Think national, act regional

Do separate ads for separate regions pay dividends?

Not too long ago, Aamir Khan donned various avatars "" from a Bihari babu to a Bengali bhadralok to a Punjabi villager "" in a television commercial for Coke. And now Amitabh Bachchan will be doing something similar for Himani Navratna Tel.

There's already one TVC up on various channels which shows the Big B as a UP bhaiyya, and two more are to follow, apparently, depicting him as a Tamilian and a Bengali. Clearly, "go local" seems to be the mantra here.

But does regionalisation in advertising work? "Oh, yes," says Harish Bijoor, CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults, "India is a hetrogenous country and having a regional flavour in your ads goes down extremely well with audiences."

But, of course, it has to be done with a lot of care. "If you are targetting people in Karnataka, then you to have see what appeals to the various sub-sects in that state." And it has to be authentic as well, he adds. The setting, the clothes, the dialect "" everything has to be in sync with the region or else the ad might fall flat on the face.

Bijoor, who used the tactic for a Bru campaign 15 years ago, says that separate regional ads work better for products which have wider appeal.

Sagar Mahabaleswar, group creative head, Ogilvy, has a different take on the issue: "It depends on the kind of audience you want to connect with. A commercial for Tata Safari wouldn't work too well if regionalised." But yes, overall, it is a great idea to go regional, he feels.

But in this case, Mahabaleshwar feels, "It is because celebrity endorsers have been used that it is getting highlighted, else regionalisation has been done in the past as well."

Josy Paul, national creative director, JWT, feels that more often than not, regionalising an ad is an attempt to address the north-south divide.

"When you talk about regionalisation, the only area where you can have a major impact is down south. All the rest are Hindi dominated states, where it's actually not regionalisation but just tinkering with the jingle or the language."

Paul makes another valid point. "When you use Mumbaiya lingo, is it regional? No, it's not." But Paul too agrees that regionalisation can do wonders for a brand, if handled properly.

Well, the strategy did work wonders for Coke. But it remains to be seen how things unfold for Himani and the rest which might follow suit.