By Our Staff
Gautam Reghunath & PG Aditiya’s indie agency, Talented, have launched of a new specialised social & culture marketing agency, ‘The New Thing’. Viren Noronha who previously led the social charter at Swiggy & Tinder joins as co-founder of the new entrepreneur-operated creative shop. Staffed entirely by creators, The New Thing’s primary focus for their brands will be to help them create cultural conversations and moments on social – something they believe very few brands are getting right. And true to their name, the agency does not want to shy away from keeping up with the ever changing landscape of the internet.
On the launch of the new venture, co-founder, Viren Noronha said: “Getting social right is hard. And, the way agencies and brands look at it needs a desperate refresh. My experience at Swiggy & Tinder showed me evidence of a crucial shift – it’s not about what your brand is saying, it’s about what people are saying about your brand. To keep yourself relevant you need to lean into those conversations. You need to contribute to internet culture with your content. And, you need creators who do that for themselves every day, as part of your team. Look at some of India’s most popular campaigns over the last few years – It’s not that people hate advertising, they just hate boring ads. Great advertising or social doesn’t force your audience to talk about you, it invites them to. And it certainly doesn’t need ‘30 posts a month’ to do that. The New Thing wants to help brands be in charge of those conversations, whether it’s ‘daily social’ or ‘spike campaigns’. We want to make brands work for the internet, not the other way around. I’m now excited to begin with colleagues and partners who, like me, believe that social done right is a growth function, not a cost centre.”
Talented’s founders, Gautam Reghunath & PG Aditiya added: “Viren has executed some of the most talked about social-first campaigns in India but we think he’s been masquerading as a brand-side marketer & an agency-side creative these last few years. Now in his avatar as a creative entrepreneur, we simply want to liberate him and his founding team and help them launch the social and culture agency of their dreams. There’s a clear reason why we’re launching this as a separate agency. Right from the kind of talent needed to workflow and processes, it’s become evidently clear that specialised social-first creative mandates for brands have to be run very differently from wider creative mandates. It’s equally exciting to see what an agency staffed & run entirely by creators looks like. It gives our clients a direct line to people who are shaping internet culture. All of this means we now believe we have a disruptive take on the business behind social-first creativity.”
Swiggy, the food delivery app, released a short video ad to celebrate its Gulab Jamun Uncle. This follows Swiggy’s recent campaign ‘Why Is This A Swiggy Ad?’ through OOH, front-page print ads across metros and on social media. Created by Talented advertising agency, WITASA is a User-generated content (UGC) marketing campaign.