A Dunzo Daily ad, which appeared in The Times of India in Karnataka, recently featured Puneeth Rajkumar, son of Kannada film legend Dr Rajkumar, with the campaign line, “If it comes tomorrow, it’s too late” alluding to a popular song from his father’s film, Operation Diamond Rocket. While the line suggested the delivery service’s promptness, the use of a regional pop culture reference to address a local audience as opposed to generic pan-India messaging, or worse stereotyping, has drawn appreciation from different quarters.

Agnello Dias, co-founder and CCO, Taproot Dentsu, however, feels that the shift across different mediums has been minor. It is only in the digital space, where it is easier to track viewership and target regional consumers that the change has been apparent. Moreover, in television, digital cameras have made it more affordable to reshoot films. “Earlier, when it was so expensive to shoot an ad film, one would just shoot a pan-India Hindi or English film and then dub it in regional languages, whereas it is now possible at a slight stretch of cost to reshoot,” he says. He also says that as the number of region-specific brands like the Bengaluru-headquartered Dunzo have increased, there are more region-specific ads, because the gestation period between a brand being in a particular region and going pan-India is now longer.