UltraTech's grounded approach to marketing cement in India

Time of India

3 days ago

HighlightsUltraTech Cement, a subsidiary of Aditya Birla Group, has shifted its marketing strategy from hyperbolic advertising to focusing on consumer needs, especially targeting first-time home builders with the campaign 'UltraTech Se Pucho', which leverages technology for personalized assistance. The brand has successfully engaged with rural markets, achieving over 12 million interactions through its tech-enabled solutions, and has received 8,900 valid entries in its 'Yashasvi Sarpanch' campaign, highlighting its commitment to empowering local community leaders. UltraTech Cement's 'Banega Toh Badhega India' campaign, featuring collaborations with popular influencers, has reached over 500 million people and significantly increased the brand's perception as a nation-builder, demonstrating the impact of infrastructure on societal progress.
In the last decade, we have seen cement brands using hyperbole as their central advertising theme. The Ancient Greek Gods must be proud of all of them for using it to its optimum. For those who are wondering, like many good things, the term hyperbole also comes from Ancient Greek. These ads took center stage for their creativity, but their popularity also died down just as quickly.
While many brands from the category were experimenting with this hook,
Aditya Birla Group
's
UltraTech
went back to the boardroom to identify its fundamentals and need gaps. UltraTech is not just a business-to-business (B2B) brand. In fact, today, 70% of its business is business-to-consumer (B2C), and two-thirds of it comes from rural pockets. That meant they had a wider consumer base to cater to.
According to the research done by UltraTech, buying a house today is no longer just a retirement plan. The average age of an Indian building a home is 35. That's a consumer segment that experiments and is making the biggest investment of their lives to prove their 'competence to society.' The brand also understood that category knowledge is considerably low amongst its consumer base.
According to
Ajay Dang
, President and Head of
Marketing
at Ultratech, that was enough groundwork for his 50-member marketing team and him to draw up strategies that would drive business growth as well as set the right tone for the brand. "Most marketers are obsessed with their brand, product, and category. We are out there to solve our own problems and those of the people who come to us for a purchase. Also, do remember consumers treat brands as leaders who behave like leaders," said Dang.
Strategies for first-timers
In the past year, UltraTech has used various marketing funnels to bring its insights to life. For instance, the brand identified that building a home is a significant, often uncertain, undertaking for first-timers. Common initial questions revolve around material selection, budgeting, and avoiding mistakes.
To address this, the brand launched a mega campaign called, "UltraTech Se Pucho," positioning itself as a supportive partner by offering comprehensive, tech-enabled assistance throughout the home-building process. The brand leveraged emerging technologies like AI Vision, Augmented Reality (AR), and Generative AI to deliver personalized, location-specific, and contextually relevant advice at scale.
Capitalizing on its extensive outdoor presence (1.9 billion brand logos across hoardings, wall paintings, dealership boards, cement bags, etc.), UltraTech transformed these static logos into accessible home-building experts via mobile scans.
The platform also integrated its digital ecosystem with over 7,000 physical UltraTech dealerships, ensuring access to expertise regardless of the user's location. This distributed execution effectively utilized India's growing mobile-first ecosystem, particularly in Tier 2, Tier 3, and rural markets.
Results?
Over 12 million home builders interacted with the platform, demonstrating high repeat usage due to personalized, real-time assistance. More than 50% of interactions originated from rural and semi-urban regions, highlighting the solution's success in democratizing access to expert guidance. The campaign achieved a reach of over 55 million people, with digital and offline touchpoints working together for maximum exposure.
Dang believes this was only possible because they went on the ground to understand the pulse of the consumers. "Most marketers think of themselves as storytellers. However, I believe great storytellers are first great listeners. We've been very deep listeners. We bunk a lot of quote-unquote traditional insights because we've genuinely heard people out. I believe in a way we are also nudging the rest of the category a bit in the process," he said.
Reaching the grassroots
India's villages, home to 65% of the population, possess significant untapped potential and aspirations. However, infrastructural gaps, geographic remoteness, and limited access to expertise often hinder the realization of these aspirations.
UltraTech aimed to align with the developmental goals of rural India, striving to foster tangible progress and reinforce its brand philosophy: 'Gaon Banega Toh Desh Badhega'. The brand sought to position itself as a trusted partner in enabling village transformation by bridging infrastructure gaps and building emotional connections.
UltraTech targeted key influencers in these communities: Gram Sarpanches. These individuals are not only key decision-makers and community trust builders but are also considered aspirational figures. The brand also targeted rural independent home builders.
Through the "
Yashasvi Sarpanch
" campaign, UltraTech celebrates, empowers, and spotlights the stories of Sarpanches as grassroots changemakers. This was facilitated through a call for entries across various media outlets and was rolled out in Rajasthan, to begin with.
A dedicated digital platform was created to manage nominations, publish entries, display the jury, evaluation criteria, and showcase winners, ensuring transparency and accessibility.
A voice-led content innovation using WhatsApp voice notes was implemented to deliver campaign news and inspirational stories directly to rural users in a mobile-first format. SMS and outbound dialers (OBDs) were utilized to reach low-internet zones, providing essential campaign updates and nomination reminders.
These tech-enabled solutions not only addressed the challenges of the digital divide and media fragmentation but also established a scalable model for future rural activations.
Results?
Out of 11,340 targeted Sarpanches, 8,900 valid entries were received, resulting in a 70% engagement rate. This high engagement highlighted the deep penetration and relevance of the campaign.
However, Dang believes that the human impact of the campaign was far more effective for the brand. He also thinks that's because the brand is consciously looking at consumers as people first. 'We are very passionate about the people that we serve. We don't aggressively advertise on digital but we use the medium to create valuable content for people who are looking to understand the category,' he adds.
A brand for new India
With India putting its energies into building strong infrastructure, brands like UltraTech are moving in that direction too. UltraTech wants to position itself as a nation-builder. That's why and how the brand built the campaign, "Banega Toh Badhega India" (If it's built, India will progress). The campaign highlighted that the impact of infrastructure on human lives is more important than its grandeur.
To drive this conversation, the brand collaborated with influencers who are voices shaping contemporary culture. From mega-superstar
Shahrukh Khan
to influencers like
Karishma Mehta
,
Nikhil Sharma
, Nilesh Misra, Saransh Goila, and Abhi & Niyu, among others, put together stories to amplify the campaign. A few other activities were also added to this strategy.
Results?
This piece reached over 500 million people across digital platforms ranging from podcasts, news, and creators. It engaged with 18 million-plus CTV affluent audiences with a VTR of 95%. The perception of UltraTech as a nation-builder increased 2X from 8% to 16% among the general audience and 3X among campaign viewers.
Dang is of the opinion that working on disruptive campaigns like these almost makes him feel like Sherlock Holmes. He signs with this note, 'There are enough clues out there which stare at you (insights) which help you to make smart decisions (strategies).'
The brand will focus on continuing to create high-impact campaigns and explore newer subcategories to stay ahead of the curve.
(UltraTech was the 'Disruptive Brand of the Year' at ET Brand Equity's Brand Disruption Awards 2025.)