GOA: It is myth that in GoaFest it is only the glamorous agencies which participate. Over the last two years, it can be noted that many new specialised agencies have taken home Abbys for impressive pieces of advertising. Among this set of newbie winners is Milestone Brandcom.
Indiantelevision.com asked Milestone Brandcom MD Nabendu Bhattacharyya how it feels to sweep away Abbys amongst many other mainline agencies.
Take a look at what he had to say…
“Looking back at our four year journey in the dynamic industry that we call advertising, I am filled with pride at Milestone Brandcom’s journey and success. Yesterday at the GoaFest, we won five out of the seven awards that we were shortlisted for and placed third on the table, competing with industry stalwarts. It is a very big moment for us at Milestone Brandcom and we hope to accomplish much more.
I grew up in Kolkata, surrounded by art, football and culture but my first love was always advertising. Two of my brothers were creative directors in advertising agencies so naturally I set the bar high for myself. In 1993, I kick started my career as a summer trainee at Ulka when advertising was just coming into its own. It was obvious that the possibilities in Indian advertising were endless and largely unexplored. I went on to leave my family and girlfriend who later became my wife behind in Kolkata to work at Selvel’s Delhi office where I had my first brush with the OOH industry. After five years at the company, I decided to move on to Emirates Neon in Dubai, hoping to learn more. As I never really fell in love with Dubai, I returned to join Mudra’s JV with Vertigo and a year later I joined Ogilvy in 1999 where the idea of Milestone Brandcom was conceived.
Starting as a senior consultant, my journey at Ogilvy has made me who I am today and has had a considerable effect on Milestone Brandcom’s journey as well. After 10 eventful years at Ogilvy and over 16 years in the industry, I decided to start Milestone Brandcom with four colleagues after the bottom line started to restrain our creativity. Today, we at Milestone Brandcom put creativity and delivery above everything else and the success of our campaigns stand testament to that.
We started with just 25 passionate employees in six offices, our head quarters being a tiny space in Andheri. We had a few clients and many skeptics. We wanted to change industry standards, we wanted to weed out the hurdles that came along with corporate culture and we wanted to deliver. Due to our persistence and knowledge, we quickly went on to win some of the biggest OOH accounts such as Colors, McDonalds, Binani Cement, Axis Bank, Dish TV, Tanishq and Tata Docomo within six months. Through strategic planning, innovative technology and creative solutions, Milestone Brandcom has completely transformed the outdoor landscape to bring about a forward looking, healthy and positive outlook towards the industry.
As I write this, Milestone Brandcom is a game-changer in the industry that employs over 200 employees with offices/representatives in 42 cities in the country and over 100 active brands. The story of the underdog doesn’t end there. We are also the largest OOH agency in India.
I hope we add many more ‘milestones’ in our journey ahead…”
(These are purely personal views of Milestone Brandcom MD Nabendu Bhattacharyya and indiantelevision.com does not subscribe to these views)
