“Handshakes build better relationships than five-hour webinars,” says Turab Lakdawala, Managing Director of Hyderabad-headquartered Tempest Advertising that turned 25 very recently.
Which is why, the agency with 50 people on board and branches in Pune and Bengaluru, is planning to open a fourth office as it chalks expansion. The next office will be in Mumbai or Delhi or NCR, says the MD, in conversation with Medianews4u.com.
The full-service accredited agency, whose website bills the shop as an ‘Advertising and Digital Marketing Agency’, sees 60 pc of its business from digital today, up from 10-15 pc in the pre-Covid days.
When it enters Mumbai or Delhi, it will do so with 360-degree solutions. The solutions themselves are set to expand. Tempest offered CRM services to clients like Pillsbury when it entered India, as early as 1998. It even created CRM software in-house for the brand that was so economical, that the international customer relationship manager from Minneapolis flew in to figure how they had managed it, recalls Lakdawala.
Today, there is a need from clients for a partner to handle queries and help identify the right leads, not just create campaigns to generate leads, reasons the MD.
“We are not just doing campaigns but also delivering the customer to the client. We’ve taken baby steps today. Going forward, we will create a separate unit only for fulfilment,” he explains.
He adds, “As digital is evolving, people expect 360-degree solutions even in digital.”
That aligns with the philosophy of the agency that has remained independent as it scaled from three people to 50: ‘To be one step ahead of what the market needs today’.
People Factor
Of the people in the agency, half would be in creative, 30 pc in digital and 10 to 15 pc in client servicing, estimates Lakdawala. Some of them have stayed on for the 25 years the agency has been around for.
The launch team did not have anyone from an advertising background. Lakdawala himself started off at Hindustan Unilever after graduating from IIM Ahmedabad. After seven years in the company, he decided that he would do something on his own. But advertising wasn’t the first choice. He dabbled with a biotechnology (hybrid seeds) business only to realise that it was not his cup of tea. Software was another possibility he pursued but realised that people were not willing to pay.
“We then got into advertising thinking it would not require too much funds, but soon realised that advertising requires money because the bills need to be paid on time,” he recounts.
The first break came from the Satyam group, for whom Tempest created a corporate brochure for their export business. Work on clients like Bakelite Hylam followed. While admittedly no one took the agency seriously in the early days, the agency and its mascot – the doberman – slowly grew in the Hyderabad market.
“None of us were creative guys. But we could understand business. We focused on how advertising impacts business. Therefore most clients got some confidence while speaking with us,” notes Lakdawala.
“So we hired creative guys. Initially they were hired as freelancers because we couldn’t afford them. As business grew, from freelancers they became colleagues. Many have stayed back. People have been here 25 years,” notes the MD.
Client Focus
It’s not just employees. A client too has stayed with the agency since the start – Magarpatta City was launched on December 3, 1999, notes Lakdawala.
With projects happening in phases and at scale, work has flown continuously. The first project spanned 430 acres, the second was 700 acres and so on, notes the agency head, to give us a sense of the scale.
Within the real estate space, the agency takes pride in creating a culture of branding of land auctioned by the government. The trend started by the agency with Golden Mile in Telangana continues today, with projects like Neopolis.
“Agencies were asked to present ideas for the land auction. We told them you have to create a brand. We told them to brand the land. Since then, government of Telangana brands every land piece it auctions,” notes Lakdawala.
Around 30 pc of the agency’s clientele across branches is from the real estate sector today. Tempest has consciously stayed away from chasing international brands with network agency tie-ups. Education, healthcare and hospitality are some of the other large contributors. The focus is on entrepreneur-driven sectors, but also on clients with clean slates.
“One important foundation of the agency is about our business dealings. We don’t touch anything unethical – whether it is a business or a person. A client business should not be something we are not proud to talk about. For example, we won’t touch cigarettes, or a brand with gender bias, and so on,” he explains.
Leadership and Ownership
Tempest Advertising has been approached for buyouts in the past but it has said no. The simple answer to ‘why’ is that it wants to remain independent. Ask Lakdawala about the next 25 years and he cedes that it will be taken over – not by another company, but by the professionals running it.
“I have a very small role. Most things are run by the three branch heads. For a very short period of time my son worked in Tempest. He was reporting to the branch head. The agency is and will be professionally managed. Today I am the largest shareholder. There are 10 or 11 employees who also own a stake. Our size may be small, the thinking is not,” surmises Lakdawala.
Feedback: [email protected]
