Break the language barrier with multilingual marketing for higher brand recall

Did you know that 60% of Indian consumers only purchase products that are advertised to them, in their native language? It’s no surprise that 90% of internet users in India choose to consume content (websites, mobiles, offline) in their regional language.

As a marketer or business, your brand message and marketing communication should reach the right audience, in the language they prefer. Studies show that online users are most likely to respond (especially on mobile) when advertising communication is in their native language. It’s the reason that multilingual marketing is the need of the hour.

Localizing your communication through multilingual ads is crucial, when marketing your product, service or brand, to an audience in a country as diverse as India. Our Hindi-speaking internet audience (54%) is gradually outgrowing English-language users online; with Marathi, Bengali, Tamil & Telugu speaking audience making up to 30% of internet users in India. The growing demands of regional-language online users over English users in India, is a clear indicator that marketers and brands need to localize their ads to increase brand recall. By localizing your marketing communication, your brand can increase reach, grow a loyal audience, build brand awareness, promote user engagement, and ensure top-of-mind recall with the evolving online Indian consumer.  

Multilingual marketing is the solution for your brand to make personal connections with your audience, inspite of where they are, and what language they speak. Brands can use laser-focused granular targeting to reach the right audience based on age, gender, interests, geography, and much more, similar to what we’ve done with our multilingual ad campaigns below.

Top 4 multilingual marketing campaigns that spoke to the audience, in their native language

Our insights and learnings about multilingual marketing come from ad campaigns that we’ve created for some of the top Indian brands, as showcased below:

Amazon proved they are the eComm leaders by offering preferred shopping options in multiple languages to 20.5+ MN consumers nationwide  

This innovative multilingual campaign in 5 languages – Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu,  and Hindi, targeted users throughout the country, encouraging them to shop on Amazon in their preferred language.

Granular targeting helped reach an audience who were not comfortable shopping online in English, in smaller towns. Speech detection technology was used, with the mobile phone’s mic feature, to make users aware they could shop online on Amazon, irrespective of the language they speak.

For every region, a particular product was displayed and the user was asked to say the name of that item into the mic, in their regional language. The results were shown on an Amazon search page as a video. The closing screen allowed users to click and go to the Amazon landing page, to shop in their preferred language.

With over 20.55 MN users reached, this multilingual, interactive campaign boasted an engagement rate of 2.31%, which is 12 times above the 0.2% industry average. Users nationwide spent almost 6 seconds, engaged with this mobile ad.

Users fought germs to stay safe & hygienic during the monsoon in the Ninja Challenge by ITC Savlon, for their Swasth India mission

This multilingual campaign by ITC, part of their Swasth India Mission, followed a gamified approach. The messaging and communication helped build awareness about hygiene and safety during the monsoon, in a personalized and impactful way.  

The campaign was localized for an audience in Maharashtra and Kerela, whose first language is not English. The ad was served in the user’s preferred language – Malayalam, Hindi (or English), using granular targeting.

Users were prompted to take the Ninja challenge and kill germs using a simple swipe feature. Within a time of 15 seconds, users could swipe and kill 5 germs, to increase their score. Each correct swipe leads to a + sign, followed by a pop-up with a precautionary measure. Once all germs were killed, the copy read ‘Stay Hygienic, Stay Safe’, followed by the closing screen: ‘Monsoon Hygiene Matters. Keep your child and yourself safe this monsoon.’  

All ad communication appeared in the audience’s regional language – Malayalam, Hindi or English, with the CTA: ‘Know More’ taking users to the brand’s landing page.

This safety campaign reached over 4.62 MN users, with a CTR of 1.89%, that’s 9X higher than the industry average. Users spent almost 13 seconds, highly engaged with the gamified mobile experience.

Dettol Cool’s interactive mobile game achieved 14X CTR above industry standards with their #ShowerCooler campaign in summer

Dettol launched their Dettol Cool soap in the summer of 2022. The brand wanted to communicate the new product’s cooling USP. The interactive ad with a gamified experience was released as a multilingual ad campaign in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, and English with hyper-local laser-focused targeting.

By integrating real-time weather & location API, the ad showed the temperature at the user’s location, while the messaging and visuals focused on summer. To reduce the temperature by 5 degrees, users were asked to tap 5 falling ice cubes in 8 seconds. After doing so, the brand messaging revealed how users could beat the heat with the #ShowerCooler (in their respective languages) and guided users to buy Dettol Cool soap. 

This multilingual mobile ad reached more than 11.29 MN users, garnering an engagement rate of 2.84% which is over 14X above industry standards. The audience spent an average time of 10 seconds, engaged with this cool game.

The Pass Pass – Pongal multilingual campaign leveraged AR sensors in an interactive game to keep audience engaged for 10 seconds making Pongal meals

DS Group celebrated Pongal with their target audience, through a fun, interactive AR game. They wanted to spread awareness and increase top-of-mind recall for their mouth freshener Pass Pass for the festive period. The multilingual campaign ad ran in 3 languages – Tamil, Telugu, and English, using granular targeting.

The gamified mobile ad prompted users to prepare Pongal lunch for their loved ones. Users needed to find their favourite dishes in an AR environment and collect them with a Tap sensor on a banana leaf. At the end, they could add Pass Pass to their meal and make every moment refreshing.

Users also had the option to share their Pongal lunch, with family & friends on WhatsApp. The campaign went one step further by wishing Happy Pongal to users and their WhatsApp contacts, finally leading them to their TVC on YouTube.

This festive campaign reached 8.5+ million users, with a CTR of 1.12% i.e., 6 times over industry standards. The target audience in Tamil Nadu spent an average of 10 seconds, interacting with the multilingual AR game.

3 essential steps for your brand’s next multilingual marketing campaign:

Understand the needs of your audience

• In a day and age when Indian consumers can find everything online with a few simple clicks, it is vital to provide relevant information to them in the language they are most comfortable with. Your brand must understand their behaviours, customs, interests, and regional distinctions to increase your brand’s recall, awareness and loyalty, with your diverse audience.

Bridge the language gap with native/ regional content

93% of Indian internet users spend more time on videos in Hindi and other regional languages. When regional languages are utilized in your marketing communication – not only as text, but in creatives and videos as well – your brand will make a better connection with your user-base.  

• Don’t simply translate your ad content; your brand needs to implement transcreation and localization of your marketing content for an effective multilingual marketing campaign.

Reach the correct audience with the right targeting tools

• Using laser-focused, granular targeting tools by mCanvas, your brand can ensure your marketing communication and campaign message reaches the correct audience, in the language they prefer.

Here are a few of our targeting tools:

Once your brand’s marketing communication is localized in the language preferred by your audience, your ad campaign will resonate much better with them, leading to top-of-mind recall, higher brand loyalty, and better results.

We hope our blog on multilingual marketing campaigns captured your attention, just like with the diverse audience in the campaigns above. So, if you’re planning multilingual mobile marketing ads for your brand, let mCanvas’ laser-focused targeting, interactive features and innovative mobile sensors help make all the difference!