INDIAN ADVERTISING MARKET IS OPEN FOR CHANGE
"Curiousity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect." -- said Steven Wright. Curiousity is a powerful thing.
The Indian branding, marketing, communications and media industries are very curious about the changes happening in the international market.
Just look at how the business and marketing media are writing about Goafest, the influential players, and the speakers at this year's event who are part of the new wave of agencies (see some of the articles below). I have spoken with a number of people here who are just fascinated by the innovations happening around us. They seem to think India is on the verge of a major shift in the marketing industry.
StrawberryFrog has garnished considerable visibility in India recently because of our appointment to lead the launch of Mahindra, India's first premium brand into the USA.
It will be fascinating to see how my keynote speech is received as well as the speech from media/communications planning agency Naked who will also speak. India is in the midst of a marketing and media evolution. There is an incredible interest in what is happening outside of India. There is also a desire to make contacts and forge friendships with people from around the world.
StrawberryFrog has grown considerably the past year in the US but also by opening an office in Sao Paulo Brazil where the agency has swelled to 50 staffers. We will open an office in India and I expect that we could replicate the successes of our other BRIC-market-Brazilian-Frog-office. It's success has hinged on StrawberryFrog's position as the premier convergence agency.
Business growth has a lot to do with business learnings. The learnings in Brazil vs. the learnings in say the US, Europe or Australia are highly relevant to the Indian market which has incredible talent, enormous potential and a desire by leading business elite to build premium global brands - and most importantly for innovation and convergence.
But getting back to the reason for this post, here are some of the stories being filed in the Indian press.
Mint Wall Street Journal India (a fun read)
Story
‘Today, ideas are what matter’ Scott Goodson
There's an opportunity for the Indian marketing community to establish a brand-building culture. The founder and CEO of independent creative agency StrawberryFrog, Scott Goodson tells Mint what makes creative shops more fun and agile than the “dinosaurs”. With offices in New York, Brazil and Amsterdam, Goodson and his team have managed to challenge the big boys globally and have worked with brands such as Morgan Stanley, Frito Lay, Asics and Microsoft.
Economic times Brand Equity (very interesting articles btw)
Story
"Around a week back, the science pages heralded the discovery of the fossilised remains of what was probably the world's largest prehistoric frog. Beelzebufo ampigna, it is speculated, had a diet that may have included young dinosaurs. Cut to the present and the conflict between dinosaur and frog does not seem to be entirely done with. In the marketing communications space, decade-old agency Strawberry Frog claims to be waging war against the dinosaurs of advertising -monolithic global networks and their holding companies. Strawberry Frog has won a legion of admirers on the internet, a domain it has close ties to..."
Story
"Goa, as many of its visitors over the decades will attest to, is a great place to get naked. At Goafest, though, Naked is out to get people. Jon Wilkins, co-founder of Naked Communications, is one of the many visitors to Goafest, dropping by for a lot more than hitting the beaches and giving a lecture or two. He intends looking for talent that can hopefully be induced to start up the Indian operations of Naked. It’s a search that began around a month ago in Mumbai, when Wilkins was in town to address the Indian Society of Advertisers. Hanging out with some of India’s biggest clients has convinced him that there’s space for a shop like Naked — a communication consultancy that focuses almost exclusively on client strategy, and outsources creative execution. His agency is among the new breed that set themselves against the monoliths. The common factor is an emphasis on media neutrality. Many of them are being sought out by the world’s most traditional, hidebound advertisers. In a typical pitch, says Wilkins, there’s generally a couple of large agencies and one ‘wild card’. Naked aside, others in the wild card category include the New York-based Anomaly and StrawberryFrog, whose founder Scott Goodson, incidentally, is visiting Goafest..."
Indian Television
"This year, Goafest has invited stalwarts from the ad world including Williams Murray Hamm's creative partner Garrick Hamm; Donald Gunn, the author of the famous Gunn Report; One Club's Kevin Swanepoel; John Harlow, the founder of Naked; Craig Davis, worldwide creative chief of JWT; Scott Goodson, founder-CEO of Strawberryfrog; Saatchi & Saatchi NY's chief creative officer Tony Granger; and Crispin Porter & Bogusky creative director Alex Bogusky."
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Posted by: Leon Stoltz | April 06, 2008 at 10:22 AM