Top Independent Digital Marketing Agencies To Look Out For

Very evidently, digital marketing has become the buzzword in the journey of the marketing machinery of most of the Indian companies. With deeper penetration of internet and smartphones, the need for brands to market digitally has only augmented. While traditional media continues to do its work, digital marketing techniques have resorted to gain endless traffic, along with profitable momentum. Undoubtedly, it has become an integral part of the marketing funnel, owing to its inexpensive, responsive and efficient nature. 

Also, India was underleveraged on digital spends but the pandemic has tremendously accelerated the growth in this space. A lot of businesses that were traditionally offline are investing heavily into developing their digital strategy and presence, and businesses that were born in the digital age are doubling down on their competitive advantage on this medium.

However, the trick for brands lies in carefully choosing and leveraging the benefits of the agency they appoint, for it will help build a sustainable identity to fortify their position in the digital world. Below is a list capturing some of the new-age independent digital marketing agencies, who have expertise in a wide range of subjects from the digital ecosystem and whose work has spoken for itself.

1. Tonic Worldwide

Earlier known as Tonic Media, the agency was established by Chetan Asher and Samir Asher in 2005 and currently has offices in India and the Middle East. 

The agency believes in digital experiences for people and has been recognized for work that stays true to its human-centric philosophy, while communicating the brand message effectively. With their 'humans without boundaries' approach, they ensure that one can march ahead in this ever-evolving digital space. 

Rooted in stories, research and insights, Tonic Worldwide brings to the table a heady mix of creative experiences and strategic knowledge of the market. It has worked with brands across verticals such as Sony Pictures Network, House of Hiranandani, Wow Skin Science, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Aditya Birla Group, Blackstone Private Equity, Zydus and many more.

The Work

Last six months were quite eventful for the agency, where they primarily focussed on partnering with existing clients to navigate the Covid -9 induced challenges. From Nutralite, Kotak Mahindra Bank to Warner Music, they worked across the spectrum.

In January this year, Nutralite hosted the longest breakfast table ever with mothers and their children. The virtual table was hosted by Celebrity Chef Sanjeev Kapoor and promoted healthy breakfast habits.

The flagship campaign for Condom Alliance to create awareness about safe sex took an unconventional route that resonated with young audiences. A witty hummable music video called #KaunDumbHai urges the youth to not be ‘dumb’ by believing the myths and misconceptions that surround the use of condom and instead to identify themselves as smart and use a condom. 

Another high point in the last quarter was when global icon Priyanka Chopra organically amplified the #TuneOutTheTaunts campaign we launched for Women’s Day by Warner Music India. Lastly, our HI+AI insights division GIPSI released multiple reports, which would help marketers understand emerging insights and its implications. 

Future Focus

Talking of the agency’s future plan, Chetan Asher, Co-founder says, “Building on our creative reputation, our goal is to consolidate this strength and be recognised as an Indian agency on global stage . Invite talent from across the world to work with us, we are already moving in that direction. As we truly believe that Tonickers are the fuel that will propel our growth.”

2. Kinnect

Kinnect represents a 360-degree digital media agency, founded by Rohan Mehta and Chandni Shah in 2011. The agency is headquartered in Mumbai, with a strength of 350+ employees across geographies. 

The company’s clientele includes Adidas, Amazon, Disney+ Hotstar, Intel, HDFC Bank, Asian Paints, P&G Group's Ariel, Tide and Old Spice, and more. 

The Work

Approaching the pandemic as a learning experience, Kinnect looked at the situation from the lens of an opportunity rather than a challenge. They not only adapted to the new normal of working from home but also executing result-driven work. 

Tiding over the adversities of 2020, the agency thoughtfully designed the campaign for TikTok India, Mat Kar Forward, to combat the risks of fake news. They made a PSA film to educate the public on how to stop the spread of this infodemic that was directed by Anurag Basu.

They coined a campaign that was counter-intuitive for a platform that grows through shares and forwards. #MatKarForward - Not to Forward any hateful, unverified or misleading messages. This led to a movement across the digital landscape, bringing in 70 million views across platforms. 

Another campaign for HDFC Bank, Hum Haar Nahin Maanenge, helped spread hope and positivity in such testing times. Since the behaviour of sharing content had multiplied during the pandemic, they wanted to make sure that this share was not only meaningful but also impacted someone's life. HDFC Bank pledged that for every share of the video, it would contribute Rs. 500 to the PM Cares Fund. This would not only have a multiplier effect on the hope and positivity the viewer would be spreading, but also add to the donation, making a real world impact. 

Future Focus

The agency hopes to solidify its presence in North India in the coming times. In terms of services, their key focus is on scaling up their digital media buying practice which they feel, will see the largest material change in spend profiles from their clients.

Simultaneously, they are working on building and developing their data science and analytics division to a much larger setup than they currently have. 

3. Meraqi Digital

Started with just 2 people, Ankit Saraf & Snehja Sanganeria about 5 years ago, Meraqi has cemented itself well in the digital market today. They are a team of 30+ members and growing 30% YoY.

An independent Martech agency, Meraqi boasts of a portfolio of renowned national clients like RP Sanjiv Goenka Group, Anmol Biscuits, Emami Group, MP Birla Group, Grohe AG, Himalaya Opticals, Hyatt Regency, WOW! Momo and many more.

The Work

Their recent campaign for Wow! Momo aimed at the brand’s increased penetration and share in the Delhi market and to induce trials. 

Veg and Non-Veg Supreme Momos were introduced at a low price point of Rs. 49 and Rs. 59 - highlighting three key USP’s health, hygiene and price.

They ran a four-month long campaign, to spread awareness. A well thought mix of organic posts (in campaign bursts) and paid media (YouTube bumper ads, Facebook banners, Instagram banners and stories, Google Display ads. were deployed).

This led to Delhi Ka Momomania becoming very popular in the Delhi NCR region and the campaign became synonymous with three words - health, hygiene and price. Overall, we saw an increase in organic engagement levels along with number of transactions increasing.

Future Focus

The agency’s long-term goal is to become the first renowned Digital Agency from East India, helping brands digitally transform and adapt to the fast-changing digital market. Along with this, they also aspire to become a place where people love to work – an aspirational agency for creative people alike. 

In the short & medium term, they want to help local brands go national and in the long run, they aim at helping national brands take the International stage. 

4. TheSmallBigIdea 

Co-founded by ex-ZEE & ex-Times marketers, Harikrishnan Pillai and Manish Solanki, TheSmallBigIdea (TSBI) is a full service digital agency, with offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru. They have a robust international clientele coming in from US, UK & ME, which includes TV channels & tourism boards.

TSBI has a strong senior management, consisting of people who grew within the organisation over seven years and professional cherry picked from the industry. 

The Work

In the past six months, TheSmallBigIdea has worked on clients across categories within the media and entertainment sector. For ZEE Vajwa, ZEE’s first Marathi music channel, the agency created a ‘mahaul’ with dynamic content by tactically releasing playlists with a pulse on the general mood of its viewers with Morning Playlist, Work From Home Playlist, etc. By collaborating with popular artists, the agency conceptualized a #FullToVajwa challenge for the launch party which successfully garnered 3.4 Million plus views.

For Balaji Telefilms' subscription based video-on-demand platform, TheSmallBigIdea, through its collaboration with Mayur Jumani, garnered 247K organic views for three of their recently launched shows titled ‘Hello Jee’, ‘Dev DD’ and ‘Bang Baang’. 

The agency has also successfully executed multichannel marketing campaigns titled ON NAHI, FULL ON for &Pictures, Dabangg3 and 2020 KA TH END campaign for Zee Cinema. IPML campaign for Zee TV and many more. 

Future Focus

The coming few years belong to insights, storytelling, technology and regional markets, all four of which have been the focus area for TheSmallBigIdea over three years now. In 2021, TheSmallBigIdea will continue to keep their leadership in the media and entertainment space intact, while focusing on driving growth opportunities with MarTech solutions, e-commerce and the studio business. 

5. ET Medialabs

Incepted in 2013 by Raghav Kansal, ET Medialabs helps brands & hyper growth start-ups to scale their revenue efficiently & aggressively by leveraging digital advertising and analytics to its full potential. The agency has built proprietor technologies & tools to optimize the full-funnel customer journey to drive acquisitions and increase revenue. it is one of the few companies in India which have top-tier partnerships with both Google & Facebook, as its both Google Premier Partner & FB Marketing partner.

Today, the agency aims at becoming a global brand known for helping its clients best leverage Digital, Analytics & AI for phenomenal & sustainable business growth.

The Work

Working as growth partners with major Digital brands like Licious, Urban Company, JJ, Cred, etc, their work has helped a premium FMCG brand establish their Online Retail and grow it into their leading sales channel by planning and executing the growth roadmap of their online sales from launch to scale to sustain. 

They also helped a fintech app to scale customer acquisition via digital advertising. One key highlight of the partnership was the “True Ads RoI” model that they used to predict actual incrementality bought in by ad spends. This enabled them to drive this growth in a sustainable manner rather than by just burning money. 

Future Focus

Last year, they launched a dedicated vertical around “App Growth Marketing”. They realized that growing an App-first business is a different ball game altogether and they have always believed in specializing rather than taking a generic approach. Today, it’s one of the fastest growing verticals in their business and they plan on expanding this offering to South East Asian countries as well.

6. Webisdom

Webisdom, founded by Amardeep Bajpai, is a digital transformation solution company that holds expertise in diverse spheres and step in all together to deliver slick digital transformation solutions. 

Their work is founded on understanding the clients’ institutional context, macroeconomic environment and various business nodes. The organizational culture is client-oriented which ensures that they can deliver the right team having appropriate expertise for every client across the globe. 

The Work

-Webisdom has done a global partnership with WeWork offering digital services to all their community members

-Web design 2.0 and Web development 2.0 of Kuber Shoppe

-Vendor management for Kuber Grains & Spices 

-Managed SEO 2.0 of Kalinga School of Management (KSOM)

-Partnership with Kuber Group for, 'The PENTA GRAND 2021 World Cup Qualifiers' Equestrian Tent Pegging event.

Future Focus

Webisdom will start moving ahead with the cybersecurity technology field and have a plan to expand in other countries like the US, Europe, New Zealand and Australia, by building strong digital transformation case studies.