, but they are natural game-changers.

Playerzpot Challenge campaign was adjudicated at the Best use of influencers/content creators for Bharat. "At PlayerzPot, we went through a re-branding activity in April 2021 which kicked off with a rap song and so to take that ahead to the masses and to connect with our core users during the IPL 2021, we did a lens-based campaign with Moj with our rap song and cricketing poses in the lens and that in turn garnered a lot of uniqueness and fun part for our users. The Award at The Maddie's for Best Use Of Content Creators/Influencers campaign is a great achievement for our team, and we are aiming to grow our user base through such kind of activities," noted Ankita Ashara, Brand Manager, PlayerzPot Media.

Parle 20-20 cookies was the winner in the Best Multilingual Campaign in the Bharat sub-category. "Parle always had this willingness to connect with the core consumers in the country, and we are happy to go multilingual with ShareChat and their language-first base. The Award at The Maddie's for Best Multilingual campaign is a great encouragement to our Bharat plans, and we will grow stronger from here," a Parle spokesperson said on the award win at Maddies 2021.

Netflix Jagame Thandhiram Roadblock was the third winner in the Best campaign for a Product/Service launch in a new regional market sub-category. With "Brands for Bharat", e4m and ShareChat have made a beginning to honour excellence in mobile marketing for the Bharat audience. ShareChat is on a mission to connect Brands with Bharat and supporting initiatives such as these are key milestones in that direction.