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Scarecrow Launched With 4 Businesses

Founders and creative duo Manish Bhat and Raghu Bhat exclusively shares the style, structure, specialty, scope, nomenclature and much more with BestMediaInfo.com.

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BestMediaInfo Bureau
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Scarecrow Launched With 4 Businesses

Founders and creative duo Manish Bhat and Raghu Bhat exclusively shares the style, structure, specialty, scope, nomenclature and much more with BestMediaInfo.com.

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Manish Bhatt & Raghu Bhat (Ex Senior Vice Presidents & Executive Creative Directors, Contract Advertising India ) along with their Ex Colleague at Contract- Joy (Arunava) Sengupta ( Ex VP Account Management) and Vivek Suchanti, MD of Concept Communications have announced their new venture - A full-fledged Nation-wide Ad Agency - Scarecrow Communications Ltd. The official launch of the agency is on February 9, 2010.

In an exclusive conversation with BestMediaInfo.com, the creative duo Manish and Raghu shared the style, structure, specialty and scope of their new born Agency – Scarecrow. You must be curious to know that why the agency is named Scarecrow and much more details. But, before that take a look at the excellent journey of all the four promoters who have approximately 14 years of in the Ad World.

Till November 2009, Raghu & Manish were working as Senior Vice President & Executive Creative Director in Contract Advertising India. Before Contract, they worked in O & M (Delhi, Mumbai & Malaysia), Ambience Publicis and McCann Erickson.

They have handled brands like Tata Indicom, Aegon Religare, Cadbury, Asian Paints, HSBC, Dabur Vatika, Liril, Essar Mobile store, Nerolac, Hanes Undergarments, Wonderbra, Vaseline, Johnson & Johnson, L'Oreal, Marico, UTI and NDTV and many more.

They have won over 50 International Awards / Finalists at acclaimed shows like Cannes Lions, D&AD, One Show, Clio, Communication Arts, Asia Pacific ADFEST etc., apart from over 100 national awards like CAG, Abby and Goafest.

A CFA by profession, Joy started his career with Citi Bank, as an Investment Banker. After one year stint in banking traded money for ideas and joined McCann Ericsson. Post McCann, he joined Contract Delhi and from there went to Ogilvy, Delhi. Then he spent nearly two years with Dentsu in Delhi before his second stint with Contract in Mumbai as a Vice President, Account Management. During this journey, Joy had the opportunity to work with some of the best professionals in the business and had worked on some really exciting brands/clients in India which includes some of the prominent ones being Reckitt & Colman (now Reckitt Benkiser), Motorola , Castle Lager, Honda Cars, Honda two-wheelers, Sony Ericsson, Disney, DNA , Aegon Religare & Cadbury.

One of the new breed of advertising & marketing professionals, with over 14 years experience, Vivek brings to the table an aggressive dynamism, a passion for innovation & a perseverance for results. He has been largely responsible for harnessing technology into the media & design cells, thereby bringing Concept to the realm of international standards, in terms of creativity & service.

Q) What would be the structure of Scarecrow in terms of offices and responsibilities?

Scarecrow communications Ltd is a Public limited company with its head office in Eruchshaw Bldg (a heritage building in Fort, Mumbai. Raghu Bhat, Manish Bhatt & Joy Sengupta will have an executive role as Founder Directors. The 4th Founder director will be Vivek Suchanti, head of the Concept group of companies.

Q) May you like to share the idea behind the nomenclature as Scarecrow?

All 3 of us have started our life in villages. We wanted a name that has its origins in the 'village'. (we wanted to call it 'Village' Communications but that name was taken already) We chose 'Scarecrow' as it is a visual communication device, it's creative, disruptive, universally known and is effective (as it protects the crop). We want our ideas to reflect all of these.

Q) Coming from the masters like you, how different it would be from other regular or specialized creative agencies?

The tangible differentiator is- Unlike other agencies, if the client comes to us with a business problem, we can deliver a complete solution. From creating an idea to executing it in a complete 360 format right down to ensuring the most cost-effective media deliveries. We can do this as we have complete access to Group Concept's 11 companies which includes the best PR agency in the country and one of the best media buying companies. For example, for one of the Scarecrow clients, our a soon-to-be-released solution comprised print advertising, digital, PR and media buying.

The intangible differentiator- Thanks to our work on Aegon Religare, Asian Paints, Cadbury and Tata Indicom, we stand for creativity that improves bottomlines. We aim to create ideas that have no expiry date, are conversation starters and have the potential to enter popular culture or the lexicon. Examples being KILB acronym, the Goaface font and the Gujarat anthem which have gone beyond advertising.

The other differentiator is in the workplace. We also have a subsidiary called Scarecrow Designs whose purpose is to give a creative platform for young talent. Under its aegis, we will have 50% of the office walls dedicated to displaying art that will be curated and sold. We also have a website called Scarecrowdesigns.net where we will create merchandise based on graphic designs and abstract art by young art directors (from within and outside Scarecrow) and sell it online through a payment gateway. Half the profit on each merchandise sold will go to the artist.

Q) Is it correct to say that Scarecrow has been launched with winning some creative duties? If yes, please share some details on the same.

We can't share names but we have signed up 4 businesses and 2 more are on the way. Signed businesses include one of the most aggressive financial services companies in India, one of the world's largest consumer finance companies, a 2000 crore jewellery brand and a FMCG brand, based in South India.

Q) Would you like to tell our readers about your approach towards the brand you are working with?

We are dealing with people who chart the vision for the brand. The CEO, the MD and in some cases, the Founder itself. They tell us the business problem. We suggest a solution. This is a highly efficient model as there is total clarity on both sides. This also gives us a chance to invariably go beyond the 'advertising campaign' and make inputs on the 'brand experience'. This is something we hugely enjoy.

Q) May you like to share the team's vision on Scarecrow?

  • We want every employee to do the best work of their lives in Scarecrow.
  • We want Scarecrow to be the 'best workplace'.
  • We want to work with people/clients we like.
  • And we want to do great work.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

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