The ‘banker to every Indian,’ State Bank of India (SBI) is the country’s largest BFSI entity by revenue, assets and market capitalisation. With 13,000 outlets including 150 located abroad, the branches of this state-owned corporation can be found literally anywhere an Indian might aspire to travel. Its reputation as a trusted banker has been concretised since 1806, so much so, that it was ranked the 29th most reputed company in the world by Forbes in 2009. Indeed, inIndia, SBI represents trust and financial stability, and the company decided to leverage this perception in rural areas.

Despite being a household brand name in rural India, a common belief was that SBI is acutely selective in providing loans and that their systems are cumbersome. In a bid to alter these believes, the bank brought Vritti i-Media on board to promote its loan offerings and position itself as a one-stop-shop for all rural borrowing needs. The offered loans comprise SBI Tractor Scheme loan and crop loans (for farmers), as well as home loans and car loans (for middle class employed people). In addition, the bank promoted gold loans to farmers, small retail businessman and other lower and lower middle class people in Maharashtra. The aim of the exercise was to reinforce the fact that it is easy to get loans from SBI, and that villagers can approach the bank to meet their needs of tractors, a house, farm or dairy purchase.

Before its campaign with Vritti i-Media, SBI invested heavily in terms of cost and time for reaching out to rural markets through newspapers, OOH and below-the-line activities. Vritti i-Media devised an experimental pilot for the bank in 20 locations for three months which worked wonders. The campaign involved the use of Vritti i-Media’s audio network at MSRTC bus stands and audio visual network at food malls and dhabas on national highways and express highways. It not only enabled SBI to change people’s perception, but also established a channel of direct communication with farmers by educating them on various schemes, akin to the internet medium in urban areas. Fantastic results from the pilot drove the bank to extend the geographies and duration of the campaign. Extended from the three-month pilot, SBI will now conduct this campaign at all stations served by Vritti i-Media for a year.

On conducting the campaign, Vritti i-Media and SBI were able to fructify several cherished motives. For instance, with the initial campaign which was conducted for 20 days, SBI was able to garner enquiries worth Rs. 500 crore from varied rural target groups comprising farmers and small businessmen. The promotion also helped SBI in reducing its non-performing assets by directly communicating various schemes available for farmers if they pay their EMIs on time. Conclusively, with promotional help from Vritti i-Media, SBI was able to position itself as a one stop solution for all borrowing requirements of small town folk. It was able to establish itself as a simple, easy and responsive entity to deal with in a bid to encourage financial inclusion. Due to the success of the campaign, SBI recently renewed its association with Vritti i-Media and continues to count on its assistance to connect with Maharashtra’s hinterlands.

Take a glimpse on the audio ads created to reach the non-metros masses of Maharashtra:

SBI Bank’s car loan jingle:

SBI Bank’s tractor scheme jingle:

Commercial vehicles that have pan-India permits are a great mode of marketing and branding. Due to their innate advantage of traversing diverse geographies, this mobile OOH medium spreads awareness about goods and services in regions that are inaccessible by most advertising channels. In this way, a vehicle which was used for the single, plain-vanilla purpose of logistics can be used to make a brand statement. An instance we have seen for years are trucks carrying soft drinks that always feature cola advertisements. Every time this truck travels to some distant part ofIndiaand moves deeper into villages, it serves a two-pronged purpose. Consumer-facing companies, in particular, can optimise their logistical expenditure by enabling their vehicles to advertise their offerings.

For years, Maruti Suzuki has been the undisputed king of Indian roads. In recent years, however, the company has become increasingly competitive to fortify itself against increasing global onslaught. To retain its premier place, the company has resorted to wooing rural India. Recently, at a town 370 kms northwest of Delhi called Amritsar Kalan, the company’s converted truck, accessorised with an LCD TV, split ACs and push-back chairs, attracted a throng all interested to watch the company’s beguiling ad-film. With a simple story and identifiable characters such as a villager who is convinced to purchase a WagonR due to its many virtues, the ad-film is an effective means to tap the functional and emotional aspirations of this class of clientele.

With this on-wheel initiative Maruti Suzuki was looking to tap farmers of Nagpur’s oranges, Tamil Nadu’s turmeric, West Bengal’s potatoes and Himachal Pradesh’s apples and fruits, in addition to Hyderabad’s granite polishers, Jaipur’s blue pottery makers and Bihar’s Madhubani painters. In this way, several measures by the company to reach rural India has helped the company increase rural share in sales from 3.5% five years ago to 26% in FY 2012.

Similarly, SBI’s ‘Bank on Wheels’ is a concept launched in a number of states including Kashmir and Karnataka, with a fleet of more than 100 vehicles. The idea behind this is to penetrate remote areas where financial inclusion is deemed to be most difficult. The bandwagon visits 4-5 villages twice a week and its employees ease the account opening process for villagers in a bid to sign up as many customers as possible. In due course, it has been realised that financial inclusion, among the most pressing concerns of our economy, can greatly benefit from such concepts.

In the area of advertising, the concept of car wrapping has gained popularity.Eye-catching wrappings for cars, vans and trucks make an attractive and incredibly cost-effective form of advertising. In metros, several prepaid cab companies display ads on their backs or sides. Innovators, the likes of CashUrDrive, revolutionised the vinyl vehicle advertising space. On its inception in August 2008 the company employed this medium in an innovative way by using private cars to promote its client Bonn Bread in Shimla,North India’s hill-station town.

Due to its terrain, Shimla isn’t the ideal destination for OOH, and there aren’t many cabs for on-vehicle advertisement either. Thus, CashUrDrive came up with the idea of engaging private car owners through their innovative campaign. It invited private car owners to offer their cars for promotion by partially or fully wrapping them with advertisements, in exchange of a reward. The reward included prepaid fuel cards to be used at HPCL and BPCL pumps. To ensure full realisation of this medium for advertisers, only cars driven 80 kms a day could register, while random checks were conducted to ensure that the wrappings remain pasted. Heavy weights like Tata, Reliance and the Virgin group had already advertised on this medium which is seeing several newer players such as Adometer and Ads on Wheels. With these efforts vehicle advertising is set to gain momentum as a dynamic new form of OOH, set to grow exponentially inIndia’s expanding consumer market.

Our memory of Bollywood in the era of Eastman Colour would be incomplete without the mention of those larger-than-life and colourful film hoardings put up outside ‘movie-talkies’ and graphitised on building walls. Back then, the advertising of big-budget movies was limited to music promos on radio and OOH such as wall paintings. Their popularity was so wide that given the relative media darkness of villages, rural audiences still thronged to theatres. In villages, media has very definite patterns. Due to little reliance on electronic media, traditional forms of media such as OOH still rule the roost here. With the incapability, and also reluctance in some cases, of villagers to read print media, OOH methods such as on-vehicle advertising, hoardings, DOOH and wall painting or graffiti still command the most attention.

Although wall painting as a mode of OOH have somewhat lost steam in India’s big cities, they remain a favourite in small towns and villages. One of the reasons for this is the abundance of skilled painters as well as a lack of affordable printing options in villages. Besides, having a local painter reproduce an advertisement in his own regional or cultural style can create an effective connect with the consumer. Painting, as opposed to hoardings, can fit on walls of any shape or dimension. Since paint essentially beautifies and protects walls, permission for painting ads on walls of shop or homes as per maximum visibility, can be easily and cost-effectively attained. Owing to its benefits and the emergence of organised players in this space, graffiti has now come back in vogue.

In light of these developments, several MNCs as well as large domestic companies are seen advertising through wall paintings. Ads for Idea Cellular, with its iconic sunshine yellow visuals are among the most noticeable OOH initiatives in recent times. Everyone has spotted at least one of these ads while travelling to a small town or hill station by road or train. In fact, in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh, graffiti was among the predominant media used by the company to create rural awareness. Additional media such as branded vans and rural events were also employed, but graffiti had, by far, the most significance.

Similarly, with a view to increase the consumer base for its 2,000 rural branches in Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, HDFC Bank started a graffiti campaign in 400 towns and villages in February 2012. The graffiti campaign was meant to overcome the communication barrier in these regions, and promote the bank’s services including gold loans, NRI services, vehicle loans, current account and saving account facilities, as well as agricultural loans.

In a bid to popularise its Re 1 sachet, Emami’s ‘Navratna Tail’ decided to paint ‘ghumti’ shops in villages of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Ghumti shops or stalls that sell paans and beedis are generally frequented by rural men in large numbers. Since this crucial target group lingers around these spots for some time everyday, it makes them a perfect venue for the graffiti. Also, since these stalls get small income from the sale of paan and beedi, they are increasingly retailing small packs of soap, shampoo, toothpaste and other hygiene products. This augured well for Navratna Tail, since the wall paintings bearing Amitabh Bachchan’s endorsement was brought so close to the point of purchase.

Emami is said to have witnessed growth on the back of its OOH wall paintings. The company is estimated to have achieved 12% growth in volumes over the last year and a significant portion of this emerges from non-metros. This result proves that OOH media is among the most cost-effective rural media, although it is not equally suitable for big cities today. Despite a number of disadvantages as compared to other modes of OOH, graffiti brings rural consumers the empathy and simple communication that works best for them.

As per a 2010 business report by Cygnus Business Consulting & Research, the Rs 4.5 million hologram market inIndia is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 15% over five years due to an increasing need for defence against counterfeit products. As per industry estimates, approximately 10% of soft drink and FMCG products, 20% pharmaceuticals and 30% cosmetics sold inIndia are imitations. This has lead corporations to increasingly resort to holograms and premium packaging in a bid to differentiate their offerings from low-cost counterfeit products. In ruralIndia, where literacy is a concern, brands lose the ability to successfully identify themselves. Not only do imitations cause a revenue loss to companies that make huge investments in brand building, but may also have undesirable effects on consumers, besides diminishing their confidence in the original brands. However, this is not the only scenario where rural consumers have a reason to be wary of choosing brands.

Several mainstream big label brands have resorted to deceiving marketing tactics that not only delude the under-literate, but educated as well. How frequently have women in Indiabeen caught prey by branded soaps and fairness creams, the use of which brings nowhere as much beauty as is claimed? For instance,

there has been global furore on airbrushing head shots of leading models and actresses to make them look surreal, take for instance
the Julia Roberts L’oreal commercial that had been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in theUK. Experts suggest that such misguiding ads not only make unrealistic promises but also advocate false practises among youths, harming their physical and psychological health.

In India, how many products that claim to be sugar-free, wholegrain and made from all-natural ingredients really offer these benefits? Most labels and ads for such products are inaccurate, exaggerated or have not been scientifically proven. An instance is the legal advertising brawl between multinationals GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare India Ltd (GSK) and Heinz India Ltd that broke out a few years ago. GSK brand Horlicks raised doubts over HeinzIndia’s claims that the latter’s Complan brand was higher since it possessed more nutritional value. Heinz had responded to a Horlicks ad which declared that it was more nutritious.

To this day, we continue believing that consuming a certain brand of salt will enable children to have stronger bones and that only one brand of oil is best for those with heart diseases. In the past, certain candy brands were seen bearing the fat-free tag, when they were fully made of sugar. Such a claim is unrelated to the actual health damage the food product could cause, and adversely impact the health of unsuspecting consumers. Similarly, breakfast cereals routinely contain sugar, fructose corn syrup and other additives; yet they are branded as diet foods. In fact, all mass market consumables contain preservatives, which are inherently unwholesome.

Recently, in April 2012, TRAI declared that advertisements claiming call rate as ‘per second’ or ‘per minute’ would be considered misleading if the pulse rate was higher than those units. For instance, it would be misleading to claim half paisa or one-fourth paisa per second if the real rate is 1 paisa per two seconds or 1 paisa per four seconds. These directives came into place after several misleading and ambiguous advertisements for mobile tariff plans were noticed. Telecom operators were also asked to withdraw faulty ads in 30 days from the announcement.

Citing the instance of a healthcare brand claiming ‘complete energy in eight days or money back’ and a DTH brand falsely promising ‘Free Regional Pack for life,’ K V Thomas, Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution observed that regulations such as the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act and the Cable Television Network Regulation Act are insufficient to prevent such ads from rolling out. To deal with this problem, he envisaged an inter-ministerial committee. Additionally, the Advertising Standards Council of India commenced a programme to track and control deceptive ads recently. The National Advertising Monitoring Service has been initiated in association with TAM Media Research which will screen all editions of more than 30 newspapers as well as TV channels in a multitude of languages. So the field is set for brands to pursue responsible and articulate communication. With so many controls, whether advertisements targeting rural consumers will begin to conform to the ethics of advertising and not misrepresent products remains to be seen.

FMCG brands, whether domestic or MNCs, are increasingly offering world-class products in the Indian market, and are constantly formulating a distinctive approach for markets beyond metros. The proposition of health has been a widely-harped declaration throughout the history of advertising, and for good reason. According to McKinsey, the Indian Tier 2 and rural healthcare market is expected to grow at a rate of 44% to reach US$ 8.8 billion by 2015.[V1]  Healthcare-focused companies are also commencing promotional activities to advertise their generics offerings in rural areas. Sanofi-Aventis has started an initiative called ‘Prayas’ to share medicinal information with medical professionals in these regions through seminars.

Considering the rising significance of health, all consumable products are attempting to make their health benefits known to appeal to their target audiences. So, in 2010, after achieving wide success in the premium and popular tea segments with ‘Taj Mahal,’ ‘Red Label’ and ‘Taaza,’ Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) decided to enter the lower end of the tea market, and rural markets in particular, with ‘Brooke Bond Sehatmand.’ Sehatmand is the Hindi word for healthy.

Indeed, HUL was inspired to take this marketing route following the lead of its older brands. Lifebuoy, a soap which is more than a hundred years old, made the boast of health too, and has thrived while promising to protect its users from germs. Around four years ago, the company’s Brooke Bond Natural Care tea containing five natural ingredients also claimed to facilitate good health and received resounding success. On studying these trends, HUL saw that there was something significant in this formula for tapping the economy segment which made up 45-50% in respect of volume and value. Overall, only a third of the total tea market is packed tea. This is not an easy segment to crack since organised players need to compete with tea sold loose.

To create their differentiator, HUL conducted wide research and found that people care most about whether their children are receiving the required dietary supplements from their intake. Since tea has 95% penetration in the country, it is an ideal product for fortification with vitamin supplements. Three cups of Brooke Bond Sehatmand ensures 50% Reference Daily Intake (RDA) of vital vitamin B. This was the brand’s rallying point. In addition, the company decided to package different teas for India’s different regions, while noting the unique preferences of tea-drinkers with respect to taste, colour and aroma. Through HUL’s rural women empowerment initiative ‘Project Shakti,’ on-ground salesmanship was conducted in a bid to appeal to the rural audience. This was done in addition to advertisements on national TV and radio networks.

Taking the appeal of health a few notches further, Dabur India Ltd decided to put a new spin on its ‘Chyawanprash’ brand, which is a premium dietary supplement. To rekindle interest in the brand, the company selected 30 villagers from the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar as ‘Immunity Ambassadors’ along with regional super-star Ravi Kishen. Indeed, these persons were chosen after 135 days of campaigning under the Dabur Chyawanprash Swasthya Chetna Abhiyan, which covered six districts in Bihar and two districts in Uttar Pradesh. The programme was related to the brand’s national initiative, Immune India, which unfolded in 2009 to educate more than 10 lakh students in India’s 1,000 schools about the importance of immunity.

Through this exercise, the ambassadors aimed to emphasise the significance of stronger immunity to fight rising incidences of viral attacks and infections in their respective villages. Also, the company’s volunteers conducted free health check-ups and provided free medical consultancy to more than a hundred rural folk a day, for the duration of the campaign. This resulted in two-fold success for the brand. Not only it did help educate common masses about the importance of immunity, but also promote the all natural product ‘Chyawanprash’ as a unique and effective immunity-builder.

Everything said and done, the rural market is cost-sensitive. On the other hand, consumers here expect the same high-quality products as Tier-1 and 2 cities since they are now aspiring for better lifestyles and want to use the same products as big-city dwellers. Realising this, the approach to offer products in small-value packs has become a rage and allowed a varied basket of offerings to reach small towns and villages. Chyawanprash now offers 250 gram packs that retail for around Rs 69.5, while HUL has priced Brooke Bond Sehatmand at Rs 20 for 100 grams. Smaller packs are available for Rs 5 and Rs 10. Since these markets have become the determinants of overall brand success for all FMCG companies, tough competition now exists in these markets in every product segment.

Traditionally, local eateries like old-school halwais, bakeries and Irani café’s have never had to advertise their wares. It was only aromatic wafts that tempted people walking along these eateries to venture into them and try out a beguiling delicacy. Every city boasts of a few legendary eateries that have managed to maintain a loyal clientele over several decades. Yet, times have changed. In cities, where MNC franchises like MacDonald, KFC and Dominos Pizza have fought tooth and nail to become the giants of a new Indian fast-food space, the likes of Jumbo King, which are well-supported by smart marketing strategies have emerged. By turning the simple vada pav to a newly competitive and dynamic offering, for instance, Jumbo King has turned the fast-food industry on its head with the proposition of an inexpensive, hygienic and tasty food on-the-go. The company’s surprising success shows that new-age branding and advertising tools can do wonders to affordably transform simple offerings by small enterprises.

Pin-pointing the Issue

Fast-food eatery ‘Nalawade Samosewale’, located at Kankavali in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district is a promising eatery that deals in samosas, wadas, misal pav and other fast foods. It is a nascent eatery with a seating capacity for a dozen customers and has already achieved an enviable turnover in its first year of operations. It prides itself on its best-rated and high-demand offerings, such as jumbo wada, Punjabi samosa and misal pav. In order to increase popularity of its products, increase sales and awareness, the eatery kick-started its marketing campaign by partnering up with Vritti i-Media.

Devising a Solution

So, in a bid to increase sales and awareness for its offerings, Nalawade Samosewale decided to create greater interest for his products among the people of Kankavali. Reaching the right audience at the right time and in the right manner was a challenge, and to ease matters, Vritti i-media was brought onboard. Vritti’s i-Media Audio Network is a means of audio advertisement through public address systems at district bus terminals, for which the company has sole authority by the Maharashtra State Road Transport Service (MSRTC). The audio broadcasts of Vritti i-Media at over 80 plus locations across Maharashtra, makes it a formidable mode of advertising in non-metro areas. By meshing commercial advertisements with buses arrival and departure announcements, the medium creates maximum impact.

Mr. Parag Nalawade, the proprietor of the eatery, had heard various audio advertisements by Vritti i-Media at Kankavali bus station himself, and was sure that this mode would certainly achieve the desired popularity and improve business. Being highly impressed with Vritti i-Media’s past achievements, he made a direct enquiry with the company. His advertisement was a 30-second jingle that elaborated on the various fast-foods available at the eatery. Vritti has been running this campaign for the last one month and has been reaping the rewards of this ‘completely dynamic’ medium since then. Some of the attributes of this medium make it simply amazing like the timing and content of the advertisement campaign, which is set to run for three months for this eatery, can be modified in tune with seasons and festivals and communicated in the local dialect.

Reaping the Benefits

The campaign has worked wonders for Nalawade Samosewale and there is a high chance that the advertising contract may be extended. Being a small company, Nalawade Samosewale required efficient use of its modest advertising budget. Vritti i-Media’s Audio Network ensures maximum reach and retention of jingle. On an average, Vritti i-Media Audio Network is said to touch approximately 40,000 people a day at a single location, with it’s per person cost being about 10% of other media. This cost-efficiency and effectiveness has made Vritti i-Media’s solution a critical component of the media campaign by Nalawade Samosewale, and is sure to inspire several local businessmen to promote their products and services in such markets.

Farmers are our bread-baskets. To ensure their well-being, the Central government is increasingly creating several knowledge facilities like the Kisan Call Centre that enlightens farmers about various government schemes, farming tips, and more. Several state governments are mirroring these initiatives to provide similar facilities at the local level.

The Concerns

For Maharashtra, the welfare of farmers in the state is a critical issue at an economic as well as socio-political level. Thus, following the steps of the Central government, the department of agriculture under the Maharashtra government has established an agro advisory feed in 2011. The ultimate objective of the initiative was to provide expert agricultural advice to farmers in Maharashtra. The problem was disseminating this information to rural audiences. For the most part, villagers live in media darkness. Due to illiteracy, they cannot or may not be inclined to read useful and informative printed material. Due to poverty or inadequate local infrastructure, they may not have access to broadcast media like TVs and radios.

Traditionally, melas and haats have been preferred modes of rural communication, since they allow communication with a large number of people with minimal effort. However, such events do not offer an appropriate ambience for educating farmers. The solution was determining where rural folk congregate in adequate numbers and could be in a receptive state so as to readily assimilate the communication.

The Remedy

The audio medium emerged as a perfect mode of broadcasting informative messages, while district bus-stations were thought of as apt venues for the exercise. To this end, Vritti i-Media’s audio advertising network at Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus stands became an effective point of contact with the non-metro audience. Sound reasoning supported the selection of this peculiar medium. As media like OOH and public address systems are not dependent on power availability or literacy rate in villages, it is one of the surest ways to connect with rural audiences. MSRTC buses are among the main modes of transport for farmers in rural Maharashtra. Bus stations are, therefore, essentially transport hubs that gather huge numbers of people. This makes them opportune for mass communicating information and promotions. The agro advisories are suggestions by the state’s expert agriculturists and broadcasted in a format where they are intertwined with bus timing-announcements at regular intervals.

Through these advisories, farmers were able to gain knowledge about purchasing quality seeds, recognising the quality and quantity of produce in the coming harvest, simplified information on market prices and seasonal crops, as well as the correct use of fertilisers and hybrid seeds. More importantly, since farmers need financial education to increase their financial stability, the medium is also used to inform farmers about various beneficial government plans, the procedure of application to these programmes and the advantages they may gain from them.  In the absence of such an initiative by the state government, farmers would have no means to receive such valuable information.

The Vritti i-Media Edge

Vritti i-Media, being the only agency authorised to run audio advertisements at MSRTC’s bus depots, offers an effective audio medium to advertisers at more than 80 locations in Maharashtra. This medium touches about 10.3 crore people a month. Therefore, the agro advisory initiative has met success in keeping local farmers updated with the latest technologies and techniques in farming and increasing their awareness about conducting agriculture viably.

The audio medium of public address systems at MSRTC bus-stands has ensured the customisation of information. The medium facilitated the dissemination of information or advice specific to the location where it is heard, making the messaging relevant to the types of crops grown in the region. For instance, for the Konkan region, which is the highest cultivator of mangoes, messages are customised to provide solutions for better mango cultivation or how to get rid of the specific pests likely to affect the mango produce given the local climate and solutions. Since this timely, location-specific manner of information dissemination picked-up among farmers in Maharashtra, the state government has received overwhelming response very quickly. The farmers are reaping the benefits of this initiative at no cost, while performing the mundane task of travelling to their destinations. This widely successful campaign enabled the Maharashtra Government to receive a Gold award at the National Awards on E-Governance.

Last year, a study conducted by professors at Sam M Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas, revealed that internet-enabled kiosks that provided valuable information on prenatal and postnatal care for mothers and babies have helped reduce infant, child and maternal mortality rates in ruralIndia. It was seen that these kiosks were more effective than socio-cultural networks in positively influencing rural women to seek and obtain medical care. The assessment was conducted on women across 20 villages, where 10 villages had internet kiosks and 10 did not. About 300 women participated in each village.

The government has already recognised the virtues of this medium in educating rural folk. Welfare efforts are evident in the ‘Gyandoot’ project of the Madhya Pradesh government that disseminated information like agricultural produce rates, land records and offered grievance services to villagers. In Maharashtra’s Warana village, kiosks are being used by sugarcane farmers to receive payment slips. Clearly, these sketches speak of the effectiveness of kiosks in the rural context.

As the first anecdote suggests, kiosks proved to be more adept at providing the requisite information to rural folk than the socio-cultural network itself. The retail sector may learn from this example. In villages that remain more or less media dark, word-of-mouth has an important role to play, where a consumer having used a product/service, informs his social circle about its positive qualities. Since retail and FMCG companies may find it difficult to interact with such far-flung populations through salespeople, a kiosk becomes an interesting and appealing way to interact with village-folk.

Today, several companies have jumped into the kiosk bandwagon to enhance their brand goodwill. ICI India has kiosks to enable customers to choose and mix colours for their paints. In the past, Hindustan Lever used attractive, transportable kiosks to promote Pepsodent. The set-up comprised two monitors, one used as a touchscreen interface and the other for larger audience coverage. For instance, about ten children could watch the kiosk display in action. ITC’s e-Choupal kiosks have long revolutionised the process of purchasing farm-produce like soya from farmers, while offering them information on weather, latest farming techniques and crop insurance. This initiative has created unlimited brand value for the company through 6,500 e-Choupal centres spread across 40,000 villages.

However, the most significant use of kiosks is seen in the BFSI sector. In 2010, ICICI partnered with enterprises to build a network of internet-enabled kiosks in rural areas. The company planned to leverage these kiosks for promoting its banking services in these areas by leveraging its savings and loan offerings. For this, it trained kiosk operators as agents or placed a basic ATM in proximity. To make the kiosks really popular, ICICI also extended loans to farmers via the mentioned e-Choupal network, while at EID Parry sugar factories, farmers were able to buy crop inputs and pay for them on having received payments for their crops.

Another interesting move by a BFSI company in this area is internet-enabled kiosk banking by State Bank of India. These kiosks cover all the basic banking functions, such as cash and check deposits that work like ATMs. A prominent advantage of the kiosk banking system is that it has reduced the account opening cost from Rs 200, which it would cost at a branch office, to a minimal Rs 20 at a kiosk. Previously, it was seen that LIC used kiosks to enable customers in far-flung areas to check the status of their premiums by entering their policy numbers into the system. Banks like HDFC Bank are increasingly setting up self-service kiosks around their premises in small towns to educate customers about their range of offerings.

Financial inclusion remains among the most critical concerns for India’s villages today. A strong and reliable monetary system in the hinterlands will enable India’s growth engine to draw from a strong and well-entrenched consumer base. By promoting banking services, the BFSI sector, along with some retail giants has laid the foundations for a medium that promises to enrich the lives of rural people in a holistic way.

TV advertising has long been considered a fairly reliable medium. Since TV advertising is largely under the purview of the Advertising Standards Council of India, it is considered by many as largely trustworthy. Indeed, TV advertising is every start-up’s cherished dream and as opposed to the popular notion, it is not as expensive as they may think. Cable advertisements have been a traditional, cost-effective way to connect with the local clientele in any city, whether Tier 1, 2 or 3. Now, however, it is possible to advertise on national TV channels along with big Indian brands at a fraction of the slot’s cost.

While consumers in metros are now more-or-less set in their brand loyalties, the precious opportunity to earn loyal consumers is available in non-metros even today. This is a space that budding enterprises must tap to succeed. As a step in this direction, Bangalore-based Amagi Media Labs Pvt Ltd, through its proprietary offering, allows the splitting of a national ad spot into multiple regions and allows companies buy regional spots instead of national spots on prime TV. By doing this, Amagi is able to eliminate redundancies and foster targeted advertising. Ultimately, companies end up paying up to 80–90% lower for the spot and can showcase their brands alongside established ones on national channels. This service is currently available in 35 Indian cities, including several Tier 2 and 3 cities, across several genres of TV programming.

Cable TV has opened up another momentous opportunity for start-ups. Noida-based Logic Eastern, a manufacturer of cable infrastructure has developed set-top boxes that enable cable viewers to download Gmail YouTube and Facebook pages/data via the company’s servers directly on to their TV screens. The company has deployed 60,000 of these set-top boxes already, beyond big cities like South Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, and now made inroads into much smaller towns like Nagpur, Bhubaneswar and Jammu. This invention is significant for small enterprises because of its potential in taking Facebook, a dynamic business tool, beyond the intimidating internet medium or the confines of metros, right into small town-homes and making it accessible to children, housewives and senior citizens.

The importance of Facebook has been acknowledged by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) itself. It has joined forces with Facebook to empower Indian SMEs by leveraging the internet revolution in India. With Facebook on board, FICCI tradeshows and conferences will host a series of tutorials on topics like ‘Facebook for Business.’ SMEs that participate can learn how to use Facebook for engaging customer interest among the site’s 800 million-strong user-base and receive ‘SMB Boost’ vouchers that grant them a credit for free advertising on Facebook.

Being masters of innovation, growing enterprises and SMEs possess an edge when it comes to satisfying challenging demands. When they strive for innovation, we see instances like Jolly TV, which produces TV sets that run on rechargeable batteries and work despite power cuts. This is only one among several instances of how small companies are positioning themselves as true sources of consumer delight and presenting their target groups with solutions relevant to them. Despite all this potential, most companies consider such opportunities for mass communication expensive or superfluous. They must remember that once upon a time, brands like Nirma, Moov, D-Cold and Fevicol had to make the same decisions for TV advertising, and acknowledge that advertising has made them what they are.

India’s ever-growing telecom market is currently pegged at 770 million subscribers as per the latest data from TRAI. Yet, much more opportunity prevails in rural areas today, as opposed to big cities that are nearly totally saturated. With rural India being highly media-dark for mainstream advertising promotions, the telecom industry has always scouted for innovative media platforms that can quickly and effectively communicate the uniqueness of new products and services to the rural youth and working-class segments.

To this end, Airtel tied up with Rediffusion Y&R to extend the philosophy ‘Atoot bandhan. Atoot Network’ in 2009. The ad campaign which starred actor Shreyas Talpade depicted him as a nervous MLA entering the Parliament for the first time. Carrying the collective hopes of his village, he assures his father that he would never forget his roots. In the true flavour of rural advertising, the campaign hoped to establish an emotional connect with the native population. Similarly, in 2010, Vodafone created a product ‘Ultra-Pocket Sized Tariff at just Rs. 4’ with the rural audience in mind and coupled it with a memorable advertisement featuring an animated talking parrot. By arguing that nothing can be purchased for Rs 4 in today’s day and age, the argumentative parrot drives the point home; another witty attempt by the telco brand that gave the advertising industry ‘Zoozoo’ and the ‘Hutch dog.’

On the other hand, Idea Cellular’s approach to reach rural India included wall paintings and on-vehicle advertising. In addition, the company also attempted to gain some brand exposure through ‘haats’ and ‘melas’ in the past. The company’s focus on this population is reflected in the recent introduction of its pan-India interactive voice response-based value added service (VAS) in association with Handygo, a provider of software and system-enabling VAS called ‘Behtar Zindagi.’ This service provides everyday information to rural India in areas like health, education, finance, weather updates, mandi rates, livestock, agriculture and fisheries.

Yet, although every telco chooses a different approach to communicate with rural India, they have something in common. Idea Cellular, along with Maxx Mobile, Tata Indicom, Lemon Mobile and several other telecom brands have started using Vritti i-Media’s DW+, a technology-enabled media solution, to market their latest products and services to an audience that represents the most important markets for telcos in the imminent years. Maxx Mobile has engaged itself in a 6-month campaign that used Vritti i-media’s audio advertisement across more than 65 ST bus-stands inMaharashtra. This has helped the teleco penetrate and establish its brand in small towns and rural markets in a big way.

Vritti i-Media’s DW+ is a cutting-edge technology used in Vritti i-Media’s audio and audio-visual network. The DW+ system runs on a software platform that was developed in-house and is fully controlled from Vritti’s control room at Pune. Due to the use of sophisticated technology in this innovative advertising solution, there is complete transparency and flexibility in its use. Therefore, there is full assurance that the advertisement will be done at the promised rate, which is a rare case when it comes to rural advertising. By digitalising the entire process, the content can be changed at the drop of a hat and go on-line within 30 minutes. Due to the mandatory listening format, this medium ensures that brand communication penetrates the depths of the market. It enables brands to break through existing media clutter and connect effectively with local audience, which is generally oblivious to media such as newspapers, TV or hoardings, due to unreliable power supply or illiteracy.