commentary continued

creative & messaging

Rural marketing newcomers who simply take urban messages and translate them for use in remote villages quickly find the considerable baggage these ads carry. Developing messages that resonate across the huge and widely disparate rural languages and cultures is analogous to global advertisers determining the highest common creative denominator across broad
international geographies.

Subtle or urbane humor or slick technology-driven elements risk adisconnect with the agrarian lifestyle. Ads with heavy copy can immediately limit themselves by high illiteracy rates.

Ads tend to be short and punchy with a heavy reliance on unambiguous graphic elements. Billboards, wall paintings, gateway style banners, and radio remain staples for reaching the rural audience. The product van still remains the indispensable tool for introducing consumers to a brand and its attributes.

Cinema vans and television kiosks at the village meeting enable movie and TV stars to be integrated as creative elements in many rural advertising campaigns. But to reinforce the wide variance on what determined celebrity status, it was found that whether an actor was termed superstar vs. megastar can even be hotly debated on a village-by-village basis.

Thanks to infrastructure improvements, more sophisticated advertising is finding its way to the rural audience. Infomercial and product demo DVDs, broadcast advertising, and streaming video are being crafted specifically with diverse rural audience messaging.

Centuries of tribal communications have provided the rural market a jump on buzz marketing techniques. Increasing numbers of younger remote villagers are becoming able to work or study in neighboring villages. The
word-of-mouth effect begins when they return with newly found products and stories of what's cool in the outside world. •

Frank Cutitta is chief executive officer of
The Center for Global Branding.

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