Mumbai V/S Delhi- Which City Rules the Roost in Social Media?

This is an interesting conversation to have, indeed. There are many factors at play here. Let’s look at them one by one.

The Brands

Let’s trace the recent history of mainline advertising. Mumbai used to be the hub for a lot of brands and Delhi was a distant second. But the last 10 years or so, have seen a rapid shift. A lot of brands have completed their transition from Mumbai to Delhi. This is predominantly due to lucrative economic policies, better infrastructure and better tax structure. Emergence of Gurgaon and Noida due to impetus given by Haryana and UP governments has a role to play here.

Let’s look at some key sectors one after another.

BFSI: Mumbai definitely has a greater share of brands when it comes to BFSI. Most banks, insurance and financial products are based out of Mumbai.

Auto: This is one sector where Delhi wins hands down. Apart from a couple of brands that work out of Mumbai, most Japanese and many other MNCs have their set up in the capital.

FMCG: Traditionally, Mumbai used to be the hub. Still, Mumbai leads in overall spends, when it comes to FMCG but Delhi has it’s own share of brands such as Nestle, Reckitt Benckiser, Perfetti etc.

Consumer Durables: Delhi. Hands Down. All major Korean and Japanese majors have their set up in Delhi. To name a few Samsung, LG, Toshiba, Sony.

So, as far as brands are concerned, Delhi does upstage Mumbai.

The Agencies

Agencies follow brands. Most of the major agencies have followed their clients to Delhi. But when it comes to the number of independent Social Media/Digital Agencies, Mumbai appears to beat Delhi. The reason predominantly seems to be talent. Which brings me to my next point.

Talent

Mumbai is traditionally considered as the hub of advertising. A lot of copywriters, art/design professionals and the creative lot feel at home in Mumbai. At least from my observation. These are building blocks of a Social Media team. While Delhi over the last decade saw increasing media spends and has a huge network of digital media professionals, it still is behind Mumbai when it comes to creative talent.

The Buzz

The kind of buzz and conversations that go around in the 2 cities are also uniquely different. Delhi is much more political, around national issues and happenings. Whereas Mumbai is much more informal, has a greater share of conversations around fashion, Bollywood, celebrities etc.

To make this point, I have just taken a quick snapshot of the existing trends in Mumbai and Delhi. This may not represent the overall trend completely, but surely gives us an idea about the context of conversations.

As seen, Mumbai has a greater variety of conversations, encompassing sports, Bollywood, current affairs. Delhi, on the other hand is broadly around current affairs.

Also, local groups like ‘WeAreMumbai’ have many more followers than ‘WeAreNewDelhi’. And Mumbai is the city that sets trends and generates more UGC than Delhi. For instance, " target="_blank">Mumbai ‘Happy’ video, on the soundtrack of Pharell Williams’ song has many more views than the" target="_blank"> Delhi version.

To sum it up, from a brand and spends point of view, Delhi seems to be a bigger market but when it comes to creativity, content and talent, the epicenter remains Mumbai.

Editor's Note: After a great #SSMeetup in Delhi, we are coming to Mumbai on the 4th of July! We saw more than 220 Delhiites turn up. Can Mumbai fare better? Click here to register for free.