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Tag: Catalysts

  • Catalysts to bridge the gap between digital growth & traditional agencies: Syed Amjad Ali

    Catalysts to bridge the gap between digital growth & traditional agencies: Syed Amjad Ali

    NEW DELHI: The marketing world has been in a state of constant flux for the past few years. There are emerging trends and technologies popping up everywhere, every few days. Brands are looking forward to ever smarter ways to engage with consumers. And the consumers are moving on to newer platforms for content consumption. While everything is moving at light speed, the marketing world might not really be abreast with trends that are always transforming. This has left a huge void in the industry, which former president of Mullen Lintas  Syed Amjad Ali is trying to fill with his new venture, Catalysts. 

    The start-up aims to utilise the infinite content pool available for non-TV assets today to deliver smarter, sharper, and platform-focused marketing solutions to clients, Ali told Indiantelevision.com’s Mansi Sharma in a recent conversation. 

    “I have spent more than 25 years at the same organisation, working on some stellar and hugely successful brands and campaigns. And I was thinking about my next step for the past year and a half. That’s when I started planning Catalysts because I felt there is a huge gap in how the world of consumers is evolving and how most agencies are dealing with that. Catalysts will bridge this gap with unique platform-centric solutions to its clients,” he elaborated. 

    Ali started his marketing journey almost three decades ago and played a big role in the success of brands like LG, OLX, Havell’s, and Micromax in India. He was also one of the founding members of Mullen Lintas in 2015. 

    It was naturally not a very easy decision for him to move on from an agency that he had started seeing as home. “I owe a lot of what I know to Lintas. It was where I got many unique opportunities at every step of my career and worked personally with legends like Balki (R. Balakrishnan) who helped my professional growth immensely,” he shared. 

    However, his zest to bring in a substantial change in the course of the industry prompted him to make the jump this year. “A very close friend of mine, who is a big brand consultant, told me that it is the perfect opportunity and time to start something new,” Ali quipped. 

    He added, “I have very little to lose right now. The whole industry is dealing with a lot at this time and I truly sense a huge pool of opportunities lying out there. The pace at which digital is evolving, especially with Covid2019, and how traditional agencies are evolving are very different. I want to speed up that whole process with the Catalysts.” 

    Ali also showed immense gratitude towards the whole industry and the people he has previously worked with, who are now extending supporting hands to him. 

    “Now I realise what I have truly earned with my journey at Lintas. It is this great sense of belief that the industry has in me. It is overwhelming to see so many of my older colleagues and people that I have worked with asking me if I need any help. They all are so eager and willing to participate in the journey of Catalysts,” he noted, with some emotion.

    Currently, Ali is working hard to develop a strong open-source model for Catalysts and looking to bring in fresh talent in the small team he is curating for phase one. For the majority of its operations, Catalysts is going to be geo-agnostic and will rely on modern-day technologies to not only deliver solutions but also manage team operations. 

    He happily added that they are already working on a few client projects, each in very different verticals and stages, and said to expect some exciting news in the coming weeks. 

  • #Throwback2020: Not letting a crisis go waste

    #Throwback2020: Not letting a crisis go waste

    NEW DELHI: While battling the great recession in 2008, then chief of staff in POTUS Barack Obama’s office Rahm Emanuel had famously stated, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. I mean, it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” Emanuel was possibly inspired by Sir Winston Churchill, who’s believed to have said something along those lines in the mid-1940s, when the world was engulfed in the second World War. The thought became an anchor for a number of entrepreneurs in the Indian advertising and marketing industry too,  as they navigated a world turned upside down by the Covid2019 pandemic. The result – we witnessed a number of new agencies and specialist arms popping up throughout the year. 

    ^atom

    It began with the launch of ^atom, an ad agency floated by Ogilvy ex-president – Mumbai and Kolkata Abhik Santara along with Yash Kulshresth and Ananda Sen. While the agency had been in the pipeline for more than five months before it was finally launched in April this year, it was a courageous decision on the team’s part to enter the market during the first phase of the lockdown. Well, the risk paid off, as they quickly won several accounts, including Lifology, Ahimsa Trust and Ezee. 

    Dentsu Marketing Cloud Video+

    Dentsu International’s Indian data science division fielded a unique OTT planner called Dentsu Marketing Cloud Video+ in April 2020. The tool provides an agnostic approach towards planning and buying on over-the-top TV (OTT) platforms. It, reportedly, became the first holistic product catering to planning and buying OTT audiences within the ecosystem. The tool was launched under the umbrella of DMC Explore, the proprietary Audience Intelligence tool of the data sciences division under its suite of products – the Dentsu Marketing Cloud (the overarching platform that houses DAN Data Labs).

    Happyness.me

    House of Cheer Pvt Ltd, which was founded by former Viacom18 COO and media personality Raj Nayak in 2019, announced the launch of their new division, Happyness.me in June. Happyness.me is a proprietary tool that measures the happiness quotient of corporations and its people using behavioural psychology, neuroscience, and data analytics, with inputs from experts in the field. 

    Ipsos Digital

    Ipsos India unveiled its platform Ipsos Digital to provide the clients with cutting edge online research tools to aid their decision making. Ipsos India also announced the launch of its first online research offering of Fast Facts, which is a fully automated, DIY, AI-supported express tool to cater to clients’ quick research and advisory needs.

    brandhalō

    After quitting a 12-year-long stint with Volvo Cars, its first Indian director Sudeep Narayan founded the brand advisory firm brandhalō in August 2020. It is a boutique advisory firm providing marcomm and integrated e-commerce solutions to deliver business performance. The firm intends to add the halo-effect to a brand/corporate reputation, thereby turning customers to evangelists and fans.

    DoyenOink Consulting

    Expanding its elaborate portfolio of offerings, Zoo Media kickstarted DoyenOink Consulting in September this year. DoyenOink is a transformation and management consulting firm which leverages data intelligence, technology interventions, inventive strategic thinking and impactful communication to drive systematic solutions for business challenges across the spectrum, be it business and product strategy; operational and process structure; revenue and sales strategy; growth strategy; and consumer outreach. 

    Kombat

    A niche marketing agency for the wellness industry, Kombat was launched in September 2020. The Delhi-based agency will provide services for brands in a variety of areas including social media, PR, events, collaborations, marketing strategy and more. It is founded by Neha Lidder, a specialist in marketing for over 20 years, and includes a team of professionals with backgrounds in design, PR, and digital marketing.

    RD&X Network

    Rajiv Dingra (previously founder and CEO of WATConsult, a digital agency part of Dentsu International), floated his latest entrepreneurial venture, RD&X Network, in October. It is said to be a deep-tech network that will drive brand, business, media and data transformation helping businesses globally become real-time, disruptive, and thereby achieve exponential growth. The company will leverage the impending deep tech and business model disruption across marketing, advertising, media, and business consulting with its offerings.

    Digital Edify

    Former FabIndia head of digital and social advocacy Gauri Awasthi also took the entrepreneurial route this year with the launch of an innovative design thinking and digital transformation enterprise named Digital Edify, DTBU, along with her co-founder Aakash Shrivastava. The agency aims to help build brand awareness, brand salience, desire, generate demand, convert into sales for brands by being advisors, brand advocates, and growth hackers. 

    Wondrlab

    Advertising and brand communication leaders Saurabh Varma, Vandana Verma and Rakesh Hinduja collaborated to launch a platform-first start-up Wondrlab. The unique agency comes with three key verticals – content, experience, and digital business transformation to help clients win in the new marketing landscape. The agency also partnered with Amit Akali’s WYT in its first acquisition. 

    Sensibly Weird

    A former WPP talent, adman Subhas Warrier along with his partner Shyam Musthafa started a multidisciplinary creative solutions platform – Sensibly Weird Company in November this year. Based in Kochi, the company will help brands grow by creating “honest stories, designs, and creatives that break through the noise.”

    Branding Edge

    Former Enormous Brands’ strategist Rahul Tekwani floated his own strategic communication venture Branding Edge Strategic Communications and Advisory in December. It focuses on developing a brand and reputation program to help achieve business goals, build awareness and credibility, and will enhance the long-term enterprise value of the clients.  The company will also be providing 360-degree services, which include branding, design, digital strategy and research and data-driven storytelling, and influencer engagement strategies. 

    Catalysts

    Former president of Mullen Lintas, Syed Amjad Ali announced the launch of his own firm Catalysts in December. The start-up will be a content and brand strategy platform. 
     

  • Syed Amjad Ali launches content & brand strategy platform Catalysts

    Syed Amjad Ali launches content & brand strategy platform Catalysts

    NEW DELHI: One of the founding members and former president of Mullen Lowe Lintas, Syed Amjad Ali has announced the launch of his own start-up – Catalysts. The newfound agency will focus on content and brand strategy. 

    Ali had moved on from Mullen Lintas earlier this month, after spending more than 25 years at the company. 

    As shared by Catalysts in a press statement, the agency is working on two pillars: content and consulting services. It proposes to move into other verticals through partnerships. Catalysts will particularly leverage data and communicate meaningfully on non-TV assets.

    "The pandemic shifted goal posts and threw open opportunities. As budgets shrank, resources became tight and consumer attitudes shifted, efficiency and efficacy became more important. Locations became irrelevant. Virtual meetings enhanced punctuality and conversations became fruitful. This shift mandated a new sensibility, a new attitude and a new thought process. It can no longer be business as usual. However, given the size and baggage of the legacy setups, the struggle to change will continue. Next year, we would be at least five years ahead of time; it’s that kind of shift. One needs to be nimble in order to catch up. That’s at the heart of this opportunity. This process might have started long ago but the pandemic made it real and accelerated it,"  the statement read.

    Catalysts comes with the promise to always hunt for interesting brand stories no matter where they come from, and then collaborate and explore how best it can be told. The communication will be customised and tailor-made to fulfil aspirations.