Mumbai: A few years ago, there were Boutique Digital agencies, many got acquired and few went on from strength to strength. TheSmallBigIdea is a full-service digital agency which completes nine years and has expanded its portfolio and its services include Social Media Management, Video Content Production, Digital Media Planning & Buying, Social Listening & ORM services, and Augmented & Virtual Reality amongst other ancillary marketing services.
Today TSBI has offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru serving client requirements in India, the US, UK & Middle East. They believe in combining the ability of technology to integrate and the power of human minds to visualize to deliver results for their clients. Their proprietary creative-tech tool ACE has enabled brands to arrive at campaign messaging by integrating insights from social sentiments & enterprise data. Over the past nine years, they have established a robust clientele in Media & Entertainment-Commerce, Tourism, Sports, Lifestyle& Education.
Harikrishnan Pillai is the CEO and co-founder of TheSmallBigIdea, being a marketing head to brands before he set off on an entrepreneurial journey, He understands the pain point of consistency and quality of service delivery with service providers.
Manish Solanki, COO & co-founder, TheSmallBigIdea, his strength lies in understanding and planning the scope of an assignment, importance of each internal and external, nature and tone of the message to be delivered and thus planning, forecasting and breaking down an assignment into smaller pieces and fixing accountability for each piece.
Indiantelevision.com caught up with Harikrishnan Pillai the CEO and co-founder of TheSmallBigIdea and Manish Solanki, COO & co-founder, TheSmallBigIdea, on the growth of the agency over the years, the challenges and expansion to the other aspects of digital marketing and much more…..
Edited Excerpts..
On completing Nine Years. How has your journey been?
Harikrishnan Pillai: The past nine years have been an amazing journey of tremendous learning and self-discovery. With the added challenge of COVID, we re-evangelized the way we did business. Over the last nine years, we have also had the opportunity to explore various domains. Initially, we only focused on social media, but we have now diversified into ad tech, ad films, movie marketing, and digital transformation for e-commerce brands. We began by serving only the Indian market, but we now have clients in the US, UK, Middle East, and Africa.
On the pandemic being a boon for digital agencies
Harikrishnan Pillai: Over time, we encountered several brands with a very traditional approach who aimed to establish a direct-to-consumer (D2C) business. Recognizing this need gap, we have been extensively working on digitally transforming these brands, working with them on developing their e-commerce platforms and sales funnel.
Moreover, the significance of digital content has grown immensely, as people now follow brands that double up as entertainment channels rather than just advertising. Brand communication is not just about product, it is about driving affinity through softer narratives.
Manish Solanki: We addressed the needs of business owners and elevated their expectations. In addition, we were able to attract talented professionals from across India, who helped us navigate through the challenges posed by the pandemic and accelerate our growth. Despite the obstacles, we were able to manage everything very effectively, and we are satisfied with our overall performance.
On your USP?
Harikrishnan Pillai: Our biggest advantage is our ability to be extremely nimble-footed. This trait is not only critical in current times but also in the digital domain, which demands agility. As an organization, while we are decently sized, we don’t move like a giant. Agility is at the core of our functioning.
The second advantage is more personal and pertains to Manish and me. As former clients ourselves, we bring a unique perspective to the table. I worked with ZEE and Reliance, while Manish worked with ZEE and Times Group. Our direct experience as clients has heightened our empathy level, enabling us to better understand our client’s challenges and issues. This empathy level plays a pivotal role in delivering successful outcomes. Additionally, our nimbleness allows us to achieve speedy time-to-market, enabling us to quickly adapt to changing circumstances.
We were ahead of the curve when it came to regional conversations, having launched TSBI Bharat and created a structured conversation for Indian languages. Similarly, when the Metaverse and NFT gained prominence, we were already building META worlds for brands and celebrities. Our agility as an agency is good, with a high speed to market and robust insights that have significantly reduced the time between ideation and execution.
On being recently certified as a great place to work and what do you attribute this to?
Manish Solanki: Our organization's core DNA and focus have always been our people. We firmly believe that our team is the backbone of our success, and our Great Place to Work certification validates that belief. It instils confidence in us that our people feel supported and valued, and it helps us attract more top talent in this highly competitive industry. Working in entertainment and other sectors, it is essential for our potential employees to understand our work culture and recognize TSBI as a great place to work. The certification has given us a better understanding from an employer perspective, motivating us to strive for even higher levels of excellence.
On the rise of Indian languages and brands wanting to talk in that language to their TG. Can you share a few case studies?
Manish Solanki: The demand for regional content is growing rapidly. Considering that we have been in the content industry for a considerable amount of time, in 2019, we recognized the need to cater to the Bharat of India and therefore launched TSBI Bharat with the objective to penetrate the non-English speaking markets in the non-metros of India. The emergence of short-form video platforms has made language a crucial aspect. We always anticipated that the next wave of digital consumption would come from these non-metro markets and thus, we established the division called TSBI Bharat, initially targeting approximately five markets. We commenced operations in the Bhojpuri and Punjabi markets with a clear focus to tap this market that was yet to be captured. We have talent based in these markets as we believe they are better acquainted with the market. After all, they are part of that market economy. Currently, we have a presence in Patna, Punjab, and the southern markets.
Harikrishnan Pillai: Indian language is the language of comfort. English, even today is the language of aspiration, but one’s mother tongue is the language of comfort. And eventually, one always wants to use the language of comfort and I think that is why we are seeing this surge. The second and last point is that we do not merely rely on translators. Our biggest unique selling proposition is that the people who work with us are not translators who take an English copy and write it in Hindi or Bhojpuri. Instead, they are cultural experts and not copywriters who live in the respective regions and understand the language nuances. Their understanding of cultural nuances sets us apart at TSBI Bharat.
On now creating and producing ad films
Manish Solanki: Both of us have worked as television marketers, and we know that content is at the core of any successful marketing strategy, no matter what the format is. During the pandemic, we faced many challenges, but we also discovered digital formats that allowed us to produce content without requiring many people to come together physically. This led us to explore newer formats, such as creating CG and VFX content. We also recognized that the demand for short-format content was increasing, so we began producing content based on the specific marketing needs of our clients. These capabilities were already present within our organization, and the pandemic provided us with an opportunity to further develop them.
On movie marketing which is completely different from normal creative business.
Harikrishnan Pillai: I believe that our team shares a common love for cinema. Personally, I have grown up watching Malayalam cinema and I strongly believe that the writing in this industry surpasses that of any other. Collectively, we felt that it would be a great opportunity to approach this and make the best of it. However, at the end of the day, we see ourselves as storytellers. The advantage we had was that we didn't have any preconceived notions about how movie marketing in the cinema industry is done.
When we were approached to market the film "Badhaai Ho" starring Ayushmann Khurrana, we decided to take a different approach. From a digital standpoint, it is still considered to be one of the best film campaigns. Our strength lies in working on films with great stories, and we have marketed over 40 such films. We are preferred by those who want to market such stories because we can weave the narrative together. Even films like ‘Jugjugg Jeeyo’ and ‘Good News’, which were all about glitz and glamour, we approached from a storytelling standpoint and added value.
So tight, insight-driven, content-first narrative is what we bring on to movie marketing. It is this combination of insight, content and solid delivery that makes us a preferred agency for a lot of studios and producers. While we have largely worked in the Hindi film industry, we have also marketed the Malayalam film ‘Sufiyum Sujatayum’ and worked for films on OTT.
Also, the complete digital mandate for Ajay Devgn is managed by us.
On the changes and elevation in the company. And now what would be the new roles and functions
Harikrishnan Pillai: In our 9 years of operation, we have retained employees for up to 7-8 years. We have organized the agency into clusters, each with its own mini-agency led by dedicated team members who have been driving successful campaigns for the past few years. Currently, we are aiming to move these team members from managerial roles to leadership positions, overseeing multiple functions within the agency.
We plan to appoint leaders for each of our agency clusters, such as the studio business and entertainment social business, who will focus on expanding their respective divisions in a specific manner. Meanwhile, Manish and I will concentrate on other markets within and outside of India. We already have a strong presence in the US, UK, Middle East, and Africa, and we are optimistic about further growth opportunities in these regions. While our main focus remains within India, we see great potential in expanding our reach globally.
On the expansion plans and vision for 2023
Harikrishnan Pillai:
At TSBI, our main focus area will always be to tell great stories for brands. We believe this is something that technology will take a long time to disrupt. Media buying, performance marketing, analytics, and e-commerce can all be disrupted by technology. Currently, 60-70% of our digital media spending occurs on Google and Facebook. However, these platforms could change the way they operate in the future, forcing us to realign ourselves. While we do use performance marketing and analytics, and have a strong team and our own tools for these tasks, our main focus is on storytelling. This is something that will never go out of fashion. Machines will take a long time to learn how to emote and understand stories because they still require human data as their primary input.
The idea is that nowadays, every brand's main objective, particularly for the digital audience, is to create entertaining content. And we are the experts in entertainment content, whether it is broadcast, movies, or OTT. Today, TV shows alone cannot create entertainment due to numerous media challenges. Every brand should create their own content. In the future, brands must have their own content channels as people will continue to consume content. This is where we can bring our strength of creating great entertainment and stories to give it to brands. We will enable and allow them to be great storytellers. Once they achieve this, half of their battle is won.
On the ASCI guidelines on influencer marketing
Harikrishnan Pillai: The guidelines are very prudent and extremely important. As advertisers, clients, and creators, it is our duty to safeguard the interests of the consumers who place their trust in the communication presented to them by the brand or creator. Although there may be some glitches, and confusion concerning the implementation of these regulations, in the long run, they are in the best interest of all stakeholders, including the consumer, the brand, the agency, and the creators. We are big supporters of these regulations.
