Grey's ex-national creative head ventures out on his own

Amit Akali joins a host of ad agency professionals who've set up their own shop

WPP ad agency Grey’s former national creative director Amit Akali has set up his own digital agency, becoming the latest in a long list of senior advertising professionals to quit the comfort of their jobs for the rough and tumble of entrepreneurship.

Akali’s latest venture has partners, including his brother Praful, a specialist in healthcare communications who co-founded the agency along with him, and Huzefa Roowala, formerly with MTV, as well as Hammad Khan, earlier with Wizcraft, who have both come on board as founder-members.

At least five big agency names have ventured out on their own in in the last two years. These include Abhijit Avasthi, former national creative director of O&M, Ramanuj Shastri, former chief creative officer of Saatchi & Saatchi, Vikram Gaikwad, former executive creative director at Creativeland Asia, Ashish Khazanchi, former national creative director of Publicis Ambience, and Navin Talreja and Kawal Shoor, both former senior executives at O&M.

Akali says after nearly 20 years in the advertising business with agencies such as Enterprise Nexus, O&M and Grey, he felt setting up his own shop was the next step. “Digital is the way to go and I spent a considerable amount of time understanding what I wanted to do and the skill sets required for the segment,” he said.

His agency will attempt to provide what he describes as “creative brand solutions for a digital world”.

“Too often digital agency specialists understand the technological aspects, but not necessarily the creative idea or the process of creativity, which is something that mainline agencies understand well. What we are trying to do here is marry the creative prowess of a mainline agency with the technological might of a digital shop,” he says.

Pegged at around 8-9 per cent of the country’s total advertising of Rs 37,000-38,000 crore, digital spending, according to media industry experts, is set to cross 20 per cent of total advertising by 2020.

In the last few years, most digital agencies of repute have been acquired by the larger advertising networks at high valuations, which could be one reason for the rush among creative professionals to set up digital shops.

At a broader level, the growing trend of agency professionals venturing out on their own is similar to the start-up culture seen in the larger business world.

Akali says the ecosystem today supports entrepreneurship, prompting many to take the plunge. “You have investors today willing to back ventures and a general acceptance of the culture of entrepreneurship. People are willing to take the risk,” he says.

In Akali’s case, the venture is self-funded. “We are sufficiently funded for now. The task for us would be to produce good work,” he adds.