Gods of small things

Small is not just beautiful. It it is also effective, efficient, gives one value for money and local. By small here we mean the home-grown retail advertising agencies.
Their relevance can be gauged from the fact that they are called the lifeline of leisure supplements. With lesser touch points, fast turnaround time, insightful local expertise, negotiation and buying skills and proficient on-ground execution, such retail media agencies are not merely surviving on their own, but booming in India.

Also, these agencies defy age and competition from international agencies to hold their ground.

Take for example AM Advertising, an agency which was started in 1967. “It’s quite strange how key accounts which were with us in 1967 when my dad started the agency, continue to be with us even now,” says Abid Lalji, owner of AM Advertising.

Most of these agencies are more than a decade old, while some are in existence for over 50 years. “Most of our employees have been with us for last 15-20 years. Dedication, determination and devotion help us develop long-term relationships with employees and clients,” adds Lalji.

And their size — or the sheer lack of it— is what gives such agencies a competitive edge. Last decade saw a deluge of international agencies setting up shop in India and bring their international expertise to aid international brands. However, that didn’t really affect the local/regional agencies as there was barely an overlap.

Sameer Makhani of Makhani Advertising, says, “We took it to our advantage and used our freedom to explore, penetrate and experiment with the norms of advertising to finally give the industry some memorable and clutter breaking campaigns.”

Moreover, the value-for-money tag attached with small agencies attracts a lot of international advertisers.

Shilpa Taneja of Adventure Advertising explains, “All companies have different budgets for national and regional marketing. With our sort of regional expertise and cost-effective strategies, even international clients find it logical to go through us instead of merely relying on multi-layered global agencies. An effective regional media policy would be incomplete without our regional expertise.”

Regional media agencies would generally get clients from auto, banking, real estate, apparels and F&B sector.

“If a new car is being launched, the auto company would hire an international agency with pan-India presence to make its presence felt, but to reach regional customers, say advertising in Maharasthra during the Ganpati or in West Bengal during the Durga Pooja, one would use regional expertise, and that’s where we come in,” says Sunil Seth of Sunny Advertising.

Such agencies operate with an average staff of 20-50 people and offer varied solutions to clients within an effective budget of Rs 4 lakh to Rs 5crore per month. “Our size provides us a lot of flexibility to strategise as per the budget. We have a deal for small, medium and large scale budgets,” claims Taneja.