Atlys marketing head shortlists three agencies from 153 applicants after LinkedIn pitch call

After posting on LinkedIn that he seeks a “young, hot agency” for online visa application Atlys’ launch campaign, head of marketing Santosh Hegde has revealed 153 agency intent+ creds dropped in his box, and that he has picked three out of the entire lot.

“I took the effort to go through every single mail & creds deck. Spent hours doing this, but was totally worth it. Overwhelmed by the quality that's out there and had a tough time narrowing down the shortlist,” Hegde wrote on LinkedIn before detailing his process.

1. There were several woolly mammoths in the list. Absolute behemoths of the advertising world! Many I personally worked with in the past. But did not meet the requirements of the brief I have in mind. And wouldn't work within the budget I have. So very very humbled, but now's not the time!

2. Several who threw their hat in the ring were social-media-first, media planning, martech, outdoor and experiential marketing agencies - Many of these are actually relevant for other projects but not for this one. And hence, stay tuned! I might still reach out to some of you over the next few weeks!

3. Of the ones left, a crisp & clear intent and easy-on-the-eye creds deck helped me narrow down the list. To all those who expected me to download from WeTransfer links, SendGB links, One Drives etc, I went through them but it was painful and am not sure how many clients would actually go through this rigmarole.

Hegde writes that he chose only three because, “Agencies, the good ones, do put a lot of heart into pitches. Plus these are small agencies with small teams. Do not want to put them through any more hardships, by expanding the pool further.”