The Hindi Heartland is where India lives! Well, around 50% of India’s population resides in the HSM or the Hindi Speaking Markets as we call it in the marketing terminology. This Hindi belt is also the new epicentre of India’s rapidly growing consumption story, leading the growth and stealing a march away from the ‘saturated’ metro cities. Be it two-wheelers, financial products, OTT subscription or e-commerce, the Tier 2-3 towns are showing India the way to growth. The next 100-millionth consumer will most probably be found in these markets. ​

Marketers today are looking for full-funnel solutions from their media partners. It is not just about media exposure anymore, but how this exposure can build meaningful brand connections, make the consumer aware, build intrigue and consideration, drive trial and eventual adoption. The media platform winners of tomorrow would be the ones who can do this more efficiently and effectively. Brands are also looking to understand the measurable impact of their campaigns on Reach, Audiences, Brand Metrics and/or Sales Metrics.

It is only imperative that marketers stand up and take note to address these consumers while scripting the story of rapid consumption growth as well as understand how best to reach these audiences and drive impact. For example, these high consuming audiences are hungry for news and information and are voracious readers of newspapers. As per IRS ’19, The Hindi newspapers records over 174 Mn total readership. While the newspapers capture the leisurely lean forward pattern of consumption of daily news, the Hindi consumers also consume a heady dosage of on-the-go news through the news portals of the brands they trust.​​

Through the web series Hindustan-Discovering the Hindi Heartland, we take this opportunity to connect and understand from the marketers and media experts and take a sneak peek into unravelling what would it take to win in these markets.