Parle‑G goes local
Parle‑G is shifting away from one-size-fits-all pan‑India ads toward city‑level creative that speaks local language and culture. The move was reported as part of a wider trend where national brands are testing locally made campaigns to win relevance across different Indian regions (afaqs!).
Parle-G is moving away from all-India ads and making more campaigns city by city, festival by festival, in local languages and local settings. (afaqs.com) The clearest example is a two-part Bihu campaign in Assam published on April 15, 2026, with local casting and music by Assamese artists Nilotpal Bora and Dikshu. One film features actor Partha Hazarika, and both were created with Thought Blurb Communications. (afaqs.com) A month earlier, on March 17, 2026, Parle-G rolled out a separate Ugadi campaign for Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. That film was made in Kannada and Telugu and used the Bevu Bella and Ugadi Pachadi rituals as the story’s center. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) Mayank Shah, vice president at Parle Products, told afaqs! that the brand’s problem is not visibility but relevance with younger consumers who did not grow up with the same nostalgia for Parle-G. He said festive local campaigns help explain what the brand stands for to a new generation. (afaqs.com) The economics of that shift have changed with media buying. Shah said Parle’s ad mix moved from about 70 to 75 percent television and roughly 5 percent digital a decade ago to about 35 to 40 percent each for television and digital now. (afaqs.com) Shah also said Parle is not buying the Indian Premier League at the moment and is spreading money across over-the-top streaming, digital platforms, connected television and linear television instead. That gives the company more room to test smaller, more targeted creative. (afaqs.com) Thought Blurb’s Vinod Kunj told afaqs! that a single master campaign cannot easily cover a country with as many languages and cultures as India. He said Parle-G’s recent work is now being built from the ground up in each region rather than adapted from one central idea. (afaqs.com) That is a notable change for a brand built on national scale. Parle Products says it was founded in 1929, and afaqs!’s Parle-G case study says the glucose biscuit launched in 1939 and later spread through millions of retail outlets across India. (parleproducts.com, afaqs.com) Parle-G is still one of India’s most ubiquitous packaged foods, but its newer ads are acting less like national broadcasts and more like local introductions. The brand is keeping the biscuit the same while changing the language, music and setting around it. (afaqs.com, economictimes.indiatimes.com)
