Expect 200% growth by FY 2021, says Chetan Asher of Tonic Worldwide

Chetan Asher, Founder and CEO, Tonic Worldwide, says the agency is expected to grow 200% in the next three years, riding on the newly introduced practices in business and quality work they deliver to brands.

In a conversation with BestMediaInfo.com, Asher speaks on the growth expectations and new practices of Tonic Worldwide. He also speaks on the current digital trends, focus areas and expansion of the agency.

“From the expansion perspective, we will focus on spreading our wings to metro cities. We recently opened a branch in Delhi,” he said.

On their focus for business growth, Asher said, “Major focus will be on Tonic 2.0, Gipsi and Twip this year.” Twip is a data-driven video content practice that enables a video programming panel for brands based on the kind of content their consumers want. “It enables a business performance-driven micro video conference calendar,” he said.

Gipsi is a consumer insights practice, where the agency combines human intelligence, artificial intelligence and data to deliver interesting insights to brands. “The listing of Gipsi happens at a surface level. We go multiple levels below to find conversations and insights that go un-noticed,” he pointed out.

To tap regional markets for brands, the agency has built a team consisting of regional folks. “A lot of brands are waking up to the idea of Bharat (focus on the regional market). For that, we are creating a strong team that understands the tier I, II and III audience,” he added.

Apart from working with brands in India, the company works on international projects and has its presence in the Middle-East.

“Our shift to becoming a business-driven agency from a service-driven agency has given us a huge potential of growth,” emphasised Asher.

According to Asher, Tonic 2.0 is the new practice made to serve brands better. The services under Tonic 2.0 will fill in the need gaps of brands. “Tonic 2.0 is to drive business effectiveness. We partner with brands and businesses in helping them meet their business objectives, help them define their market and create a new market. The discussion with brands are not only limited to digital but we help them with ideas on design thinking, performances, alignments and e-commerce,” he said.

For Tonic 2.0, the agency has built a business team that tries and understands the brand category using a combination of all the verticals present and combines all info generated out of the in-depth study to help brands achieve their business objectives.

Speaking on the next big trend in digital, Asher said, “We will be seeing voice search marketing grow in a big way this year. But what we believe is these are all formats or trends to deliver great content. Original content is going to be always a trend in digital. People today don’t want to see ads. They want to see stories. That in my mind is still the wave and will continue to be the wave. All the other technological trends — voice, AI — will be used to deliver the content.”

According to Asher, “The expertise of Tonic Worldwide is its effectiveness and understanding of the brand. Our culture and team are the differentiating factors from other digital agencies,” he said.

“With every brand we work, we first invest time in understanding the product or service they are offering. We see it through a consumer perspective, which gives us insights and help us think in a different way. We have our three pillars — consumers, category and the brand — that helps us to strategise and create a personalised and customised communication for every brand we work with,” he added.

Speaking on the growth of content marketing, Asher said, “Content is the heart of everything, especially on the channels that we end up consuming today. It is still the king and will continue to be the king. There is no stopping of content marketing; the brands will have to invest in content marketing but at the same time they will have to find new ways of delivering that content. It will keep evolving as per the delivery mechanism changes.”

“Relevance of the content to the brand offerings is also very crucial,” Asher pointed out.

Speaking on the unified digital measurement, Asher said, “Digital is about multiple platforms and each platform has different measurement practices. It’s very nascent but it will take more time to find an accurate measurement tool for digital.”

“It’s the need of the hour, don’t know how well it will be implemented,” he emphasised.

According to Asher, one of the best brand associations of the agency had been with Sony Pictures Network. “What created magic in this association was the equal partnership to both the ends; the brand enabled and empowered to do some great work. Lot of our interesting campaigns have been with some of its channels,” he concluded.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com