Clients are slowly shifting towards independent agencies: Anuya Jakatdar

In an exclusive interaction with Adgully, Anuya Jakatdar, Co-Founder of Bare Bones Collective, delves into the creative nuances behind their recent quirky ‘Gen Z Chudail’ campaign for YouTube, featuring the iconic Neena Gupta as the ‘Ganji Chudail’. She shares insights on selecting Neena Gupta for the role, navigating creative blocks in high-profile campaigns, leveraging Bare Bones Collective’s new-age approach in a competitive industry, and key strategies for staying ahead. Additionally, she reflects on the agency’s growth milestones, emerging trends shaping the advertising landscape, and what lies ahead for Bare Bones Collective.

What was the inspiration behind the quirky concept of ‘GenZ Chudail’? How did this idea align with the campaign’s goals?

The goal was to establish YouTube India as the go-to destination for fashion, beauty and lifestyle content. Our added challenge was creating content with cultural resonance amongst the GenZ internet junta. We knew Ganji Chudail was trending. We also learned that other brands had featured the animated character in their videos. But we wanted to push the envelope. So we thought, “Hey! Let’s do the first live-action version of Ganji Chudail. Let’s get three amazing fashion and beauty YouTubers. And let’s transform Ganji Chudail to GenZ Chudail. And while we’re at it, let’s get one of the most beloved veteran actresses to play Ganji/ GenZ Chudail.”

What led you to choose Neena Gupta for the role of ‘Ganji Chudail’?

Both the brand and we wanted someone who brought gravitas to the role, had a crackling sense of humour, and was beloved by GenZ. Neena Guptaji fit all three criteria! Plus, she has a killer dressing sense. Have you seen her Instagram feed? She’s an icon. Also, when we pitched the script to her, she was excited, and as fans and writers, what more could we want?

Could you walk us through the creative process for this campaign? How did you bring together such diverse creators to deliver a cohesive message?

Once the idea was cracked, we wrote the script with a clear direction in mind: While the script needs to be funny, it should also showcase the range of fashion and beauty content and its creators on YouTube. And that’s why we got amazing creators like Sakshi Sindhwani, Ishita Mangal and Shivshakti Sachdev onboard to transform Ganji Chudail to GenZ Chudail. They elevated the script by their sheer screen presence and had such great chemistry with Neenaji! It all came together beautifully.

Another great call was getting Ryan Mendonca to direct. It was a collaborative effort through and through. Ryan brings years of experience and a great understanding of how to translate a funny script successfully onscreen. Even after the script was in place, we kept jamming with him. Even after the shoot, we kept jamming with him about elevating the film on the edit table.

Lastly, and most importantly, we had fun – lots and lots of fun while writing the jokes.

Recently, a prominent figure in the ad industry raised concerns about delayed client payments and the pressures faced by agencies. What has been your experience, and how do you navigate these challenges?

Our current strategy is hitting a bar, but we’re working towards a more practical and cheaper solution.

How do you deal with creative blocks, especially when working on high-profile campaigns? In such a competitive environment, what strategies do you use to ensure Does your content stand out and remains fresh?

How do we deal with creative blocks? By losing pitches! Once you lose a pitch, creative ideas find a way to come out in the next one. There’s a reason they say necessity is the mother of invention.

On a serious note, we have methods that we have developed over the years to ensure that when we get stuck, we find a way to un-stuck ourselves. Sometimes, it’s as simple as stopping and returning to the brief later.

As a new-age agency, what unique advantages do you think Bare Bones Collective has in today’s advertising landscape?

The most significant advantage is that clients are slowly shifting towards independent agencies. They must see value in us, or why would they do that?

How was 2024 for Bare Bones Collective in terms of growth and key milestones? What are some of the trends that have dominated the advertising and creative landscape?

We measure growth in terms of the number of campaigns we’re proud of in the year, and there were many in 2024 – #GenZChudail for YouTube and Jaggu Dada Mode featuring Jackie Shroff for Amazon Prime Video being two of them.

The trends that have dominated the advertising and creative landscape include:

• Using social media memes to market your brand is a trend that’s definitely seeing an uptick.
• .. need I say more?
• As I said, smaller independent agencies are moving up the client ladder. We hope that this continues. If it doesn’t, we’ll hit a bar.