TheSmallBigIdea launches regionalised marketing advisory practice
TheSmallBigIdea (TSBI) is set to help businesses in India expand their reach across a rapidly digitalising population through its new ‘TSBI Bharat’ digital marketing agency. TSBI Bharat takes a regional approach to growth, focusing on expanding the regional language portfolio across digital products.
TSBI Bharat’s localised approach looks to address an increasingly pertinent issue across India’s business environment – that of penetrating an expansive digital market. Plummeting mobile data rates have dramatically improved internet access, with India set to have as many as 850 million online users over the next half a decade or so leading up to 2025.
While the spread of access is a promising sign for many, the biggest issue has been that online access is yet to translate into online engagement. Analysis has shown that many in India continue to use the internet only for basic functions, with only a small portion furthering their engagement to include ecommerce and online retail.
A report from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Google last year revealed that the share of users engaged in online retail and e-commerce amounts to 20% of the total. TSBI has identified that one reason for this, among a range of others, is that most digital platforms are in English.
TSBI reports that only 20% of India’s digital audience has indicated their comfort with English as a language. India currently has more than 400 million online users, who have moved online despite the language barrier in some cases. As TSBI rightly points out, this is still less than half of India’s population.
The digital marketing consultancy stresses that localisation of digital platforms is a crucial factor to reach the expected levels on internet penetration in the near future. TSBI Bharat will support businesses – from e-commerce sites to banks – with this regionalisation process, relying on its existing suite of services that includes social media management, video content production, digital media planning & buying and virtual reality, among others. TSBI Bharat will benefit from TSBI’s existing roster of prominent clients and projects.
Commenting on the project, CEO and co-founder at TSBI Harikrishnan Pillai said, “TSBI Bharat is a focused attempt at helping brands reach out to the next wave of digital audience. The next 100 million digital incumbents will find ease in consuming content in regional language, using neo-social apps that allow them to create and consume local content. We have hired creative strategist with great regional understanding, have trained planners to understand new platforms and we are working closely with clients to craft their regional strategy.”
“It’s great to see brands looking at a ‘Bharat-first’ digital approach to establish stronger audience connect and drive better outcome. We have already on-boarded 4 clients in the entertainment and financial services space. We believe more brands will open up to this in the immediate future,” he added.
