Ashish Khazanchi and Ajay Verma start 'enormous brands'

After keeping a low profile since he quit Publicis Ambience in June, former creative head of Publicis Ambience Ashish Khazanchi has announced the launch of his own venture along with Ajay Verma, erstwhile chief growth officer of Draftfcb Ulka. The agency, christened 'enormous brands', is part of the Concept Group and the group's chairman and managing director, Vivek Suchanti, will be associated with it.

Speaking to afaqs! about the agency's philosophy and its distinct quality, Khazanchi, managing partner, enormous, says, "'enormous' is about chasing the enormous-difference-making-ideas for brands with mass aspirations, with the confluence of insight, technology and unexpectism."

Khazanchi adds that consumers today are finding newer ways to skip advertisements. In such a scenario, brands require new strategies to not just communicate with their consumers but create talk-worthy connections. "It is not enough for agencies to be engaged with just the craft of print or film. Newer angles of connections, rather than merely well crafted ads, will form the vanguard of brand evangelism in the coming years. Brands will have to find ways of connecting with the consumers, which makes a difference in his purchasing behaviour or salience of the brand," he adds.

Khazanchi cites the example of Nike. While the brand has done some brilliant advertising, the real shift happened when it launched Nike+, he says. And, that's going to be enormous' endeavour. At this point, Khazanchi emphasises that the agency will be media-neutral.

Agreeing with him, Verma adds that the agency aims to provide solutions in the communication space, internet space. "The era of passive ideas is getting over and is not sustainable. So, we will provide marketing brand solutions, where advertising will certainly be a large aspect. But we will also create those IPs, products in the consumer and media space, which makes enormous difference in the entire scope of things," Verma explains.

On partnering with Concept, Khazanchi says that despite the agency having just 10 people doing the core of thinking and execution, the team will get access to an entire array of public relations, digital talent, media research and media execution.

While Khazanchi will work on the creative front, Verma, managing partner, will man the business and strategy planning at the agency. Together, they bring in more than 40 years of experience in the industry. Khazanchi and Verma worked together for Tata Sky at Rediffuson-Y&R. Although they went different ways, they kept in touch and began toying with the idea of starting 'enormous' just two months ago.

Currently, the agency has a team of 10 people on its pay roll and will soon set up office in Khar (currently its office is in Fort, South Mumbai).

Besides communications, 'enormous' will create its own IPs in the area of technology, brand assets and consumer interface. While the agency is working for certain brands in different sectors, Khazanchi and Verma were tight lipped about the names. However, they are clear that the agency wants to only work with clients having 'enormous' ambition.