MxMIndia

Tag: Scarecrow Communications

  • Scarecrow has appointed Iraj Fraz as head of creative operations in Delhi

    Iraj Fraz now at Scarecrow to head creative in Delhi

    Iraj Fraz

    By A Correspondent

    Scarecrow has appointed Iraj Fraz as head of creative operations in Delhi. Fraz started his career at Leo Burnett in 2002,moving on to McCann, Mumbai and in 2006, shifted to Contract Delhi working on brands like Dominos, NIIT and Dabur. Following that, he spent about five years as a CD at JWT Delhi (till Jan 2013), where he did many popular as well as award-winning campaigns for Airtel DTH, Pepsi, Horlicks and Nokia.  His next stop was Y&R, Dubai, to work on Coke, Emaar properties and Mashreq Bank.

     

    Raghu Bhat

    Says Raghu Bhat, Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications, “I have followed his career closely since I first worked with him in McCann. And he offers the perfect mix of world-class creativity, an instinctive understanding of the marketing problem, people skills and the hunger to do more.” Adss Manish Bhatt, also Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications, “We have five brands in Delhi. It’s a decent base. Under Fraz and Anuj Mehtani, who heads account management in Delhi, we now have the people who can power Scarecrow Delhi to the next level.”

     

    Says Fraz, “I came back because I love advertising. Here, in the bylanes of Chandni Chowk and the boardrooms of banks, people discuss ads. We care about advertising, and that makes our country the it place to create interesting work.”

     

    Why Scarecrow? “Because here, the focus hasn’t just been on let’s-do-work-that-keeps-the-business but on let’s-create-work-that-starts-conversations. And I’d like to keep the momentum going.”

     

  • A customer is more conscious, globally travelled, and knows what he wants

    Nahar Group unveils new campaign targeting kids

    By A Correspondent

     

    Nahar Group has taken children’s lifestyle factor to the next level via a new campaign.

     

    With the emergence of the concept of nuclear family and the culture of having one child with both parents working, it has changed the way a customer looks at buying a home. A customer is more conscious, globally travelled, and knows what he wants. The only child in the family plays a very important role in influencing the thoughts of the parents in shaping the future. In turn the parents also want to give their child the best and why not? Both working parents also have the means to provide the best to their child.

     

    Manju Yagnik – Vice Chairperson Nahar Group, said, “Based on these trends, we have strategized our campaign which talks about child’s LSF – Life Style Factor. It is always the parents who decide on the lifestyle they want to live and give their child. Through this campaign we are emphasising that a child’s upbringing is of utmost important in an environment that gives him ample of opportunity to use his creativity and imagination. This will provide a platform to think and behave differently.”

     

    Nahar’s Amrit Shakti provides an ideal environment to encourage a child’s creativity through its grandeur layout overlooking 5 lakh sq. ft. of vehicle free podium garden. The landscaping of the entire township has been conceptualized by the renowned Singapore based designer Saidah Taib, who has won accolades for designing this project, considered to be one of the world’s most futuristic projects.

     

    Manish Bhatt, Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications said, “The LSF campaign adds a fresh perspective to real estate advertising. It is both clutter-cutting as it stays away from the formula of showing the property facade. From a creative perspective, it is interesting as it takes a subtle dig at real estate advertising that features fake luxury shots of adults.”

     

  • The agency's prime mandate will be to reach out to the existing consumer base of Hungama.com and target digital music consumers across the country

    Hungama.com awards its creative mandate to Scarecrow Communications

    By A Correspondent

     

    Hungama.com has awarded its creative duties to Scarecrow Communications. With this appointment, the agency will be responsible for designing clutter breaking creative communication that further augments the presence of Hungama.com in the digital music industry.

     

    The agency’s prime mandate will be to reach out to the existing consumer base of Hungama.com and target digital music consumers across the country via 360 degree creative communications that maximise the potential of various medium including print, OOH and digital.

     

    Sidhartha Roy

    Commenting on the appointment, Siddhartha Roy, CEO at Hungama.com said, “Scarecrow Communications comes with a widespread portfolio of media and entertainment brands. With the agency’s deep understanding of the sector and innovative creative campaigns for various brands over the years, we have decided to award the creative mandate to them. We at Hungama.com look forward to a fruitful association with Scarecrow Communications that can help us drive our vision towards being a preferred music streaming service.”

     

    Raghu Bhat

    On winning the account, Raghu Bhat, Founder & Director at Scarecrow Communications said, “Hungama.com is the pioneer in digital entertainment. A new-age brand that exists resides at the cusp of devices, music, Bollywood and the internet – four forces that touch the lives of almost every Indian. We are thrilled with this mandate and will also treat this as a great learning opportunity.”

     

  • The account was won following a multi-agency pitch that included top agencies of the country

    Scarecrow bags creative mandate of Radio City 91.1 FM

    By a correspondent

     

    Scarecrow Communications has won the creative mandate for Radio City 91.1 FM, one of the leading radio networks in the country. The account was won following a multi-agency pitch that included top agencies of the country and will be handled by the agency’s Mumbai branch.

     

    Ashit Kukian

    Talking about the development, Ashit Kukian, President & COO, Radio City 91.1 FM said, “Radio City is a robust media brand and it is a matter of great pride that after 13 years of inception, we are now considered synonymous to the category. With radio industry poised for the next phase of growth, we see a need to further augment the brand Radio City and therefore called for creative partners. We were overwhelmed with the enthusiasm and participation of the creative agencies. We narrowed down on Scare Crow communications after evaluating their past credentials and their radio understanding and are confident that they would partner our efforts.  We look forward to some great work from them.”

     

     

    Manish Bhatt

    On winning the account, Manish Bhatt, Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications, said “We are very ecstatic about this win, as Scarecrow has a soft spot for radio as a powerful communication medium. The fact that we won this account soon after we were crowned ‘The Agency of the Year’ at Mirchi Kaan, 2014, is truly the icing on the cake and what makes it a special achievement for us. Radio City being one of the big players of the industry, it gives us the challenge and excitement that we look for in building a brand”

     

    Arunava Sengupta (Joy), Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications, added, “This win is very significant as to work on a Radio brand it is very important to have knowledge of local nuances of different cities as radio needs to connect at a local level. I am really looking forward to deepening the connect that Radio City already has along with the brand team.”

     

  • After refreshing the content and introducing four new shows, Zee Khana Khazana is all set to present its first television ad, offering solutions for everyday kitchen woes

    Khana Khazana’s first TVC to help women fight kitchen woes

    By A Correspondent

     

    After refreshing the content and introducing four new shows, Zee Khana Khazana is all set to present its first television ad. Through the ad the channel aims to reinforce its positioning through its tagline ‘Ab Khana Sawal Nahi, Lajawab Hai!’

     

    ‘Kal kya banaoon?’ the thought behind the TVC, captures the mindset of every housewife, which is full of questions when it comes to making the everyday meal. It is an insight, picked from their everyday life, which reverberates with them daily. The TVC shows a day in the life of a housewife who battles with the question kal kya banaoon all day, without getting an answer from anyone. Finally, she finds the answer in her own living room, with Zee Khana Khazana. Mansi Parekh, a popular television actress will be seen portraying the role of the worried Indian housewife, with ‘kal kya banaoon’ thought always on her mind.

     

    Amit Nair

    Amit Nair, Business Head, Zee Khana Khazana says “We realized that today’s homemaker is fighting an everyday battle in the kitchen, all alone; because there is no bigger challenge than rustling up tasty, exciting and nutritious meals for her family, day after day. Inevitably, she grapples with numerous food-related questions every day. With this ad we want to strengthen Zee Khana Khazana’s commitment to solve every woman’s food-related query. Scarecrow has done a fabulous job in presenting our proposition on screen. We are confident that our ad will appeal to our target audience.”

     

    Agency name: Scarecrow Communications

    Creative Team: Raghu Bhat, Manish Bhatt, Sarvesh Raikar, Kapil Tammal, Sushil Chintak.

    Account Management: Arunava Sengupta, Amitabh Sreedharan, Ankita Ray, Benny Thomas

    Director: Krish (Radhakrishna Jagarlamudi)

    Producer: Satish Fenn

    Production house: Ever After

     

  • Behind every great commercial is super strategy. Every week, MxMIndia will bring you the brief and the strat as given by the client and whatever else that went into creating a winning ad

    AdStrat: Roma switches: The leader talks

    Raghu Bhat
    Manish Bhatt

    Raghu Bhat and Manish Bhatt, Founder Directors, Scarecrow Communications

     

    Name of the campaign/ad: Roma

     

    The brief: To make a point about Roma being the best-selling in the modular switches catgory in an effective manner.

     

    Research: Roma is the largest selling modular switch by a distance and yet, very few people know this.

     

    Key issues: The campaign uses foreigners as tourist guides and makes them speak Hindi, in their own distinctive manner, without tutoring them, and all of this adds to the enjoyment. Not many people know that Roma is from the Anchor Panasonic stable. This ad also seeks to address that.

     

    Media Vehicles: TVC led

     

    Differentiating factor: The TVC uses memorable casting, comic timing and interesting locales, such as the Wat Arun Pagoda, an underwater oceanarium and the lush green forests around Pattaya. There is a huge thrill in watching hi-funda foreigners getting bested by Indians. This is the layer that makes the ads even more fun.

     

    Market / Client feedback: To establish the leadership premise of Roma without being too serious. It’s a bit too early to gauge, but the commercials manage to convey this message effectively.

     

  • Team Scarecrow jammed with Agnee to draft the lyrics and roped in a technology partner to design this one-of-its-kind app

    After 1.5lakh+ views, Agnee’s ‘reveal yourself’ video is unmuted for launch of B’lue!

    By A Correspondent

     

    Almost a week back, on July 23, Scarecrow Communications had launched a silent music video featuring Agnee to promote Danone-Narang’s new drink B’lue. People were asked to lip-read and guess the lyrics. Through a specially designed Facebook application, one could type in the lyrics. On submitting their lyrics, every user got a score on the correct words revealed and more interestingly, the correct words got unmuted in the silent music video on replaying.

     

    In just a week’s time, the campaign got a whopping 1.5 lakh+ views. With engagement and curiosity at their peaks, on July 30, the original track – Reveal Yourself – was unmuted and released. Here is when the brand B’lue unveiled its association with Agnee and the idea behind the ‘Reveal Yourself’ campaign.

     

    Renu Bansal, Head-Marketing, Danone-Narang Beverages said: “Today’s youth is aware of what they want to pursue and don’t live a life dictated by others. With our new campaign ‘Reveal Yourself’, we wish to foster a passion to inspire people to pursue their dreams. Agnee has beautifully captured this sentiment in their music video. ‘Reveal Yourself’ is B’lue’s tribute, along with Agnee, to all Punekars.”

     

    The premise of the campaign was unique. Amitabh Sreedharan, AVP-Account Management, Scarecrow Communications said: “Before launching the brand nationally, Danone-Narang was looking to do a pilot launch for B’lue in Pune. While a print and outdoor campaign was created under the theme of ‘Reveal Yourself’, there still had to be a big buzz-generating activity that engaged the youth of Pune.”

     

    Kapil Tammal, Executive Creative Director, Scarecrow Communications said: “Since ‘Reveal Yourself’ is all about inspiring people to follow their hearts, team Scarecrow decided to help the brand philosophy come alive through a song that connects with the youth of Pune. While Agnee is today a popular national band, it’s still very much Pune-based. Agnee’s popularity among the youth of Pune and the roaring music culture of the city was only to leverage upon.”

     

    Team Scarecrow jammed with Agnee to draft the lyrics and roped in a technology partner to design this one-of-its-kind app. Sarvesh Raikar, Creative Director, Scarecrow Communications said: “Besides launching the silent video, we created a range of interactive elements that drove engagement further. Videos were shot with Mohon and Koco (the band’s lead singers) playing dumb charades and helping people guess the lyrics.  Fun stuff like lip-reading tutorials and crosswords were also uploaded to boost the buzz.”

     

    The band members also interacted with the participants through Twitter and encouraged them.

     

    To catch the teaser phase action, visit Agnee Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/agneelive

     

     

  • Scarecrow Communications has promoted Kapil Tammal from a Creative Director to an ECD

    Kapil Tammal promoted as Scarecrow ECD

    By Shubhangi Mehta

     

    Kapil Tammal

    Kapil Tammal joined Scarecrow Communications, Mumbai as creative director almost two years back and has now been promoted to Executive Creative Director. He moved in from McCann Erickson, Mumbai where he was a creative director. At Scarecrow Communications, Mr Tammal reports into the agency’s co-founders (cum directors) Raghu Bhat and Manish Bhatt and will continue reporting into them.

     

    On Mr Tammal’s elevation, Manish Bhatt, founder, Scarecrow, said: “Kapil has completed almost two years at Scarecrow. We are now looking at building a strong team headed by Kapil. As a worker Kapil brings in a lot to the table in terms of hard work, quality and he has a wonderful sense of design and idea. We knew hiring him was a great decision, but with his performance he has not left any doubt anywhere. At Scarecrow, we believe in growth of deserving workers and we decided to promote Kapil and credit him for his immense hard work.”

     

    Manish Bhatt

    Kapil Tammal, now ECD, Scarecrow, said: “It’s been a fantastic year. I’m happy and hoping to build a very strong team and put forth as much as I can in terms of great work.”

     

    Mr Tammal studied at the Sir JJ Institute of Applied Art and some of the brands he has worked with in the advertising industry, include Vaseline, Pears, Liril, Maybelline, Hanes, Wonderbra, The Economic Times, Onida, Siemens, Britannia, Nerolac, NDTV, Cathay Pacific, BIG Cinemas, EsselWorld Theme Park, NEO Cricket/Sports, Indian Oil Corporation, SBI, UTI, HDFC, Tata Indicom, Eureka Forbes amongst others

     

  • Last week's acquisition of BBH by Publicis has led many to question whether agencies should stay independent or scale up with a network

    Stay solo or scale up with a biggie?

     

    By Tuhina Anand with inputs from Shruti Pushkarna

     

    Creative hotshops have always co-existed with the bigger networks and every now and then one hears of a celebrated hotshop being taken over by a network. Publicis Groupe, which already had a stake in BBH, has now taken 100 per cent stake in the agency. Considering that BBH is among the most celebrated creative boutiques, the development makes one think that the lifespan of an independent has become short and for them to scale, being part of a network has become a necessity.

     

    Bharat Dabholkar, who collaborated his agency Zen Advertising with Publicis Groupe in 1999, is very clear that the only way to scale up is to merge with a network. He said: “When we started, we were servicing homegrown brands; but we realized that with global brands coming in, we had a handicap in getting them on board. By being part of the network, we immediately got access to big, international brands. I think it’s a personal choice, if you are happy servicing a handful of clients, then you can remain independent; but if you have ambitions of growing your outfit, then the way ahead is to merge with a network.”

     

    Also read:

    Anil Thakraney: BBH must remain the black sheep

    “I have also felt that when a client is small in size or have just started with their marketing activities, they will come to a small agency but after having tasted success with grown ambitions, they ditch the small agency and would want a bigger agency on board. They still might continue to work with small agency, but that usually is on few projects,” he added.

     

    Giving an understanding of the situation, a well-known financial advisor to media groups said: “First of all, it depends on how well the creative hotshop is doing. My view is that if it’s doing well and wants to scale up, the only way to do that is to align with some network. And the network will align only if you are doing well. If you are just a creative whiz who’s not doing well, nobody will go after you. They will go after you only if you can bring something to the table. I think one has to also look at the age profile of the creative guys. If you are young, then you can afford to be in the saddle of a creative hotshop for a long time without considering the possible money that you can make because you can afford to wait. If you are in the mid 40s, then it’s time to sell it whenever you are at your peak. So that’s an important consideration, what stage are you in.”

     

    The scale a network offers is one way that helps the creative hotshops. The second is the access to full-time retainers with most of the bigger clients. The advisor echoes what Mr Dabholkar said: “Whatever you see or hear of bigger clients working with smaller agencies, it’s not a permanent relationship and it goes from campaign to campaign. So when you have that scale, you might end up being the only agency on the roster. So that’s an advantage. Also you need to look at networks which don’t have a great reputation in India, they would like to go after these agencies. For instance, Ogilvy would not like to go after anybody because they have a good reputation here. Whereas for a Omnicom, which is internationally well-known for its creative body of work, there’s nobody here in India. So the networks also look at it from that perspective, because it will be an image booster for that group in India.”

     

    But then what about losing one’s independence? After all in most cases the reason the creative people to start their own outfit is the independence that comes with it as opposed to being with bigger agencies. Mr Dabholkar clarified: “As for losing our independent streak being a part of network, my experience was different. Publicis was a delightful network to work with, as it was understood that we had an entrepreneurial streak so they didn’t interfere in our day to day functioning. However, the big help came in terms of sharing knowledge and supporting us with key inputs on businesses.”

     

    Sajan Raj Kurup

    Mr Dabholkar set up a small agency in Tanzania which has seen positive growth. He is not averse to collaborating this agency to a Network; however he feels that latter would not be interested at this point of time as they wouldn’t see much value in that part of the world in terms of advertising. However, he says that such collaboration helps the people who have worked, as it widens their horizon and opens new windows of opportunity.

     

    So it is clear that to scale up sooner or later, either selling of stake or some kind of collaboration is required. However, Raj Kurup who started CreativeLand Asia is very clear that he wouldn’t want to sell because he clearly believes in the India growth story, though he is open to partnering on his own terms. He is looking at expanding footprint and opening office in London. CLA already has a regional office in Singapore.

     

    Even Scarecrow Communications that was set up two years back is clear that they have enough going on their own and wouldn’t want to sell stake but are open to collaborating with partners that will help them in maximizing their potential.

     

    Naresh Gupta

    Naresh Gupta, Managing Partner, Bang in the Middle, who along with partners has got on this entrepreneurial venture recently, said: “There is a future for independents, and a big one at that. Yes BBH got acquired, and some more may get over a period of time, but that for me is the process of evolution. BBH did path breaking work, made a name for itself, and as brand will still stand for the same black sheep thinking even if it’s a part of a network. I see the same thing to happen here.

     

    Independents will be the new force. They are nimble, they don’t have previous baggage, they will take greater risk, be more lateral in terms of business model, and be a challenge to the large networks.

     

    The larger networks at some stage will always be interested in the independents precisely for the values of thinking different and taking risks. Till the large networks protect those values, it may not even be a bad thing.”

     

    Prasanth Mohanachandran

    Clearly there are both merits and demerits of aligning with bigger players. Prasanth Mohanachandran, Founder Director, AgencyDigi, said: “A network always has one advantage – of scale. The other advantage they have is, when it comes to multinational brands, most of the brand decisions are not taken in India but in other parts of the globe. When independents come into play, learning is going to be tough because it’s actually two companies talking. The good part about independents is that it is easier for them to think beyond conventional framework. Network agencies think through a set framework, there is a standard process for creative ideation. Also, in independents, egos are smaller.”

     

    Mr Mohanachandran feels that while scale is important, when it comes to talking to different markets, it might be difficult to take an idea across to different international markets. “If you play cleverly there are ways around it. If you have like-minded partners, it is easy to work with independents. They have the power to take an idea across the globe, someday it will happen, but it’s still few years away.  In a network of course, there is a larger pool of experience behind running an organization. There are more people, in a network you don’t have to worry about too many things so that’s always a benefit,” he added.

     

    So ultimately, it’s a personal choice. You can remain small and thrive or you can have ambitions to scale up where merging with a network seems a better option. Naved Akhtar and Freddy Birdy have been among the most celebrated duo in advertising who quit and started their own agency in 2003, are very clear that they want to remain independent.

     

    Naved Akhtar

    Naved Akhtar, who quit after spending close to 25 years in mainline advertising, said: “For us it was a question of what we want to do with our life. You can grow and keep running endlessly but we wanted to do our own thing, remain independent and enjoy a quality life. We deliberately don’t want to expand but remain small. We have some big clients like ITC and we are comfortable working with them and never felt that our size was an impediment in delivering.”

     

    Clearly, there is no clear answer to advertising agencies aligning with large networks. To each it’s own, we guess.

     

  • Simplicity and hard work seem to have worked for Scarecrow Communications which has been on an account-winning spree

    Scarecrow’s simple way to Success

     

    By Tuhina Anand

     

    We try harder as we are not number 1! This line aptly sums up the attitude that has helped in the success of Scarecrow Communications. Launched in February 2010, the agency has seen growth which has surpassed the expectation of the four partners – Manish Bhatt, Raghu Bhat, Arunava (Joy) Sengupta and Vivek Suchanti.

     

    The mantra for success as Manish Bhatt himself puts is that like the name of the agency, Scarecrow: We as an organization are rooted to ground and are earthy in our approach. We believe in doing hard work and we have taken the longer route to success while slogging to reach where we are today. We don’t get swayed by things happening around and do not get into creative indulgence, but do work that brings a real difference to our clients’ brands.

     

    Mr Bhatt recounts the journey that they embarked on with Scarecrow – even before they started, the duo (Manish and Raghu) were approached by a few network agencies and some independents to work for them as freelancers. So when they actually announced Scarecrow, they had four clients on board.

     

    CLIENTSPEAK
     

    Subhrangshu Neogi, Director- Brand and Corporate Communications, Religare Enterprises

    Working with Scarecrow has been exciting so far. They don’t approach the engagement like a typical client-agency matrix but do so more from a partnership context. They sit and co-create – co-creation is not just lip service. The team, including the founding partners themselves, make that extra effort to understand the little details and nuances which eventually leads to the creation of a good breakthrough end product.

     

    Jiby Thomas, Co-founder, VP, Marketing, Quikr

    We decided to partner with Scarecrow because of their ability to  align their creative thinking to business strategy and develop breakthrough creative that connects with consumers. They are young, hungry and passionate about the work they do and brands they work for.

     

    Dinesh Aggarwal, Joint Managing Director, Anchor Electricals

    From the outset, Anchor was clear that we wanted to associate with a small agency. As the company was evolving and moving away from being a family owned business to being a part of an MNC, there were a lot of processes which were not in place and it was time for a change. What we had in mind was an agency that would become an integral part of our organisation and understand our challenges and meets them effectively. We wanted the agency to grow along with the company. With Scarecrow, the partnership has unfolded exactly as we had envisioned. They understand our issues and requirements and very often they come with more solutions than what we have asked for. In fact, even during the pitch process we were impressed by their involvement with the brand. More importantly, my team is comfortable working with them and I would say that its been a positive relationship.

     

    One thing the partners were clear about, even when they started, was to not establish themselves as boutique, but as a full service agency. Raghu Bhat said: “We wanted Scarecrow to be one-stop that delivers a client’s business and marketing solutions. Also we were clear that for an organization to sustain growth, we need to deliver diverse solutions.”

     

    Interestingly, the agency’s digital presence is just one page that gives their contact details along with their logo. The explanation being that they don’t want people to come with any prejudice while approaching the agency, hence the single contact page works best for them as it gives out crucial detail and has even given them many leads.

     

    As Mr Bhatt explained: “It’s a clean slate for those who want to connect with us with no preconceived notions, and I think this approach has worked best for us.”

     

    When they started out, Joy Sengupta explained, there were 18 people and within 4-6 months they wanted more people on board. “The truth is that we have ambitions but we were never over-confident or over-ambitious, and in that sense we underestimated our potential. Now the agency has over 50 people on board and has offices in Mumbai and Delhi and is looking to expand footprint.”

     

    Another reason, according to Manish Bhatt, that has worked to Scarecrow’s advantage: “Advertising is ultimately people’s business and if you don’t recognize that, you would not grow. We have consciously tried to get fairly senior resources in the agency and have focused on empowering our second line of resources. We take pride in the fact that we have invested in people.”

     

    The focus has been to give best service to the clients, and for this the agency had to do certain trade-offs. Most importantly, the agency didn’t concentrate on any awards nor entered for awards, instead they focused on client servicing and acquiring new businesses. However, getting new business has not been an issue, as many came because of the equity the partners enjoy in the industry.

     

    Mr Bhatt said: “Scarecrow, since its launch, has managed to create buzz and remain at the top of mind of the industry. For us getting new business has not been a constraint.”

     

    So what is it that has made the independents take the industry by such a storm – is it because the value for money small sized agency would provide? On the contrary, Mr Sengupta pointed: “We are rather expensive, as we don’t have scale that big agency networks provide. So, if I have a new client, I might actually hire new people to look after that business, than in a bigger agency which might just end up reshuffling the resources.”

     

    Another practice that Scarecrow doesn’t encourage is taking up businesses on project basis, 90 per cent of their business is on retainer basis, allowing them a sense of stability.

     

    While they have Nestle, Danone, Religare, Future Capital and a host of other businesses but when asked where are the big ticket spenders who many of the independents have in their kitty, Mr Bhatt said: “We are only two-years old, and I think the big brands would come to us, but we have not designed from the beginning to have them, as we believe we must do good work and we will get good work by default. We have got the mid-sized businesses and probably the bigger spenders too will follow.”

     

    Right now the focus for the agency is to build the Delhi branch and look at getting more visible work. It has recently come out with 10 second ad for Quickr that has been garnering good reviews.

     

    Scarecrow also has a gallery that is a platform for encouraging talent. Besides they encourage industry experts to come at the gallery and share their view points with others in the industry. They also have initiated MoM or Method of Madness which is a reverse internship program, where instead of few interns coming and working with them, team Scarecrow goes on campus and participates and interacts with the students.

     

    Asked if Scarecrow was open to selling its stakes, Raghu Bhat replied: “I think we have enough going in India, so we not looking for selling any stakes. However, we are open to collaborating with partners that will help us in maximizing our potential.” The agency also doesn’t rule out the possibility of acquiring an entity outside of India which will help them in expanding their footprint.

     

    Mr Bhatt concluded: “We are a group of well grounded, down to earth people. When you see us at any pitch you can make out that we don’t come with any swagger that many in the business come with. We are genuinely interested in the brand and want to make it work for the clients in the market place. We might not have the big telecom spender or the cola giant but our clients, with variety of portfolio, truly gives us an opportunity to bring creativity that will help their businesses grow.”

     

  • The account will be handled out of Scarecrow's Mumbai office

    Scarecrow bags creative duties for Emami Healthy & Tasty

    By A Correspondent

     

    Emami Healthy & Tasty has appointed Scarecrow Communications as its creative agency. The account will be handled out of Scarecrow’s Mumbai office.

     

    Healthy & Tasty, from Emami Biotech Limited with a presence across 6 states, has an ambitious plan to go national during the course of this financial year. Despite being in existence for a short period of just over two years in a highly complex category with various regional variants and preferences and a litany of national and local players, the brand has been able to create a premium imagery and consumer preference for itself and is well on it’s way to becoming a strong national brand.

     

    Saroj Chakraborty, CEO, Emami Biotech, said: “Healthy & Tasty is a young brand with a strong appetite for growth and needed an equally young creative agency with great creative abilities to be able to match its aspirations. Scarecrow fits the bill and I have no doubt that their creative skills would be able to bring forth the inherent goodness of the brand to the consumer and help translate the brand’s aspirations into reality.”

     

    Manish Bhatt, Founder-Director, Scarecrow Communications, said: “This is one of the sweetest wins for Scarecrow. Emami is one of the most advertising-savvy companies inIndiaand it is an honor to work on one of their most prestigious brands.”

     

    Joy Sengupta, Founder-Director, Scarecrow Communications, added: “There are truly very few national brands in edible oil. We hope to create advertising that will help Healthy & Tasty find a place in a woman’s heart and also, her kitchen.”

     

  • The business will be approximately in the range of Rs15-20 crore once the product gets launched countrywide

    Danone Narang appoints Scarecrow for B’lue

    By A Correspondent

     

    Danone Narang Beverages has appointed Scarecrow Communications as its creative agency for its beverage brand, B’lue. The agency was selected after a comprehensive selection process. The business will be approximately in the range of Rs15-20 crore once the product gets launched countrywide. The incumbent on the business is Everest Brand Solutions. The win is significant to Scarecrow as Danone, as a brand internationally, is aligned to the Y&R group and has strayed from this in just few markets, and India is one among them.

     

    An official from Danone Narang has confirmed this development.

     

    The brand B’lue is a new concept in ready-to-drink beverages. It is a restorative drink that leaves you feeling refreshed and uplifted, thanks to it’s unique formulation. B’lue is currently being test marketed in Pune. In 2010, Danone (the world’s second largest bottled water company) partnered Narang Beverages through a joint venture.

     

    Raghu Bhat, Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications said: “It’s a source of personal and professional pride to be associated with a brand like B’lue from Danone Narang Group. And there is a genuine opportunity to create interventions at multiple levels through the power of creativity.”

     

    Manish Bhatt, Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications added: “Danone has given the world iconic brands like Evian. Working on this new innovative FMCG brand conceived by Danone Narang – B’lue  – is one of the most exciting opportunities for Scarecrow. ”