Six advertising chiefs from leading agencies like JWT, Leo Burnett, DDB Mudra and Grey Worldwide called it quits over the last one-and-a-half month to set up their own shops despite the slowing economy.
A month ago Agnello Dias (former chief creative director of JWT) and Santosh Padhi (executive creative director, ECD, Leo Burnett) inaugurated their own agency christened TapRoot India. So did Jagdish Acharya (former ECD with DDB Mudra) who named his outfit Cut the Crap. Sukumar Menon (former ECD with Leo Burnett) joined the band with his agency Black Swan Life, and Brijesh Jacob (former ECD with Grey Worldwide) set up a digital agency called 22 Feet and a full-service agency called White Canvas.
All these admen say the slowdown has had no impact on their start-ups, and they have no difficulty getting clients. They believe they are more focused, and specialised services will get them clients.
Many of the marketing heads of top companies are from the advertising world, they reason. Not all of them buy the “all solutions under one roof” idea, because they know how it works.
Said Santosh Padhi of TapRoot India: "Big agencies will suffer more than others. When clients can get the same work done for less money, why wouldn't they move to newborns or any mid-size agency? Ultimately it's work that matters to them and not agency brand."
He disagreed that dispersing activities across multiple agencies is expensive. "Big agencies charge no paltry sum. Moreover, a specialised agency gives better value for money." That's why agencies like Idea, Adwork, Webchutney have survived, he added.
Emerging media is one favourite area start-ups plan to tap. Padhi said the duo plans to set up two more ventures in digital and design area. Cut The Crap has tied up with Design Intersect for product and web designing. Digital media is just emerging, so it becomes an obvious choice.
Industry insiders said getting clients for start-ups run by renowned admen is never a problem since clients connect more with the names than agencies. Thus, Times of India and Mid Day (earlier with JWT) have moved to TapRoot India now. TapRoot is also on the verge of signing four more well-recognised brands in media, retail, cosmetics and services.
"Clients basically look for a matching personality with their advertising agenda. That's why agency name takes a back seat and the adman working on the account becomes more important (this works for these admen in getting clients)," said Jagdish Acharya from Cut the Crap.
Added Arvind Sharma, chairman and CEO, Leo Burnett India, concurs: "Their good past helps them. Negative or positive economic conditions, it is evident that clients identify more with the creative directors than the agency."
"Multinational clients and FMCG clients don't have a history of moving to the startups as their head offices have strict guidelines for their marketing teams. But domestic biggies don't mind,” said Prabhakar Mundkur, COO, Percept/H.
Others from the fraternity believe that downturn actually might make the job easy for these start-ups. Mona Jain, India head, strategic investments, India Media Exchange, (a division of Publicis Groupe Media), said: "The recession will work to their advantage in terms of resources at lower rates like office space and workforce."
