Did you know?
Out of the world’s 7.8 billion inhabitants, only 1.35 billion speak English. That's 17% of the world's population. Yet, more than 60% of the content available on the internet is in English. While there’s no denying that the knowledge of the English language opens up a host of global content to you, what about the remaining 6.5 billion people? Collectively, they speak 7,151 different languages!
The answer? Regional Content.
So, our dear marketers/brand owners, let’s understand what regional content is and why your brand needs it. In the simplest of terms, regional content is content created in regional languages. It encompasses a specific language or dialect commonly used in a particular region. It is a great way to connect with diverse audiences across segments building your brand in regions where it couldn’t have otherwise penetrated due to the language barrier.
While most brands choose to grow from local to global, regional content takes a total U-turn seeking to go from global to local. This may sound counterintuitive at first, but is a great way to build and foster connections with the local audiences of a region.
For instance, Coca-Cola’s 'Share a coke' campaign reached more than 70 countries, making it globally successful. They launched their campaign in 11 Indian languages in India and created a more personal relationship with their consumers.
Though regional content has a limited reach and targets very specific audience segments, it is a beneficial addition to your content marketing strategy for the following reasons:
It breaks the language barrier and reaches people in all corners of the world by speaking to audiences in a way they like.
It helps you strike a chord with them further enhancing their relationship with your brand.
This helps in building an organic and personal connection with your audience.
The relationship that regional content builds is the key to sustaining a brand in the long run.
Indeed creating regional content looks like a win for content marketers, but don’t miss the challenges. It exposes content creators to greater risk while creating regional content as they need to keep in mind the culture of the people in that region to not offend them in any way. Moreover, when you plan to create regional content, you need to create numerous renditions of the work, unlike creating a single set in English. Furthermore, translating and creating the content in regional languages requires extra time and effort. Nevertheless, creating regional content is a great way for content creators to establish an organic connection with their followers and create a buzz around their products and services in areas which would otherwise be left out from their target audience.
Regional content has already left its mark on OTT (Over The Top) platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, etc., with movies and web series in different regional languages. Today’s consumers are interested in seeing content specific to their region and watching videos, movies and web series from different regions, thus widening their scope. With the world coming closer and consumers showing greater interest in exploring different cultures, this is the opportune time for content creators to look beyond English and explore the diversity the world of regional content has to offer.
Content marketers need to understand the regional market’s pulse and create content that is relatable to their audience. Often a campaign created with a generic audience in mind might be irrelevant for a niche region and need to be relooked at. Regional Marketing is here to stay and is most likely going to be essential and crucial for advertising in the future. It’s time for us creators to capitalize on it at the earliest.
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