Are you looking at regional content for employer branding?

Regional content is rising in India, and it is time for the Employer Brand to catch up.

Photo by Saman Me Kala on Unsplash

English has long been treated as the “professional” language in India. But there were days when walk-in interviews for pan-India roles were advertised in regional newspapers. With the influx of MNCs over time, employer brands invested in mainly English language content. That is shifting now: 

 🔹 "EY estimates that time spent on online video consumption is increasingly moving towards regional languages, whose share should increase from 37% of consumption today to 50% by 2025. Moreover, 60% of YouTube watch time comes from outside the top six cities, and 95% of vernacular content access comes from tier 2 and 3 cities." (medianews4u)

🔹 Many digital and social media platforms have seen a rise in local language content, such as tech videos and company user reviews in local languages.

🔹 Smartphones with inexpensive mobile data and better internet (4G/5G) is leading to larger audiences in non-metro and regional areas being online and consuming video/social content. 

Why do employer branding leaders need to take notice of this shift?

🔺 In many households the decision to apply (or not) isn’t just by the individual candidate. It’s likely influenced by family members, who are likely consuming content in their native language building trust and familiarity.

🔺 Regional language content feels authentic and culturally relevant to local audience triggering a sense of belonging. It signals investment in diversity and you meet them where they are, in their market, region, and native language.

🔺 It opens the talent pipeline beyond the usual metros and English-dominant audiences. Considering Tier 2 and 3 is a goal for a number of companies now, evaluating local channels becomes important.

🔺 It is essential, especially when you would like to get the word out while hiring for a new office in a location. 

But it’s not without challenges:

• India has huge linguistic diversity (22+ official languages, many many dialects); you can’t realistically create content in every language. So you’ll need to prioritise by location, talent volume, and language density.

• Localisation isn’t just translation. Visuals, tone, and cultural references all need to feel right for the region.

• You’ll need to balance brand consistency (you’re one company) with local relevance (you’re speaking to many different audiences).

• Measurement and attribution become more complex: how do you track which language variant helped drive a candidate application or an acceptance?

One situation we absolutely see a reason to evaluate local language and local media reach, is when your company is expanding its footprint into new geographies within India or recruiting broadly across diverse talent segments, then localised employer-brand content may be a real differentiator.