When herbal soap brand Medimix wanted to make inroads into the North (the brand's traditional stronghold is the South), its agencies drafted an army of chowkidars (watchmen) to do its bidding. After some research into hygiene habits of Northerners in rural territory, the advertiser discovered that people wouldn't wash themselves after toiling in the fields all day. This would not only cause rashes and other skin diseases but also disturbed sleep. Also common practice in small towns and villages are patrolling night guards who yell "jaagte raho" to keep people alert and delinquents away. What does the brand do next? Get the chowkidars to yell "jaagte mat raho" as they trot on and give curious folk who step out of their homes a lesson on personal hygiene and brand benefits.Ingenuity is perhaps the most important creative tool for a rural advertiser. As a market rural India is complicated and heterogeneous to a point where the only factor in common is the nomenclature — rural. As the urban-rural divide blurs in part due to migrating masses, marketers must recalibrate their understanding of rural India's potential. And what it needs, wants, aspires to and engages with in order to effectively communicate with a section of the Indian population which will drive growth in the future.While old school methods ought not to be dismissed to reach poorer and more inaccessible quarters, word of mouth whether it's online or off is the most effective of all. Success lies in marrying traditional media with the new, and with technology and combining the jugaad school of creativity with strategic thought. At this point of convergence is where the most exciting stuff happens.While the book on creativity is more or less universal, the trick of course lies in finding the right idea. It can only be great if the idea and, in the rural context more importantly, execution have relevance. Says RS Kalsi, executive director — marketing & sales, Maruti Suzuki , "Success of any rural marketing campaign depends on understanding the need, listening to the customer, keeping him at the centre and then designing your campaign / products. Ensuring a strong connect by communicating in local languages and using local media and audio visuals is important. The golden rule: "Keep it short and simple". Don't tweak urban campaigns and roll them out in rural. Often while trying to be creative, people complicate messages."The rules of delivering creativity are simple. Says Ali Harris Shere, marketing director at Britannia Industries , "Establishing brandcodes that are rich in colours and symbols is important for building salience and recall.'Voice' as a manner of messaging is becoming big in rural. Britannia Tiger used IVR calls with Salman Khan very effectively to engage with retailers and consumers, thereby using mobile beyond mere push SMSes. Contextualizing the communication in a manner that's relevant to the rural consumer is essential." For instance, when Britannia Marie went about communicating in rural West Bengal , they skipped the usual health spiel and instead went with a message that was simple, relevant to the target audience with a sense of levity about it – Sahi Pasand, Swastha Parivaar.Most importantly, rural is not a short run journey, you need to stay invested in the long run for significant results, advises Kalsi. That's precisely what bothers Keshav Chandorkar , national head - rural at Carat Media Services, who's seen his share of marketers traipsing about the countryside with a 'one size fits all' approach who can't quite fathom why they didn't get the desired results. So, they lose faith and pull out. All in a day's work that. The moral of the story is understanding the consumer is key. And that has nothing to do with geography, sirji.Once you've got that down, ideas are not hard to come by as the case studies we've covered in this special issue of BE and here (read Case For Creativity) make abundantly clear. That's on top of the international award winning works like Lifebuoy's 'Roti Reminder' and last year's Cannes Lions darling 'Kan Khajura Tesan' from HUL. In fact, what we've discovered while working on this issue, is that although not exactly abundant, some of the truly creatively innovative, integrated and surprising work coming out of India is not, in fact, targeted at hipsters and yuppies. Perhaps it's time we learn a thing or two about creativity from the country mouse.