The Womb and its plans for the new baby

Ex-Ogilvy professionals Navin Talreja and Kawal Shoor have launched The Womb with the aim of creating differentiation and innovation in advertising and entertainment. In conversation with BestMediaInfo, they talk about their philosophy, strategies, talent acquisition and plans

Aanchal Kohli | Mumbai | February 2, 2016

(Left) Kawal Shoor and Navin Talreja (Right)

Last week there was buzz in the market with the news of former senior Ogilvy & Mather executives Navin Talreja and Kawal Shoor announcing the launch of their advertising agency, The Womb.

Talreja, ex-President, O&M Mumbai & Kolkata, and Shoor, ex-National Planning Director, O&M India, bring about 20 years of experience each in advertising and communications with expertise in planning, business development, client servicing and administration.

BestMediaInfo caught up with the duo to get an idea of their gameplan, aim, strategy and more. Edited excerpts:

What is The Womb?

Kawal Shoor: The Womb aims to be a borderless company in which there will be no limits on where a good insight or an idea can travel and what shape it can take for a campaign or as entertainment content, or even a product or service. In the entertainment and branded content space, the agency has been commissioned to conceptualize and execute a travel show on Asia to be run on European screens.

Navin Talreja: Our equity and reputation have come from deeply working with clients and being able to deliver spectacular results for the brands that we have worked on. So we wanted to do something that will deeply engage clients. We have got our hands dirty while working on a few clients all this while; so the idea here is to leverage our reputation and equity and build from there along with our clients.

Shoor: The whole idea was to do something beyond just advertising. Hence, what we plan to do in the next six months or so is to get into product design and entertainment space including branded and unbranded content and so on.

How big is the team?  

Talreja: The Womb boasts of a 20-member strong team that comprises prominent names from the industry such as Kavita Kailas, ex-CSO, Rediffusion Y&R Vinay Venkatesh, former Digital Creative Head, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi; Nikhil Mehrotra and Brijesh Parmar, former Creative Directors from Leo Burnett and Contract Advertising.

Would we be seeing more known faces joining the company?

Shoor: You never know! No matter how much one plans, sometimes some things happen as they are supposed to happen.

Which clients do you have?  

Talreja: Already, even before a formal launch, The Womb has clients who have entrusted the company with interesting and diverse work. The company has worked on key projects with Vini Cosmetics (on Fogg and GlamUp), Indian Trading League.com, Diageo-USL (on a portfolio-wide strategy initiative), Saregama, Red Chief leather shoes, and a project to launch a premium detergent brand from the RSPL Group (makers of Ghadi detergent).

It already has highly successful work out, for example, 'Kya chal raha hai?'…'Fogg chal raha hai' for Fogg, GlamUp's path-breaking anti-fairness spot (“I am not the fairness type”), “Party Parinda” for Fogg Black, and the launch of the devotional app for Saregama. A campaign for Red Chief should be out early February. There are a lot more exciting stuff in the pipeline.

What is the target set for the year?

Shoor: There is no specific target but we aim to get more valuable clients to our kitty and want more talented minds to come and work with us. The target is to create work for like-minded clients and money will follow. We will be premium because of our expertise and the kind of services that we will provide. We believe in joy, work and money. The only target that we have is to ensure the fact that the 20-odd people that we have right now and more when we hire later are taken care of in terms of salaries, etc.

Where do you see The Womb heading in the next couple of years? 

Talreja: Alive and kicking!

What need gap is the agency filling and how do you think will you be able to compete with the big agencies? 

Shoor: In our industry it is the people who make a difference. So, if you have the right people who know how to create good work, you will stand out.

Info@bestmediainfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com