by Aarti Razdan
Perhaps for the first time, the Indian ad agency flag is being hoisted on foreign soil. The dream of a traditional, brick-n-mortar Indian ad agency (yes, majority-owned by Indians, not Indian arm of a global agency network), of going global is finally being realised, albeit by a host of new generation agencies that focus on the digital and mobile space.
Search engine marketing firm Pinstorm, set up by Mahesh Murthy, is foraying beyond Indian, Malaysia and Singapore to set up offices in China, US, UK and Sweden and Australia by next year.
Internet promotions company, Webchutney, is expanding in the South-East Asian region, specifically Malaysia and Singapore by next month. Mobile marketing company, Mobile2win (owned by contest2win), set this trend by incorporating in Hong Kong (this operation has recently got bought over Disney), even before it opened its Indian office in ‘03.
If internet knows no boundaries, why should ad agencies in this space have one, goes the logic with most players here. Anyway, all these internet agencies already work for global clients, either onshore such as mobile2win or outsourcing work offshore, much like Webchutney. Already, almost two-third of online agencies revenues is coming from global clients.
“It is much easier to watch trends in media online. Making an ad online is far easier than doing it in traditional media,” says Sidharth Rao, CEO & co-founder, Webchutney.
“We started with a global dream, unlike the typical, traditional agency where you set up a local office and then hire 40 people. We learnt the lessons from Infosys and Wipro and implemented it on ourselves,” says Mahesh Murthy, CEO of search marketing company, Pinstorm.
And its not that their office footprint are getting global – they even call their creative teams as ‘delivery teams’. These agencies have dedicated delivery team a la software firms that work closely with the business development/servicing teams of clients who may be sitting anywhere, Sydney to Stockholm.
No wonder interactive agencies are growing at a stupendous, over 400% per annum, and expect this kind of growth to continue for the next couple of years. Asia-Pacific markets are rich picking grounds for interactive agencies, owning to high internet penetration amongst consumers, coupled with a paucity of interactive players.
“Setting up our base there has no real cost advantage to us. It is the hunger to explore and tap these markets that driving us there,” adds Rao. Webchutney plans to bring in big ticket venture capital funding in the next six months to fund its global expansion plans, with a strong base in West Asia.
The fear of being gobbled up by big global players it seems is no dampener to these players. “If we don’t turn out to be multinational, we at least would like to be a pan Asian,” adds webchutney’s Rao. This global-local game is something that Alok Kejriwal, CEO, contest2win, has already worked out well.
Even though Disney has bought out the entire stake holding of Mobile2Win China, the Indian operations in Mobile2Win India remain independent. In fact Mobile 2Win India seems is still chasing the global run. It recently inked a deal with Freemantle (its partner for Indian Idol) to work on Philippine Idol.
“Its time for interactive agencies such as ours to not let geography limit us. The resurgence of the internet is just helping our global mindsets.”
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