In 2008, Ahmed Aftab Naqvi, Dushyant Bhatia, and Rohan Bhansali founded the Gozoop Group, an independent marketing agency.
The agency has grown in leaps and bounds since, and today they have offices in Dubai, Singapore, and New York, and a roster of clients that includes Dell, Taj Hotels, Saint Gobain, Ola, Tim Hortons, Paytm, Oppo, Amazon, and Lego, among others.
Along the way, the group has also made a series of acquisitions. In 2013, they acquired Red Digital, a social media agency, followed by iThink InfoTech, a technology and IT based agency, in 2014. They picked up 56 Blue Lights, an offline activated activation agency and syndicated content provider, and HAT Media, a real-time marketing agency, in 2016 and 2018, respectively. In 2021, they acquired the digital agency Stratton Communications.
Gozoop, which has been around for more than a decade, was one of the few independent agencies when it came into being. Today, there are many. In 2023, Dentsu Creative India’s former Chief Creative Officer Aalap Desai set up a full-funnel ad agency, tgthr. Wunderman Thompson’s former Executive Creative Directors Steve Mathias and Priya Pardiwalla established their creative and content agency Steve Priya in April 2024. There’s also Talented.Agency, Famous Innovations, Schbang, followed by many others today.
What is an independent agency? It is a smaller, standalone agency that’s not part of a larger network like Publicis, Dentsu, etc.
In a conversation with Storyboard18, Bhansali, the chairman and co-founder of Gozoop, touched upon the group’s journey, their initial challenges, the future of independent agencies, and how Indian advertising is still colonised by global networks.
Edited excerpts from the conversation.
Starting out as an independent agency more than a decade back, how difficult was it to onboard clients and live up to their expectations?
We started off as a tech agency doing websites and applications. In 2010, we got into social media, SEO (search engine optimisation), ORM (online reputation management), media buying, etc.
Digital marketing was starting off then and mainline agencies didn’t get the concept. Since we had an early mover advantage, it was easier to bag accounts. Today, we compete with network agencies which have acquired independent agencies.
In 2013, we acquired Red Digital, which was started by the founders of Dream 11. They handled brands like Mumbai Indians, Mirinda, Parker Pens, etc. After the acquisition, we started servicing these clients.
Initially, we were focusing more on Dubai. It was easier to get business, and there was less competition. We were earning foreign exchange. At one point, Dubai comprised 70 percent of our revenues. But after the acquisition of Red Digital, India and Dubai became 50-50 from a revenue standpoint.
Most of the independent agencies we see today have been founded by former creative heads of agencies. But you started out with JP Morgan and don’t have any agency experience. What were the challenges and learnings that helped you establish Gozoop as a reputed agency?
Though Gozoop Group was established in 2008, we started marketing services in 2010. I come from a finance background, but saw an opportunity in advertising. In 2009 or 2010, the e-commerce boom happened in India and we latched on to that. At one time, 80 percent of our revenues came from e-commerce companies. All of us were learning, irrespective of where we came from.
One good way to learn is by hiring people who are smarter than you. At one point, when we were growing very fast, we weren’t focussing on our people enough.
We had started offices in Dubai as well as Singapore, and were witnessing some attrition. That’s when I realised that you can’t neglect culture. We had no big HR division at that time. I was the one looking after the department. That’s when we hired Bansi Raja, who now heads the department as the Chief Happiness Officer. So, my biggest learning is we have to invest in people and keep this a people-first organisation.
All the other things, like the best clients, the best campaigns, etc., will be a derivative of getting the best on board. And to get and keep the best, one needs to have very good values and culture.
A veteran ad man had once told me that most brands want to work with multinational agencies. What’s your take on this?
I think it’s unfortunately true to a large extent, but not entirely, as then we wouldn’t be in business. Today, we work with a lot of multinational brands because we are more agile and quicker. We can deliver at a lower cost.
Network agencies have their own advantages and most multinational brands do work with them. So yes, it’s tougher for an independent agency to survive and win business.
Compared to multinational holding agencies, what expectations do clients have when they approach an independent agency?
We have clients that have worked with multinational agencies and then they’ve chosen to not work with them. While there might be various reasons, I think one of the biggest expectations they have is agility.
Gozoop HAWK is Gozoop Group’s online reputation management and customer support agency. In ORM, one needs to move fast and turn things around on time. I think we’ve been able to live up to that expectation.
When it came to crafting compelling campaigns, what are the roadblocks Gozoop Group had to overcome in the face of groundbreaking work put out by multinational agencies?
I think the biggest challenge is perception. The buy-in for a well-known multinational agency’s story is easier. But we have to work harder to sell the same story to the client. That’s a challenge we are open to taking, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t.
Since well-known agencies have bigger brands as clients, they can afford a great creative team. But we have learned how to do more with less, and that’s actually one of our value systems. We get things done.
Let me give you an example. We were managing an IPL team sometime in 2015 or 2016. Because the team also had a mainline agency associated with it, no matter what idea we gave, it would not be greenlit. Only the mainline agency’s idea would go, we had to then adapt that for digital.
That year, we dropped that IPL team and got the mandate of another team, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). We were their mainline agency and also handled their digital responsibilities. We did a campaign with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) where the tagline was ‘Ami KKR’ (I am KKR). We also did in-stadium branding for the team, and put up creatives in Kolkata and other places.
What are the pros and cons of working for independent agencies versus network agencies?
The pro of working for a network agency is that it gives one access to a lot of multinational brands, which are big names. A lot of good Indian creative talent gravitates towards those names. And that’s what I want to break.
Why would you work for an American, Japanese, French or British company? Why aren’t you working for India? I think that’s an important narrative.
If one works for an independent company, one has more influence in charting its growth. During Covid-19, we did appraisals in June 2020 and people value that. They were aware that they are looked at as human beings, not human resources.
A network or an independent agency: which is better when it comes to training, say, when one is starting one’s career?
Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but according to me, learning at an independent agency would be more wholesome.
Today, all the leaders I know understand finance, human resources, and culture, because one cannot be doing just great creative work and hope to run a company.
Earlier, the advantage of being associated with a network agency was that one could work on better brands, but I think that has changed. Today, we are also working with many amazing brands, be it Ola, Hero Honda, Tim Hortons, Taj Hotels, etc.
Does Gozoop Group have any plans of an IPO?
I think RK Swamy’s IPO has been very inspiring for founders who run independent advertising agencies. This is going to change the advertising landscape. Earlier, if independent agencies reached a certain scale, global networks would swallow them up.
India has the talent. Why should global networks have 80 percent of the Indian ad market? That’s what I’d really want to change.
An ad veteran had once said that we build a great agency and then sell to a Publicis or a WPP and cash out. That’s a general model which has been continuing for a long time. Do you think this will threaten the future of independent agencies?
With independent agencies going in for an IPO, that’s going to change, isn’t it? It doesn’t make sense to sell off an agency unless one is not confident of the business.
Gozoop Group has acquired five companies starting with Red Digital in 2013, UAE-based 56 Blue Lights in 2016, followed by three other companies. The one advantage of being part of a network is getting to work on global mandates. But that too has changed.
This is the season for pitching. What challenges do independent agencies face?
Today, the competition is high because there are too many agencies and most brands call all agencies to pitch. Hence, it’s necessary to put one’s best foot forward in order to give it the best shot.
How do you divide your resources between working on pitches and client projects?
One big challenge is that a lot of brands award the mandate to L1s (agencies quoting the lowest fee). Though it needs to change, I don’t see that happening any time soon. Hence, we have to live with that, and be smart about how we divide our resources between pitches and live client projects.
How do you view the future of independent agencies in India?
This is the most exciting time for independent agencies. Growth requires capital, and an IPO provides an opportunity to attract that capital.
That is why RK Swamy went for an IPO after 40 years of being in business. According to me, most independent agencies will stay independent and will not join global networks.
Hence, this is great news for Indian advertising and Indian entrepreneurship as a whole. As founders of independent agencies, and as part of the advertising community, it’s unfortunate that four out of five ads that we come across are done through a British, Japanese, French, or an American network.
Indian networks should have the lion’s share of India’s advertising. Even though India achieved independence in 1947, advertising is still sort of colonised by the global networks.
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