Jamjaras Co., Ltd., under YDM Thailand, a specialist in the upcountry market, serves as the spearhead in helping brands find new business opportunities in provincial markets. The company has revealed consumer insights across the four regions, showing that behavior, thinking, and content interests differ by area even on the same media platforms, especially between provincial consumers and urban consumers. The top three online platforms reaching upcountry consumers are Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube. The company also shared techniques for connecting with provincial consumers in ways that fit their preferences, emphasizing fun and entertainment aligned with local beliefs and life, while pursuing proactive plans to help brands create new business opportunities as the upcountry digital market is expected to grow 24% to a total value of THB 560 billion in 2023.

Mr. Tanapon Subsomboon, Chief Executive Officer of YDM (Thailand) Co., Ltd., a marketing and business transformation agency for the digital era, said that YDM Thailand serves as a Marketing Partner with strengths in helping drive client businesses toward success through three modern communication capabilities: 1) MarTech, 2) Full-Funnel Creative, and 3) identifying new business opportunities for clients. YDM Thailand established Jamjaras Co., Ltd. in early 2019 as a key spearhead for finding new opportunities in provincial markets for clients. What makes Jamjaras different is its genuine understanding of provincial-market insight and its ability to blend all media channels, including offline, online, and on-ground.

Mr. Somyot Chairat, Managing Director and Executive of Jamjaras Co., Ltd. under YDM Thailand, said that provincial markets are important because of their large population. Many brands may assume that the same media reaching urban consumers can also reach provincial consumers. Yet the challenge has become greater with the growth of online media, which has opened opportunities for new businesses across industries. This means that market understanding has become the key advantage in helping brands move toward success alongside the growth of the digital market and the economy, which is recovering through urgent economic stimulus measures focused on boosting consumer spending. According to ttb analytics, Thailand’s digital services business in 2023 was expected to grow 24% to a value of THB 560 billion.

At present, consumers spend more time on online media than on television because of the convenience of consuming the content they are interested in anytime and anywhere. This gives consumers media power in their own hands—the power to choose what to share, like, love, post on their own media spaces, and comment about brands. In another context, consumers are the brand’s audiences. At the same time, the top three online platforms reaching upcountry consumers are Facebook, followed by TikTok and YouTube. Since upcountry consumers now have more choices in how they consume news and information, brands face greater challenges and must think carefully about how to reach them in a way that truly fits their preferences, beliefs, and lives, with an emphasis on fun and entertainment based on each area’s distinctive identity. Jamjaras is therefore pursuing proactive plans to help brands create new business opportunities in response to the upcountry digital market trend, which is expected to grow 24% to THB 560 billion in 2023.

Each region has its own distinct strengths and consumer insights, shaped by geographical, cultural, and belief-based differences that are deeply rooted and expressed through behavior and ways of thinking—differences that marketing planners may look at and ask why. In the end, they must look deeper to understand the reason, and that is the true insight that can be applied to brands. Media for urban consumers and media for upcountry consumers may be the same platforms, but the content that engages them is clearly different. While Facebook and YouTube remain important, TikTok is rising rapidly because it is fun and easy for people of all genders and ages to watch, laugh at, and keep watching until they lose track of time. Most people also consume media through mobile phones, so TikTok responds well to this behavior. The key issue lies in the storytelling format of content that can connect awareness to the brand, because the foundations of insight differ between consumers in major cities and those in provincial areas.

Over the past four years of working with various client brands, Jamjaras has developed a key strength in insight data across all four regions, understanding lifestyles, values, culture, and beliefs, as well as how to create brand content through media that can most effectively reach consumers in each region. For example, the Northeast—the country’s largest market—has distinctive beliefs, rituals, language, and ways of life that are expressed through behavior or conveyed through fun, risk-taking, playing the lottery, cockfighting, bullfighting, gathering in groups, conversations, and festivals. One example is the Bun Bang Fai belief, in which rockets are launched to remind Phaya Thaen to ask the Naga to bring rain. These festivals are also closely tied to molam performances, which come in many forms, from storytelling and polite styles to direct and playful themes about sex that urban audiences may see as impolite. In the end, these symbols are communicated for entertainment and fun, and even the meaning of the word “fun” has different roots in each region.

The key strategy Jamjaras uses in upcountry marketing is divided into four steps.

Step 1: Find the insight first. No matter the campaign, big or small, Jamjaras sees the importance of insight because the entire Jamjaras team comes from the provinces. The team talks directly with target groups and speaks with them in local dialects, which allows them to gain real insights.

Step 2: Weave together insight and brand essence to create the story.

Step 3: Plan which media can reach the audience best—whether advertising, music marketing, or KOLs.

Step 4: The final step is the detailed placement of tailored-made content across media channels in order to create the highest possible engagement.

Credit : https://positioningmag.com/1447796