New Delhi, (IANS) A new Coca-Cola advertisement featuring

Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan is pegged on the theme “Jashan Mana

Le” or just have fun.

It’s simple. A group of youngsters venture out for a late night bite, only

to find the eateries shut. They meet Hrithik on the way and go on a

magical midnight tryst with the star. Cola adds the fizz.

The advertisement connects with India’s teeming campus fraternity and

young professionals who are ready to add a bit of ‘zing’ to life in the

new globalised environment. The Coca-Cola advertisements are classic

examples of the current trend in the Indian branding and advertising

industry - “think globally, act locally”.

Industry watchers call it glocalisation - a saleable mix of the global and

the local, which represents the human capacity to bridge scales from

the local to global and vice versa. The term was first used by social

scientist Manfred Lange in 1989 on the eve of the Global Change

Exhibition in Moscow.

“Advertising agencies in our country are increasingly going in for

international tie-ups. As a result, foreign brands are suddenly seeking

local attention. The art of making an advertisement look local and

endearing to Indians is the glocal spin-off in advertising,” Vipin

Dhayani, creative head of the Everest Brand Solutions, told IANS.

“When we see a spoofy campaign for MacDonald’s with Dev Anand,

Dilip Kumar and Dharmendra look-alikes making us laugh, it

immediately connects us to our very own Bollywood in such a way that

we forget that MacDonald’s is an international brand,” the adman said.

Glocalisation is a product of globalisation and the local reaction to it,

explains Zubin Driver, network creative director of the television

channel CNBC’s TV18.

“The imperatives of business, transactions and intermingling cultures

create a new bandwidth,” he said.

Glocalisation of the market and the media that is increasingly

becoming fragmented to cater to niche audiences in Tier II cities and

the semi-urban centres across the country have impacted advertising.

“I would say glocalisation really took off over the last five years. Most

global brands now have local execution. At the end of the day, the

needs and the wants of people are pretty similar. But if we use local

idioms for a global brand, it makes sense to the local audience,” Nirvik

Singh, CEO, Southeast Asia, Grey Worldwide Advertising, told IANS.

Consequently, distinctions between the national, local and international

advertising agencies are gradually blurring as new challenges are

emerging from abroad, especially in developing markets.

“Take the example of the HSBC campaign. In banking, understanding a

micro-cultural universe is as important as delivering a ‘global’

understanding of the market place,” Driver said.

HSBC had launched an India-specific campaign with the tagline “We

understand your point of view” panning the burning socio-cultural and

environment issues in the country. And it followed it up with another

campaign, “HSBC provides your solutions.”

Going by the fact that HSBC is a global financial entity, understanding

India to position itself as an empathetic brand must have been a

challenge, say industry experts. It involved building cross-cultural

bridges.

According to David Gallagher, CEO and partner of London-based

Ketchum, a leading advertising agency, the opportunities of a glocal

market will reward agencies that can most adroitly bring their specialist

expertise to the fore.

The internet has given a vital push to specialisation in a glocal market

milieu. “The internet has spawned the growth of user-generated content

and created a ‘bottom-up’ discourse in the consumption of the media

globally,” Driver said.

The trend is forcing admen and marketing people across the world to

innovate all the time. New delivery mechanisms, the recipe for brand

survival in the glocalised era, are shaping how many touch points a

new consumer has.

“The Pepsi Mycan web videos are a huge example of how engaging and

interactive content has created new level of consumer interactions. I

believe a ‘jugalbandi’ between medium and messaging will hold the key

to understanding new age communication,” Driver said.

The Indian advertising industry, one of the biggest money spinners next

to entertainment, is estimated at Rs.163 billion.

The trend, Dhayani felt, is here to stay. “In fact, it is getting larger by

the day. India is a powerhouse in terms of consumerism. With its sound

economy and population, it is obvious that MNCs will keep coming to

India,” he said.