Your window to India: reach millions from the 3rd largest online shopper base globally[1]

Your window to the world is Microsoft Advertising’s educational cross-border series to help advertisers scale their advertising into new markets across the globe.?

This month we journey to India, home to one sixth of the world’s population and the 2nd largest country of Internet users[2]. As global economies continue to battle against rising inflation, India’s domestic economy shows strong signals of recovery, with International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief labelling it a “bright spot on this otherwise dark horizon”.?

We talk to Reena Mishra, Microsoft Advertising’s Senior Partner Sales Executive for India and Southeast Asia and Aditya Varadarajan, Head of Business at Microsoft Advertising and InMobi for India and Southeast Asia, on their outlook for India in 2023.?

1. What distinguishes India’s consumer market from the rest of the world?

Aditya: A unique country with a huge population and diverse cultures, India alone accounts for 17.7%[3] of the world’s population. It has 22 official languages[4] while being home to 121 languages and 270 dialects.?

When it comes to celebrations, India has plenty – both local and global. Owing to the different cultural groups, there are festivities throughout the year, which means the average Indian is shopping or celebrating at any given time in the year! Another huge moment in the country is the cricket season and the Indian Premier League (IPL) annual cricket tournament is the biggest perennial cricket celebrations. This IPL season, we worked with HDFC Life, an award-winning leader in India’s life insurance industry, to drive awareness, reach high-intent audiences and optimize the cost per click (CPC) on the Microsoft Advertising platform. It was a strategic combination of powerful features – In-Market Audiences for precise targeting, Automated Bidding for enhanced efficiencies, and Multimedia Ads – to drive impact on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). It indeed drove stellar results.?

Reena: The way I see the consumer market, there are two broad strokes that makes India unique vs the rest of the world.

1. Workday Consumer is here to stay in India

Reena: The pandemic fuelled a transformative shift across India’s digital ecosystem, especially retail. According to a report by Bain & Company, the $810 billion Indian retail market is the fourth largest in the world[1]. Microsoft Advertising commissioned Forrester Consulting in 2022, found India’s consumers spend the most time researching and purchasing products during their working day[5]. The stickiness of this pandemic-learned behaviour has spawned the Workday Consumer persona. Workday Consumers are digital multitaskers who blend work with personal time, including 37% from India who spend more than one hour per day on personal tasks during worktime[5]. This may include ordering groceries online, planning activities, or researching upgrades to their home offices. The study found that PC is a key touchpoint for Workday Consumers, and we know that display and search advertising remain primary channels. To attract, convert, and retain Workday Consumers, it’s important to craft messaging, content and ads that are optimized for PC search and native. This is particularly important for upper-funnel campaigns because Workday Consumers actively research products and services in between work tasks.

2. The Power of Now?

Reena: Another post-pandemic ‘new normal’ is the collective shift in mindset towards instant gratification. As India continues to digitalize, consumers are searching for ways to act instantly on their needs and wants, including using services that range from instant delivery to buy now, pay later financing options. Consumers are no longer looking for convenience; they want products immediately, especially during the festive season.?

Using Microsoft Advertising’s Callout Extensions advertisers can get smart about their campaigns to highlight time savings your products provide. According to a study by Bain & Company, brands have less than 10 minutes to engage with India’s online shoppers with 1 in 2 visitors browsing images, versus only 1 in 22 reading detailed product descriptions1. To increase conversion, visual storytelling with Multimedia Ads (MMAs) can showcase a brand and products with rich ad formats.?

2. As we move into 2023, what are the most interesting consumer trends unique?to India?

Aditya: An unmissable trend is the rapid explosion of eCommerce and the expansion of last-mile delivery. In May 2021, market research firm Redseer found that India’s overall road logistics constitute about 8% of the country’s GDP, with expectations soaring for markets touching $6 billion in profits by 2024[6]. The significant increase in digital adoption in tier-2 and tier-3 cities as well as the time people in these cities are spending online call for a revolution.?

Reena: Marketing goals can’t be achieved without great data and for Microsoft, that all starts with our unique audience intelligence. While respecting user privacy, Microsoft is uniquely positioned to understand customers, combining signals from web browsing, search with Microsoft and LinkedIn data to identify intent and apply AI to increase performance and efficiency. This intelligence allows us to find the right user and the right time to message effectively and meet customers where they browse, search and email.?

3. What cultural issues do foreign brands need to be aware of when advertising in India

Aditya: Being a land of a myriad of languages where there is growing consumption of content in vernacular languages, localizing communication can win hearts on a whole new level. When IKEA launched in Bengaluru, Indian furniture brand Wakefit developed a series of cheeky comms to welcome the globally renowned IKEA with facts about the city and inside jokes that the citizens could connect to. Wakefit partnered with InMobi to leverage “Search for Branding” during the IPL, a campaign that resulted in a 10x Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), month on month. Besides inclusivity, localization, and contextual relevance, the pricing of products is also something brands must consider while entering the Indian market. Indians love incredible deals and great rates, and such thoughtful pricing can propel brands to success.

Reena: India is a multilingual, multi-ethnic country with notable cultural differences in the North and South. Getting a handle on the culture can be an important factor to be successful. Brands need to adapt messaging to meet local cultural expectations. It’s a key part of making the brand acceptable and memorable as well as avoiding any blunders that can alienate an audience.

India is touted to emerge as the world’s largest consumer market by 2030[7]. The factors behind this dramatic shift are increasing urbanisation, strong presence of the service sector and a booming retail segment. Businesses that cater to the Indian middle class, are geared to keep prices reasonable and can adapt to a rapidly changing environment, will succeed.

Learn about more success stories in India from HDFC Life and Wakefit??

If you’re an existing client and want to start advertising in India, speak with your account team or reach out.?

For advertisers based in Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa, Microsoft Advertising has extended our partnership with InMobi, a leading provider of content, marketing and monetization technologies, to lead the enterprise and strategic sales, account management, marketing, finance, collection, and billing in 74 countries across these regions. If you are interested in advertising in India, connect with our specialist team at InMobi to get started with Microsoft Advertising.

Sources:?

[1] How India Shops Online 2021 - Bain & Company

[2] Digital 2022: India - Data Reportal

[3] India Population 2022 - Worldometers

[4] Indian languages: A useful guide to all the languages spoken in India - Berlitz

[5] Workday Consumer, Microsoft Advertising & Forrester Consulting?

[6] India’s Last Mile is Expected to become a $6B profitable market by 2024 – Redseer

[7] India matters: Winning in growth markets – Deloitte