Here’s How Bharat Can Amplify Your Brand’s Story In 2022

The digital marketing and e-commerce ecosystem in India is complex. And it is extremely agile, too, fueled by the increased penetration of mobile devices and accessibility to the internet. For marketers, this is an opportunity to reach out to more consumers, newer demographics, and to tap into the potential of previously hard-to-reach geographies. Simply put, it’s time to also look beyond the English-speaking market and look at the language-first audience as well.

In this landscape, how do brands talk to a consumer about their offerings? Traditional digital advertising methods do offer a degree of success, but it has largely become a blind spot with this audience. The brand has to fit in organically in the audience’s behaviour. This is where branded content comes in place.

Branded content: The way forward

At its core, branded content amplifies awareness, improves engagement with the audience, and makes for a more quality conversation with a user. For advertisers, branded content becomes an important touchpoint because it opens up a window to engage with a customer. According to a Forbes report, branded content improves recall by over 59% as compared to digital ads. It also increases the chances of consumers exploring such types of content by 14% after one impression*.

At a glance, these are few language trends to be mindful of in 2022, which marry seamlessly to branded content strategies as well:

• A strategic focus on localized content by brands to win greater trust of the Bharat consumer
• Tier 2 and tier 3 users creating more user-generated language-first content
• Businesses acknowledging that local language commitment transcends beyond Hindi and should consider Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu, among other Indian languages that have a large audience base

As marketers are more open to the merit of branded content, it has caused a shift in how content is presented to the audience. More brand custodians want their content weaved into the narrative of what the consumer is already watching, reading or interacting with. So whether it’s an infographic that presents facts in a manner that makes it more shareable and therefore greatly expands its reach, or, it is brand messaging talked about by influencers, branded content is the way forward.

The effectiveness of any piece of content requires gleaning of insights, and ShareChat Ads platform offers advertisers a gamut of tools that give them the information they need. By offering targeting metrics, ShareChat puts marketers in the driving seat to reach the language-first audience. And it does so by offering enormous flexibility. Of course, advertisers can reach Bharat, an upwardly mobile audience with a disposable income and an affinity to spend. But with ShareChat Ads, brands also get to choose who their content should reach based on region, age, gender, content interests, network, speed and even who the device manufacturer is.

Add to this, social commerce is exploding, and one can see why advertisers want to be on various social media platforms. According to a Bain & Company report, social commerce in India (in terms of gross merchandise value) was estimated at ~ US$ 2 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach US$ 16-20 billion by 2025 and US$ 60-70 billion by 2030*.

One of ShareChat’s greatest advantages is how it organically fits into the user’s content consumption journey. This is a language-first platform. It’s not just translating content, ShareChat goes beyond. The platform aligns with the region and its culture. The entire user experience is tailored to where the person is from, the nuances of the region, their cultural preferences and the festivals they celebrate.

For marketers looking to seamlessly be where the consumer is, ShareChat offers a range of options. Brands can leverage the platform’s robust creator ecosystem and solutions inventory and highly engaged communities.

To know how to reach the untapped potential of Bharat with a branded content plan, reach out to us today on [email protected]

Data Sources:

1. https://www.financialexpress.com/brandwagon/how-the-role-of-branded-content-in-the-advertising-landscape-is-evolving/2252705/

2. https://www.ibef.org/blogs/india-s-emerging-social-commerce-poised-for-growth