Big agencies don't eat smaller rivals, the fast devour the slow

Pravin Shah says he had no specific qualification for a career in advertising. Yet, just months after Shah founded Six Inches, in 2003, it was fêted by London's The Reel magazine as one of India's most outstanding creative agencies. Today, Six Inches has a distinguished roster of clients, including Kingston Technologies and MF Global. The success of the agency has been shaped by Shah's unswerving focus on creating uncluttered messages. He says he seeks to "connect with common people through communication."

Shah says his foray into advertising was powered by his passion to communicate and influence people to buy. "Initially, I spent three years at a small agency," Shah says. "That is where I saw some great minds in action. I learnt a lot in my first job, and the experience spurred the urge to establish Six Inches."

Adgully decodes Shah's own mind in an exclusive interview. Excerpts:

Adgully: The road to entrepreneurial success is potholed by challenges. What was your experience?

Pravin Shah: Anybody who is born into a Marwari family, as I was, yields to the entrepreneurial urge. I started early; I was 24 when I established Six Inches. Certainly, it was not easy to raise the agency to this level in a couple of years. And I believe that everything is difficult before it becomes easy. From the time Six Inches was set up till today, every day has been exciting. We have built the agency brick by brick with our sweat and passion.

We began as a two-people company in a small house that belonged to one of my relatives. Our computers were funded by angel friends. In startups, the leader has to do everything. So I was meeting clients, working on creatives and invoices, sourcing vendors and following up on payments. The effort was extremely taxing, but it helped in building knowledge, expanding network and adding muscle to our agency. We were aiming to grow with small bites from various brands. However, to make brands trust a new agency involved rigorous follow-ups and lot of free sampling work which took a toll on our time. We still survived. And once we secured a few brands, there was no looking back. We packed a lot of action into the company and it produced results swiftly.

Having said that, I still face challenges every day, but they are different from the ones I tackled in the early days.

AG: India is chock-a-block full with the world's most heralded advertising-business players. As a startup, what did you intend to offer to clients that was not already available?

PS: When we started Six Inches, we were not even .00001% of the industry, which was full of mammoth players. And they will always be around. We did not want to compete with them. I had no USP as such when we met clients. All that we had were energy, passion and action to impress clients and win their trust. Those three traits did wonders for us and still do. After all, advertising is a people-driven business. Clients have a marketing problem and need people who will help them solve and achieve better results.

If you look at our website or any of our other communication, you will see that ACTION is in our DNA. I believe that in a competitive world, the BIG do not eat the SMALL, but the FAST can eat the SLOW. That is why we are swift to implement our strategies; we act on them, not endlessly ponder over them.

AG: The first account is a glorious landmark for an entrepreneur. What is your story?

PS: It is true that the first account is always close to any entrepreneur's heart because that account not only helps in sustaining the business but also builds confidence. My first account was a textile-chemical firm in Lalbagh, called Topaz Texchem. Remember, at that stage, we were just a two-people firm. We were looking for somebody who would support us in our entrepreneurial surge, and were lucky to find that in a gentleman named Devdas Nair. He was the marketing manager of that company and still is. He believed in us and gave us the opportunity. Not only that ” he gave us creative freedom. The resulting work won recognition from London's The Reel magazine. Moreover, our work was featured across ad-related websites. This was the major stepping stone in Six Inches' life. Our work for Topaz Texchem not only got us accolades but also attracted talent. This brand is still very close to us and will always be.

AG: How does the growth graph of Six Inches look like?

PS: We have grown with a turnover of 2x to 3x every year. We have added clients who have large budgets for mainline activities, and also clients who need help only for designs or BTL tasks. Our revenue streams in from multiple areas of specialisation. We have also attracted brands from other countries. Currently, we are engaged in a massive rebranding activity for a brand in Africa. We are supporting it from India.

AG: Your website indicates that you operate with only one office in Mumbai. Do you plan to branch out?

PS: I am not sure about spreading across India in the physical sense. We have been working with brands from various parts of the country for the past three years. To date, no one has insisted on a local office. In fact, we have helped five brands from Africa, the Middle East, Singapore, Mauritius and US from our Mumbai office. But we are planning to spread to other countries, and East Africa will be the site of our first global footprint.

AG: Many agencies prefer to operate as boutique outfits. In that context, what are your plans to scale up business?

PS: We have strategic plans for the agency's growth. As I said, we plan to expand through geographical footprint. To begin with, we intend to focus on areas where traffic is less and where brands are keen to pay a premium for specialised services. This year, we will grow further by 20'22% through our integrated services like brand consulting, creative products, below-the-line activities, and online and IPR properties.

AG: Are you open to the idea of a possible merger/acquisition?

PS: Well, M&A is not on our agenda. We plan to stay independent. Business keeps evolving, so it may be considered in a couple of years.

AG: Can you share a success story, an instance in which your team's performance and approach delighted a client?

PS: There are many. But our work for MF Global represents an achievement with a great recall value. We carried out an integrated campaign for them last year, during recession. The idea was to salute the courage and optimism of the Indian investor during troubled times. To ask a client to advertise when the market is in red requires grit and gall. We kept going back to them to do this. And they agreed eventually. The results were astounding. We got 22,000 investors to engage with the campaign through a microsite and it was one of the most recalled campaigns, even with their clients. The campaign exceeded the client's expectations by 500%.

AG: Do you want to convey a specific message to the media, advertising and marketing community through Adgully?

PS: We should start pushing clients towards more branded content or entertainment. Advertising is still is an interruption vis-à-vis entertainment which consumers choose to see.