We're making
@TalentedAgency
's internal handbook public! We know everything on here might not be perfect yet, but we think it’s a great place to start. Expect a lot of vulnerability & a few stutters as we try to get this all right.
This is it. Day 4067
@webchutney
& it's time to call it. The love & gratitude I feel for my people here, past & present, knows no bounds. I will miss every little bit of this remarkable company that offered that starry-eyed account manager a career he couldn't have dreamed of ❤️
Disruption in the agency business may be as simple as having a serious conversation about starting salaries for fresh talent in advertising. What's referred to as 'market rate' salaries in our world is frankly pathetic and it's keeping the best & brightest away. Time for a reset.
It isn't really about the ps5. It's about the 10 mins. The more arbit things start getting available in 10 mins, the deeper the brand's quick delivery proposition gets drilled into our brains. Advertising is mostly saying the same things again & again in unique new formats.
Thrilled with the week we've just had, man. Feels like a proper moment in our shop's history. Our first 3
@Cannes_Lions
. Sharing
@TalentedAgency
's year-1 story with the world w/
@PGAditiya
. And
@Binaifer_dulani
repping India at SeeItBeIt. Now Day 1 again from Mon with my gang.
I know we're soon going by other names but this is all you,
@webchutney
! My 300-something group of champions. What an amazing finale to our 23 years.
And what a moment to celebrate the man who shies away from the spotlight,
@sidharthrao
on his last few weeks! We did it, Sid!
Tomorrow, Sidharth Rao, our friend with his gentle soul, kind eyes, brilliant mind & the most generous of hearts would've turned a year older. He was one of the best among us. Here's how I hope we all remember him.
Today, we announced -
@TalentedAgency
's newest 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯(?!) that's joining our 'grid of companies'.
Having seen many early stage & growing companies close-up, it's clear that some of the typical agency models for marketing & advertising don't always
Big bag of shiny delicious plaques for my
@TalentedAgency
crew at the
@Campaign_India
awards last evening.🖤 Our top 2 fav wins? (& also kind of non-negotiables) - A Gold for Best Place to Work & a Silver (sandwiched b/w Ogilvy & Burnett) for India Creative Agency of the Year.
hahah not this cheeky little Nostradamus
@gurbaksh2100
3d printing & couriering us a replica Lion almost an entire week ago & asking me to open it only post 11pm last night. Congratulations to my amazing
#TheUnfilteredHistoryTour
@webchutney
team on our
@Cannes_Lions
Grand Prix❤️
If I knew I'd have to keep up a 🎁tradition we started when we were some 20 odd folks at BLR to now for 300+ at
@webchutney
I might have thought twice about all the personal notes & wrapping! One of the 5000 things I'm going to miss.
Firsts are overrated, here's to the last!
Next best thing to winning accounts without pitching? ~4 out of 5 pitches
@TalentedAgency
are now paid engagements. That's compensation for creative time & effort, not ownership of pitched ideas. Progress!
Dentsu
@Webchutney
at
@Cannes_Lions
: 6 metals. Across 6 separate categories. For 3 separate clients.
Our current mood across emails, WhatsApp groups & phone calls? So bloody proud, humble, exicted, thankful & absolutely hungry for more.
Big fan of page-1 of
@TalentedAgency
's scope of work & proposal document, if I may say so myself. Side effect of explicitly making our own (very normal) expectations clear upfront has been that it also signals we take our work & time more seriously than most.
Man, folks outside of advertising would be dumbfounded at how absurd some of the pricing practices in the agency business still are. 🤯
The tl;dr version of most legacy agency-client contracts essentially narrows down to ‘here you go, take a whole bunch of our employee hours to
Haha, fun!
Won't work
Going to be tough
Nope
Don't we need permission?
Wait a min
Maybe if we..
Ughh
Let's try again
Hmm, interesting
Could you help with this?
This could actually work
We did it!
Why is no one sharing this?
Are people even seeing this?
❤️/👍
So good
Brave
🦁
Over the last year
@TalentedAgency
, we’ve tried to codify some of our thinking around how we want to work with each other into a few core operating principles. One of them is...
🧠: Don't say it. Don't say it. Don't say it.
Me: 🗣️🤮
The folks
@readytomelt
on
@WIONews
invited (the very camera-shy) me to discuss how we're trying to challenge advertising's pricing problem one piece of work at a time. And why
@TalentedAgency
's creative services are priced
Blessed to have had
@Binaifer_dulani
in our lives for years. Even more blessed to have her as part of
@TalentedAgency
's founding team for the last two. And now so incredibly proud to share this news with the world today 💜
@PGAditiya
We've lost so many big creative pitches presenting outrageously unreasonable ideas to potential clients these last two years. Funnily though, they've often turned out to be an excellent new business driver for future projects from the same clients a bit after. They'll ring us a
My short term wish list for
@TalentedAgency
: Great work & great sleep for everyone +
@Cannes_Lions
Indie Agency Of The Year as bonus.
My med/long term wish list: Win every 2nd client w/o a pitch + Lion of St. Mark for
@PGAditiya
while he still has his lovely full set of hair.
Big moment for us last week - shooting our mouths off again on the
@Cannes_Lions
stage, rambling about 'pricing' to anyone who'd listen. Turns out the Olympic torch was crossing the building (and blocking roads) the same moment, so that probably explained the full-ish house who
Slightly late to this, but we (
@TalentedAgency
) just put a cheeky little cheque in VS Mani’s first raise. No, we’re not their agency. We simply got offered the chance to join the round as an investor and thought, sure, why the hell not? Sounds fun!
Got real tired of the Tamil gang at
@TalentedAgency
smashing it again & again over the last year or so, so us Malayalees have had to up our game. Talented's first ever for the Kerala market, for
@Wonder_La
. Right on time for Onam.
Shot by First December Films.
Big events & festivals showcase the excesses in social media & 'moment' marketing - often lacking real nuance. At some point in the last few years of being perennially online we got tricked into thinking our brands too need to be always on. The era of 'any pr is good pr' is over.
If there ever was an icon of the modern agency business in India, it’s
@sidharthrao
. Fucking legend, man.
FYI, Always knew you’d miss us too much, Sid 😜Welcome to the other side, fellow alumnus!
Special kinda validation when a pitch idea gets executed exactly as per? Truth is that once
@Binaifer_dulani
brought her best Bebo impression to sell this, there wasn't any other option really.
@TalentedAgency
@goibibo
Creative Agency of the Year + Digital Agency of the Year + Social Agency of the Year + Content Agency of the Year + Talent Program of the Year.
@webchutney
, I am so damn proud!
@DentsuIN
@dentsuintl
It's our highest-ever haul at the Campaign South Asia Agency of the Year awards!
Humbled to pick up wins in Creative AOY, Digital AOY, Content Marketing AOY, and Social AOY.
Oh, and, Interns from Home picks up Talent Development Program of the Year! 🏆
Best night
@Kyoorius
with my favourite crew
@TalentedAgency
, to celebrate these 3 most incredible campaigns & their makers pick up their deserved accolades.
There's a nice soothing, anxiety-reducing effect that meetings scheduled for 20 minutes (instead of 30) & 45 minutes (instead of 60) have on me. 25 & 50 however...
What every member of the leadership thinks and says about the company and what our youngest colleagues think and say about the company shouldn't be dissimilar. A sort of shared spirit across all levels. Which means our actions have to back up our words and press releases 🛠️
Just feels like everybody who works at any Heads Up For Tails store
@huftindia
just absolutely gets what the brand's about? Incredible company with obviously talented staff and seemingly amazing culture that's scaled well.
The conundrum creative enterprises face, is that it seems reductive of our work to box creation into specific time blocks. In the business of ideas, imposing an ‘8-hr workday’ can feel out of touch with how the creative process actually works. Sometimes 1 hour is a lot & 24 less.
Went into a David Abbott rabbit hole this morning & now considering this memo he wrote to his
@AMV_BBDO
team in '94 as a new mural idea for all
@webchutney
offices.
.
@TalentedAgency
scripts new work norms that are unheard-of in ad agencies
The
#indie
agency's open-sourced playbook has chapters featuring best practices including paid tests during interviews, no follow-ups culture, 3-day full & final settlement policy
Last evening,
@Webchutney
was conferred one of the 10 best & bravest agencies on the planet at
@contagious
Pioneers 2020. We find ourselves in the company of iconic agencies we've always admired. Grateful for this unprecedented honour & a team that's pushing boundaries everyday.
Should be mandatory for cocktail menus to come with images, yes? I want to know if I'm about to be served a contemptibly tiny 10ml of something alongside a giant grapefruit slice sitting in a salt-rimmed ice bucket before i don't order one. But I also want to be surprised?
Lots to love in this edition of
@manifestmediain
ft. the 2022 & 2023 global agency of the year winners & most awarded creative leaders at
@Cannes_Lions
.
1. What
@TalentedAgency
blindly copies from Gut.
2. Stella Artois vs Makemytrip: on all the similarities between the two
Here's
@PGAditiya
making a lot of sense on credit culture while taking full advantage of brand equity's generosity on word count. Should've warned you
@naggymoodles
I love pitch energy but the process itself needs a serious reality check, man. We've become so good at seducing clients with superficial showmanship & sparkly pitch decks. Even heard of a baraat style welcome for clients at a retention pitch recently🙈 Now, if I were a client...
Watched every possible clip on the internet of Roger & Rafa from the farewell game 🥺 I'm now ready for someone to publish a monster 900 pager on this most incredible friendship.
Our second Google for India
@webchutney
, yet the first virtual one. Proud of our teams for sharing the message of how Google is building a better internet for a billion Indians, this time from home!
#G4IN
Anant was one of a kind. He was generous with his time, his counsel, his influence. And he was generous with everyone. He called a spade a spade and a bad ad a bad ad. He lifted us and brought us back to the ground in equal measure. I'll miss you terribly
@AnantRangaswami
No,
@AnantRangaswami
, it can't be true. My phone is going to ring and you will share some epiphany you just had. Or your blunt take on a trending topic. Or a passionate project you've embarked on. Go well, Anant.
Very proud to open this for applications today. Understandably, many agencies including us started rolling back internship opportunities over the last 2 months. Today we're course-correcting & committing up to 50 spots for a 4week, fully virtual learning experience like no other.
🚨 Today we’re introducing Interns from Home: a breakthrough virtual internship programme for up to 50 college students & recent graduates to learn from award-winning strategists, creatives and brand managers.
Spread the word!
You know what I particularly love about these? The fact that Homelane has one of the biggest celebrities signed on to the brand and didn't feel the need to force fit them into the creative. Even after having some of the most coveted media real estate in the country. Easier said
It's one thing to do a visually striking print ad (in these days of all-things-digital), but it's entirely another to do an encore, that too with a region-centric nuance, language-wise!
The agency Talented produces a follow-up ad for HomeLane for the Chennai edition of The
Winding down a fun week with a few notes from my gang
@TalentedAgency
on (I may be a bit biased here), what
@Campaign_India
calls, their pick of the week.
South India's favourite coffee company and soon to be India's favourite, tonight at 10pm on
@sharktankindia
!
Added bonus of getting to hear
@gd_vsmani
@YashasAlur
& Rahul in Bangalore-Hindi 🤭
Slightly late to this, but we (
@TalentedAgency
) just put a cheeky little cheque in VS Mani’s first raise. No, we’re not their agency. We simply got offered the chance to join the round as an investor and thought, sure, why the hell not? Sounds fun!
If you’ve worked in a creative company, you’ve felt this tension between creativity & operational efficiency. It's a battle we have to navigate gently. I'm a sucker for consistency, repeatability & processes but more often than not it's discouraged creativity than do the opposite
A real privilege for
@TalentedAgency
to be a tiny part of what's going to be an amazing encore for these two. That, and the fact that it'll be fun to get quarterly investor updates from my ex-boss
@sidharthrao
for a change after years of sending him company updates at webchutney.
'Is this strategy retrofit to suit the creative idea?'
Not always necessary that strategy precedes creative. That route can lead to good (& mostly safe) work. But rarely *great* work.
Advertising has been pretending that our creative process is linear for 'process' reasons.
Few texts saying this just became advertising's most poach-able list! Absolutely. That's exactly how credit culture & reward systems need to work. Fair recognition can often directly result in better comp - for talent & revenue - for orgs (that deserve it). Call out the creators!
Ahhh this is fucking amazing.
@boredmanek
repping India at one of the most coveted experiences in our industry at Cannes. It couldn't have happened to a more brilliant, versatile, kind & giving creative. Someone we're all so lucky to spend time with everyday at
@TalentedAgency
Shouldn't be sharing this secret strategy publicly and we usually don't speak of this much outside agency-client meetings, but it's an unsaid rule that all men's products have to be named like Tarzan named them.