Enormous won 9 clients without pitches from March to September 2024

Between March and September 2024, independent ad agency Enormous won nine clients without pitching to them. It’s quite the statement to make right before the agency turned 11 years old in October; three were retainers, and the rest were projects. Lahori Jeera was one of these nine account wins.

Co-founder and managing partner Ashish Khazanchi says the road to all these account wins was paved three to four years ago when he decided his agency would not follow the advertising industry’s method of frequent pitching and would instead rely on delivering growth for its clients.

“The industry works on this model and leaves much to be desired. It does not seem the ideas, most of the time, are built on a very good insight or marketing strategy, and the craft leaves a lot to be desired. So, the focus shifts to performance, where people are getting clear results,” remarks Khazanchi.

The aim is to pitch mindfully and focus more on producing excellent work for the agency’s clients. “Great work on new clients is the best business strategy,” he remarks. Time spent on pitching means less time doing great work for existing and new clients and employees burning the midnight oil—both detrimental to an agency’s fortunes.

Does it mean the agency is not pitching? Of course not. Enormous is now selective when it comes to choosing when to pitch its services. “We are very selective and not chasing the commerce—there have to be more reasons than commerce to go in for a pitch, and it has served us in good stead,” he explains.

One of Indian advertising’s most famous independent agencies, admen Ashish Khazanchi and Ajay Verma, started Enormous in 2013 after leaving their jobs as national creative director of Publicis Ambience and chief growth officer at Draftfcb Ulka, respectively.

"'Enormous' is about chasing the enormous-difference-making ideas for brands with mass aspirations, with the confluence of insight, technology, and unexpectism,” Khazanchi told afaqs! back in 2013 when the agency’s launch was announced.

Eleven years later, the agency won the Grand EFFIE—the highest accolade from the awards that recognise the best in marketing effectiveness—for its work on Jaquar Lights’ launch campaign. The campaign did bring a chuckle as it explained how the bathroom fittings major has now waded into the lighting world.

Khazanchi, however, isn’t satiated or settled. Buzzing like a bumblebee here and there even during this interview, he feels Enormous is still in an “aggressive phase of growth”. In 2023, he told afaqs! the agency was doubling down on Delhi. When asked about it, he was candid: “The city has not been nice to independent agencies. I just want to crack it and win the capital. It’s more of a mind-and-ego challenge than anything else. It’s a zidd.”

Enormous, however, has had a history with Delhi. Before the coronavirus-induced lockdown, the agency was enjoying its time in the capital. However, the post-lockdown period has been hard for the agency. Thus, Khazanchi’s determination to make it work. Today, it works in Delhi with brands such as Lenskart, Paisabazaar, OLX, Veeba, DLF, Diageo, Biba, and Apollo 24x7.

While the agency bolsters its people in its Delhi office, he says the talent in the capital is a challenging lot. “It’s a soft subjective observation; they are very ambitious, so they move out and start their own thing once they hit the glass ceiling.”

As the Delhi office takes shape and Mumbai keeps doling out work, Khazanchi is already busy with other ventures. For instance, Enormous is now looking to bolster its influencer marketing capabilities. “Influencers, content creators – they’re eating our lunch. A large part of what used to be a creative agency budget is going to content creators,” he reveals.

Enormous has a captive content company and an influencer agency—the two will only work with Enormous—that will help it pick up a healthy stake in the Indian influencer ecosystem; the agency is also managing a few. What kind of content will the agency produce? Says the co-founder, “We are talking about Q&As for digital, how-to videos, recipe videos, unboxing videos, interviews, and event coverage, all made in-house.”

At the same time, Khazanchi is making sure his agency is part of the burgeoning generative AI (GenAI) race too. It is working with people that will help the agency use GenAI to create work. “For a couple of our clients, we are trying to generate an entire film using GenAI tools like Runway and Pika 1.5, amongst others.”

With all this going on, Khazanchi is a busy man, and that’s because he believes his agency is not just an ad-film doling out kind of place. It’s a place where “brands are made brick by brick.” Now, the bricks don't need to only belong to print or television, do they?