A group of five people from diverse fields have together formed a creative agency, Beantown Union, based in Bangalore.
The founders include a tech enabler, Ajit Devraj, who has been the technology consultant for companies like Diageo; Sridhar Aghalaya, a social media expert, book publisher and regular guest speaker at universities and literary fests in India, the Middle East and the UK; Bablu Thadani, a Creative Director who last ran his own restaurant in Anjuna, Goa; Mohan Raghavan, a Creative Director and artist who has had several sold-out shows; and Deepak Joshi who has worked in agencies like Ogilvy, McCann and Saatchi & Saatchi and whose work has been awarded at Cannes, The One Show, Clio, Bombay Ad Club and Goafest.
Beantown Union is a media-agnostic advertising, social and brand development agency that aims to solve brand problems via creative ideas and solutions. At a time when there’s so much confusion about the role and relevance of ad agencies, Beantown believes that great ideas are our only true saviours.
One of the founders, Ajit Devraj, who is currently based in London, said, “Beantown will bring the passion and rigueur of traditional advertising agencies to today’s tech-led marketing.”
Sridhar Aghalaya, a pioneer of digital transformation initiatives in the UK, believes, “Clients today want solutions, which may not necessarily mean an advertising agency. We are here to provide those solutions.”
Bablu Thadani, who has worked as the creative head of a Canadian agency in Dubai and in agencies in India like Ogilvy, Lowe, added, “We have the perfect mix of youth and experience, advertising knowledge and tech savvy.”
V Mohan has won numerous awards in advertising while working at Grey, McCann Erickson, Ogilvy and Orchard. He commented, “Beantown is a traditional agency, digital firm and brand development mash-up. We’re the new hybrid.”
Deepak Joshi, said, “There’s no such thing as ideas meant for traditional advertising and those meant for the digital space. There are just bad ideas and good ideas. We’re gunning for the latter.”