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Tag: Shrenik Gandhi

  • Video content will be the game changer in 2019: Shrenik Gandhi, White Rivers Media

    Video content will be the game changer in 2019: Shrenik Gandhi, White Rivers Media

    MUMBAI: A young professional just graduated from an MBA college would be thrilled to join a reputed company like Future Group. But Shrenik Gandhi’s entrepreneur blood wouldn’t allow him to work under someone else.

    Within a year, he quit and started his own digital marketing agency White Rivers Media and propitiously the agency’s first client was Future Group who handed over the signing amount cheque during Gandhi’s exit interview at the company.

    Gandhi began his entrepreneurial journey in 2012 with his MBA batchmate Mitesh Kothari, who was then working for another digital agency WATConsult. What started off as a two-man operation today has a team size of over 75 people in its HQ in Mumbai. With the new office in DLF Cyber City, White Rivers Media is looking to localise all the digital, video and AI-driven e-commerce solutions for its NCR-based clients and more.

    With a strong hand over national and international clients from more than eight countries, it has worked with some of the top-valued brands in the country, executing many of their flagship campaigns and grabbing eyeballs internationally. The agency has worked across a range of industries and verticals, including brands like OnePlus, Viacom18, TATA Cliq, Zivame amongst others.

    Indiantelevision.com caught up with White Rivers Media CEO and co-founder Shrenik Gandhi to discuss the company’s initial struggles, progress and how things are panning out today.

    Excerpts:

    What was your initial capital like when you started off White Rivers Media?

    Our initial capital was just a laptop and our collective brains and I think that is the good and bad thing about digital that there is zero inventory/investment. Today, anyone with a good laptop and internet connection and some brain can start a digital company. 

    How was the opening year for you? Was it hard for you to recover money from clients since you were a new agency?

    Yes, it was difficult to recover money but, luckily, acquiring clients was never a challenge for us because we made sure that the effort and passion we put in was 100 per cent. Our numbers grew only because of word of mouth. We hired a professional business development team only eight months back which only shows that our work spoke about the company for nearly four years. Today, we have 100 per cent growth year-on-year in terms of revenue. 

    Who were your initial clients? And do you think your clients have evolved over the time?

    Our first five clients are still with us. In the first year, we had less than 10 clients but today, we have on board 50+ clients. Most of our business comes from retainer clients and 60 per cent of our clients are retainers. Our clients have also evolved with us and gone are the days when people said that digital is the future. Digital is not the future. The future is now! Most of our clients have accepted that and give us the required freedom to come up with the best possible campaign for them. 

    You recently expanded your reach and opened an office in Delhi. What’s your team size there and was this the right time to expand?

    In Delhi, we currently have a team of four people but we are actively recruiting people to expand the team. Delhi is a big market and it only made sense to scale up and cater to our clients there, by physically being present.

    So is Bangalore the next step for you?

    Possibly!

    You are traditionally a digital marketing agency, but today agencies are looking at expanding their reach and getting more clients to have a diverse portfolio. Will you also be looking at doing traditional medium anytime soon or are you only going to focus on digital marketing?

    To be honest, going forward, I don’t see any offline campaign which will not be supported by digital. It will just not make sense. Yes, a newspaper article is very important but how do we measure it? The campaigns in future will have to be more integrated and digital by itself will not be always enough. As for us, we will do traditional stuff but the core will always be digital. If the offline campaign augments to digital we will definitely do it. 

    Will you be open to getting acquired at any time if a larger network approaches you?

    It is a difficult question to answer, but if it makes return on investment (ROI), we will but only if the ROI makes sense today, after a year and five years down the line. Being a part of something bigger will only make sense when whoever we talk to makes strategic sense and the acquisition helps us in getting a seat next to bigger brands to pitch better with the agency’s larger network. 

    Is it safe to say that India has become digitally evolved with the advent of Jio, free data and cheaper mobile phones?

    People in rural areas today are also using voice search, Google maps and internet. Kids as young as 10-12 years have their own YouTube channel. The younger generation has skipped the laptop and they have gone straight to using mobile phones.  If we look at the data, India consumed roughly 25 crore GB of data per month before Jio was launched. Just after six months of launch, data consumption has grown up to 6X. With over 125 crore GB data consumption in India, we are today the highest data consuming nation in the world. 

    Every brand today wants to be present on digital as that seems to be the latest trend. Do you think digital investment will go up in future?

    It will have to increase because brands will eventually realise that the amount they are putting in on hoardings is not yielding them with enough revenue. Clients might want to cut on the cost of two hoardings to invest on digital. Even if they see the same revenue coming in for the company, it is an ROI for them. You will see a lot of budget being shifted to digital. A lot of campaigns being devised for digital first. Gone are the days when people would say that lets create a digital strategy but the world today has become digital and agencies will have to create strategies which will ultimately be digital. 

    Which category do you think will make the most of digital for advertising?

    I think FMCG and automobile will invest majorly on digital. FMCGs have traditionally been pathbreakers in the use of digital and they will continue to bet big on the medium. Smaller brands, however, will have to scale up and divide their advertising budget accordingly. 

    On a parting note, what do you foresee to be the game changer next year (2019)?

    Without a second thought, it has to be videos. The video consumption in India has gone up rapidly. The consumption of short format six-second, 10-second and15-second videos is increasing. The micro video content consumption has become crazy because people have a lot of free data. Today, four out of 10 posts on your Facebook newsfeed will be videos. One would wonder what is the benefit for the social network in this? Well, it would result in better stickiness on the app and more chances of having videos with free data and better revenue for the social platform.

  • Viviana Mall concludes #StopAcidSale campaign

    Viviana Mall concludes #StopAcidSale campaign

    MUMBAI: Digital marketing agency, White Rivers Media has recently wrapped up its digital amplification activity for Viviana Mall, called #StopAcidSale.

    The month-long campaign was a part of the third edition of mall’s property – Extraordinaari, which promotes women empowerment by recognising and honouring the trailblazers who are encouraging their fellow women to scale newer heights. The idea behind this activity was to establish thought leadership among its competitors along with creating awareness against the sale of acid and curb the same.

    To highlight the same, the mall hosted a fashion show with acid attack survivors and giving them a platform to share their story. 

    A two-pronged approach was devised to increase awareness about acid attacks, what causes them, and how to curb them and gather support for the admirable spirit of the acid attack survivors who walked the ramp. The entire activity was promoted massively on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 

    Facebook Stories was used extensively to convey the message. On Instagram too, the Insta-story feature was used with boomerangs, rewind, handsfree and a host of other story formats to create maximum reach. The mall reached out to global body positive brands on Twitter to bring the initiative to light.

    On Twitter, the hashtag #TweetASalute was used, which saw participation from more than 300 Twitter influencers, including NGOs and celebrities. Viviana Mall reached out to multiple international malls and urged them to join the movement. This, too, was supported by influencers. The campaign also saw support from ace music producer Sulaiman Merchant and actress Preeti Jhangiani.

    This campaign sparked thousands of conversations on social media about vitriolage and why the government should stop acid attacks. People all across geographies started talking about this campaign.

    The entire concept was later taken a notch ahead, in association with Bombay Times Fashion Week, where the acid attack survivors walked the ramp at the Bombay edition of the Times Fashion Week.

    White Rivers Media CEO and co-founder Shrenik Gandhi says, “We have been associated with Viviana Mall for the past four years and with every campaign we strive to provide them better. With this activity we aimed to take a step forward with Extraordinaari and we are glad we got such a positive response and support from digital influencers.”

    Viviana Mall senior vice president for marketing Rima Pradhan adds, “There are 250 to 300 acid attacks reported in India every year, despite laws restricting the sale of acid or other deadly chemicals. Acid is still sold openly in some parts of India in spite of there being various substitutes for it. We wanted to curb the sales of acids in India and are grateful to White Rivers Media for their support in the same.” 

    The entire activity potentially reached out to more than 2million+ people on Facebook and Instagram and created impressions of more than 10 million on Twitter

  • White Rivers Media starts ops in Delhi

    White Rivers Media starts ops in Delhi

    MUMBAI: White Rivers Media, a full-service digital marketing agency has announced its foray into Delhi NCR. 

    Operating out of Mumbai for over five years, the company is tagged as one of the fastest growing independent digital agencies in India and it now looks forward to cater to clients in the northern region through physical presence.

    Started in 2012, the agency services national and international clients from more than eight countries. The agency has worked with some of the top-valued brands in the country, executing many of their flagship campaigns and grabbing eyeballs internationally.

    The agency has worked across a range of industries and verticals, including brands like OnePlus, Viacom18, TATA Cliq, Zivame amongst others.

    With the new office in DLF Cyber City, White Rivers Media is looking to localise all the digital, video and AI driven e-commerce solutions for its NCR based clients and more.

    White Rivers co-founder and chief executive officer Shrenik Gandhi says, “Delhi NCR expansion has been one of the focus points of this quarter and we are glad to be taking the leap. Delhi NCR has been a key market in our growth story and with a localised office, we look forward to develop stronger relationships. Our core team will be actively involved to ensure the best operational SOP’s are followed and in getting the right talent on board.”

    White Rivers Media is the only agency to rank in Deloitte Tech Fast 50 Companies for two years consecutively, i.e., in 2016 and 2017. The agency also provides custom e-commerce solutions via its proprietary AI tool.

  • The comeback of iconic brands

    The comeback of iconic brands

    MUMBAI: In today’s metamorphic world, it is a constant struggle for brands to retain their identity and ensure that they are constantly in the minds of people. There have been iconic brands of the past which one fine day decided to vanish into thin air. Though still present, they dropped advertising and years later felt the urge to bounce back with a bang.

    Be it the mango flavoured drink Frooti, or Appy Fizz, Crompton products, deodorant Old Spice, mobile handset Nokia or television champion Onida with its iconic devil, all these brands were superheroes of their own time and in their respective categories but disappeared from television screens with digitisation and modernisation kicking in.

    After being away from television screens for sometime, Parle Agro’s Frooti hit the screens with a new brand ambassador Shahrukh Khan which helped in boosting sales. 

    Old Spice, which was known for its masculine and metrosexual male-dominated ad, came back with its new brand ambassador, Milind Soman in 2013, a man who women believe resonates with the company’s name and is an old spice himself. The ad helped Procter & Gamble (P&G) to target the metrosexual youth of today with India’s own ‘Iron Man’, doubling its revenue.

    The question for any comeback is whether to create a new product or reaffirm the brand legacy. Tonic Worldwide chief strategy officer Unmisha Bhatt believes that it is a bit of both since as long as the brands are broadly loyal to the category, the legacy is maintained. But in some cases, the brand and product may be obsolete. 

    She also notes that legacy can also backfire with millennials considering that the brand could be perceived as fuddy-duddy and outdated as the new age consumer is looking for ‘cooler’ brands and not heritage brands.

    Mediacom India managing partner Niti Kumar notes that once the brand has re-established itself it can move into line extensions and newer audiences and product line to stay relevant. 

    Today, we spend over 70 per cent of our waking hours on digital, especially mobile, with the rise of smartphone usage and data consumption in the broader strata of society. Hence, Bhatt thinks that while using a healthy media mix, brands need to embrace modern technologies so that their strategy is relevant not only for today but is also future-proof.

    While traditional media including television, hoardings, pamphlets among others would have been a great way to communicate and get the message across 20-30 years ago, they are no longer relevant. Today, regardless of the product, digital is the key to every brand’s communication and, hence, brands that want to come back should leverage it.

    One of the most important qualities that a brand needs to possess in this digital age is vigilance as today’s consumer needs answers and assistance at the drop of a hat and if a brand fails to deliver, there is a greater possibility of it snowing in Mumbai than of them giving you a second chance.

    Brands need to stay true to their legacy as it is after all their greatest asset, according to White Rivers Media CEO and co-founder Shrenik Gandhi. He also suggests brands to never underestimate the power of a beautiful story as stories make sales pitches palatable and no one likes to be sold to.

    Brands should play to their strength but they should not overestimate what their heritage brings to the table. Kumar thinks that sometimes, brands tend to think that because they’ve had a history and legacy in the past, it will still be relevant today, but that is not true and brands need to realise it because the consumer and market are evolving.

    For Gandhi, Maggi’s comeback after battling the shattering of trust and the rise of an unprecedented new competitor was something that kept all marketers hooked and was a historic example. To find a place back in the hearts, minds and plates of customers is tough, and Maggi did it effectively, albeit in a lot more than two minutes.

    While for Kumar Old Spice ad stood out among the rest, Bhatt thinks that Onida campaign was a fine example of a comeback and the recent television commercials during IPL matches are an example of that. They have evoked a great response, touching the nostalgic chord of the older generations and the contemporary ‘devil’ appealing to the younger masses also. However, it would have been exciting to see Onida also take a digital leap and connect with the millennials more smartly with engagement driven campaigns, new formats, tech interventions at retail outlets, e-commerce-based innovations and contextual weather-based innovative search campaigns, reviews and tech influencers.

    Communication is a bridge between the old generation and the new, and it helps in reaching smaller pockets of the nation. Any brand that communicates well with its audience is sure to succeed in the long run. This also means, changing the communication and its medium as and when required to keep up with changing times. Here’s to more brands that have resurrected or want to resurrect from the dead to capture the ever-fragmented market!

    Also Read :

    Indian TVCs that rapped with consumers

    Guest column: Ads that didn’t work!

    Mirza and the art of brand endorsement

    New Era up for hard graft in India

  • OnePlus 6 kick-starts Snapchat campaign

    OnePlus 6 kick-starts Snapchat campaign

    MUMBAI: Staying true to its brand ethos of never settling down, OnePlus has become one of the first movers in the category to launch a Snapchat marketing campaign in India.

    OnePlus has partnered with White Rivers Media to launch a pan India campaign to reach across to the millennial audience. The account will be handled by the Mumbai office of White Rivers Media.

    OnePlus’ flagship for 2018, OnePlus 6 will be launched on 17 May in Mumbai.

    Last week, OnePlus announced its collaboration with Disney for the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War and as a part of this collaboration, OnePlus has confirmed the OnePlus 6 Marvel Avengers limited edition to be launched alongside OnePlus 6.

    White Rivers Media chief executive officer Shrenik Gandhi says, “Snapchat is a great parallel platform to reach to more millennials with high spending capacity. These users are stellar content creators who open the app 20+ times a day. It is a great time for OnePlus to engage with its users. The type of audience that you find on the platform, combined with the fascinating possibilities of reaching out to them that it facilitates, will surely generate great results for the brand launch. Being ardent OnePlus users ourselves, we look forward to the exciting opportunities of creating a great Snapchat campaign with OnePlus.”

    White Rivers Media is one of the fastest growing independent digital marketing agencies working with brands across tech, e-commerce, real estate and fashion. Over the years, the agency has worked across borders, timelines and languages, making it not just international, but multicultural outfit.

     

  • Advantage Media enters India, partners White Rivers

    MUMBAI: Denmark-based Advantage Media ventures into the Indian Market, through a collaboration with White Rivers Media, to bring their proprietary Remarketing Tool to the country. White Rivers Media will be the exclusive representative of this tool in the Indian Sub-Continent. With this collaboration, together they aim to provide strategic online re-targeting solutions tothe top eCommerce players in India.

    The collaboration plans to deliver definitive value to the eCommerce industry in terms of improved Conversion Rates and Personalized Retargeting. They will be closely working with the Confederation of Danish Industry to create mutually beneficial solutions for companies from both the countries.

    White Rivers CEO Shrenik Gandhi said, “This remarketing tool holds enormous promise for increasing the return on investment on sustainable basis. Advantage Media is bringing the properiteary tool to India for the first time. Their solution has already proven its mettel for eCommerce industry across 20 countries.”

    Advantage Media founder Jonas Frederiksen, “This is the next step towards following the strategy we started almost four years ago. India was a natural choice for the next step; the growth is over 51% in the e-commerce as the population is buying more and more online. This growth is amazing and we would, of course, like to be part of this, the next coming years.”

    He also added, “We bring a unique product with a unique payment model i.e. “our clients only pay if we bring revenue”.

    Advantage Media’s remarketing advertising solutions has been offering behavioral services retargeting to large retail groups like Zalora, Pontofrio.com, Extra, OLX and Jack & Jones.

  • Sony gets on-board White Rivers Digital for BCL

    Sony gets on-board White Rivers Digital for BCL

    MUMBAI: What happens when reality television meets the passion of the nation, cricket? Giving viewers the combination of both, Sony Entertainment Television (SET) a few weeks back had announced its first ever sports reality show – Box Cricket League (BCL).

    Produced by Balaji Telefilms, the format is conceptualised by Marinating films’ Sunny Arora and Anand Mishra. They are also the co-owners of the show.

    As the name suggests, BCL features India’s top 150 TV celebrities divided in eight different city teams.

    Moreover, in order to generate the necessary buzz around the whole league, it has assigned the task to White Rivers Digital, a digital company which has established itself in the entertainment and lifestyle space. Via social media, it will help the audience get updated constantly and replicate the locker room drama on digital platforms innovatively.

    White Rivers Digital CEO Shrenik Gandhi believes that digital media is a great tool to connect with the viewers real time. “We are thrilled to curate the digital journey for India’s biggest sports realty show. It is an exciting challenge and great opportunity in itself. Digital Media is a great tool to connect with the viewers real time and we look forward to some great action & drama on field, off field and most importantly, online.’’

    Arora who is known for his unique ways of marketing and innovative ideas feels that BCL is a unique concept that will garner a lot of public attention and to increase their reach it is very important to strengthen their online presence.

    “BCL is a one of its kind idea that will give the audience a sneak peak of their favourite TV celebrities battling out the game of cricket in a Box. With White Rivers being our digital agency on board, we hope to build a strong digital foundation. With their expertise we hope to enhance engagement and brand experience for consumers. The team has shown some great ideas that will mobilise the online audience. We hope we can spread the BCL fire into the digital world as well,’’ he said.