For us, consumer is the biggest medium, says Raj Kamble of Famous Innovations

It’s been five years since Famous Innovation came into existence after the agency moved out of the licensing model from StrawberryFrog and became independent. Raj Kamble (41), erstwhile Managing Partner and Chief Creative Officer (CCO), took the India operations of StrawberryFrog and re-branded it as Famous Innovations. 

The agency has won mandates of eight prominent brands between 2018-19, including Burger King, Budweiser, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Monster.com, Haier, Star Alliance and Platinum Guild. It has also undertaken some project-based works for Nestlé India for ‘Nanhi Kali’. 

“People are the new medium to roll out a creative communication. Earlier, Rupert Murdoch or Goldman Sachs would tell which country is doing well, which movie is doing well, which restaurant to go or where to invest. But today, every individual is a medium. Anybody can say which food or movie he or she likes. And social media is allowing everyone to express his or her emotions. So, for us the biggest medium is the consumer,” said Kamble, Founder and CCO Famous Innovations, in an exclusive chat with BestMediaInfo.com.

The agency believes in putting the heart on the table while exploring any business opportunity or getting a client on board. According to Kamble, 99% of agencies in this country are not involved with a client’s business. “Sitting in an air-conditioned room and writing a copy is not going to work. We genuinely know the business of every single client we have. And we invest ourselves in their business,” he says.   

“Many creative agencies are like interior designers, they can give a very good look. But Famous Innovations is about architecture. We don’t want the building to fall. And that’s what sets us apart. And when the client sees that we are so passionate about their business than them, they move back and allow us to do whatever we want.” 

Money matters

Famous Innovations has got three Business Heads for three different cities — Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. A few months ago, the agency started its Delhi office and may soon hire a very senior team over here. 

But how tough is it to manage the businesses from three different stations?

“We don’t see having three different business heads as we believe that there it’s just one business located in three different cities. A lot of agencies have different P&Ls. But we are a micro-network and all the three offices are very well-connected,” says Kamble.

So, in case the Bangalore office needs some help for creative pitch then Delhi and Mumbai branches can help; likewise, every branch helps another one. A lot of people who were working in Mumbai moved to Bangalore to start a new office and then people moved to Delhi to start the Delhi office. 

Hence, what started as a bunch of few people has now grown into a team of 120 dedicated staff. Most of the clients Famous Innovations has in its kitty today have been with the agency for the past five years.

Recently, the independent agency acquired Three Bags Full. And while the industry continues to remain volatile, mainstream agencies are changing altogether and they are consolidating, digital agencies are coming up every now and then. In such a scenario, Famous Innovations has positioned itself as a hybrid agency.

“We are not small but a mid-sized agency that is agile, fast, and we are an accountable agency. I can never think of a better time than this of expanding our business when the entire industry is confused,” says Kamble.

However, it’s always a challenge for a creative person to run an ad agency. In fact, all the big networks bought small independent agencies and became the owners. “The cycle is going on, again some small agencies like us will come up and hopefully, some big network agency will see potential in us. But this time people who are going to buy us may not necessarily be from any network, rather companies like Infosys or Google or Netflix or Amazon are going to invest because they know it’s only the creative people who're going to churn out the business,” says Kamble.     

“So given a chance will Famous Innovations get under a giant umbrella, like WPP? Or in case someone wants to buy stakes in the company, are you going to say yes?” we asked. 

“I think it’s too early to say yes or no. Tomorrow, in case someone wants to take my company and make me bigger, adding more value to it, I will be stupid to say ‘no’ to the offer. So, I can’t say, which big company may buy Famous Innovation. But one thing is for sure, it’s only an innovative company that’s going to acquire Famous Innovations. We are an ad agency, which is going to sell more products and IPs to the brands,” says Kamble before signing off.    

Info@BestMediaInfo.com