From a garage to a multi-city agency - the successful story of a Pune based advertising agency

Company Brief

Pune, April 23, 2014

Most start-ups are born in a garage. Unfortunately most of them don’t go too far from there. Seagull Advertising however, has another story to tell.

Born in 1996, Seagull was the culmination of entrepreneur Sameer Desai’s lifelong dream to have his own advertising agency. And on April 30th 2014, Seagull advertising will turn 18. To celebrate this momentous occasion, Seagull is inviting all its patrons, friends and supporters to a special Thanks Giving Dinner Nite at Vivanta by Taj – Blue Diamond. The event, aptly titled 18 Forever, underlines Seagull’s promise of staying young at heart always and will have well-known illusionist SAC Vasanth entertaining the crowd with his incredible magic tricks.

Tough times make tough people

A shrewd and ambitious entrepreneur, the young Sameer came up the hard way, starting out in Tata Yellow Pages as a salesman. Thanks to his drive and keen sense of business, he rose to the position of Manager in just a year. Sameer recalls his days of walking through Mumbai, knocking on doors of peeved residents, only to get the door slammed in his face most of the time. ‘Those were tough times, but tough times also makes people tough’, says Sameer. ‘That experience taught me to persevere my goals, come rain, sun or shine.’

Giving wings to a dream

2 years later, Sameer decided it was time he pursued his own dream. Thus ‘Seagull Advertising’ was born in his father’s garage, with a capital investment of 10,000 and 3 young, but motivated employees. Sameer, his wife Reshma, and his business partner Anup Patil, took up their responsibilities seriously, but it was a while before the world took these youngsters seriously. ‘Companies were skeptical seeing 3 fresh young faces, but we stubbornly persisted, and finally, got our big break with Pepsi.’ In 1998, Seagull won the distribution and marketing right for Pepsi in Maharashtra. From there onwards, there was no looking back. Next came Brown Forman, Symbiosis, Pudumjee hygiene and many more. As their roster of brands grew, Seagull grew too, and moved up from the garage to a 600 sq. ft. office in Pune, with 10 employees. Today, 18 years from its inception, Seagull Advertising has a 4200 sq. ft. office in Pune, an office in BKC, Mumbai and employs 50 people.

To fly higher, you need to go with the wind

Their biggest learning? ‘If you can dream it, you can do it, says Sameer Desai. ‘It’s also important to be flexible and adapt to the times. Seagull believes in staying young and relevant. For example, today, the ad industry is becoming more tech and digital oriented. We’ve long realized this and have specially focused on this area with an integrated digital arm.’ Today, Seagull is one of Pune’s leading agencies, and has helped many brands take-off, including Amanora, P.N. Gadgil Jewellers, Jaihind, Mont Vert, Maple, Oyster and Pearl and more.

A runway for other start-ups

Even with their success, Sameer Desai has not forgotten what it was like to be a start-up.

Which prompted him to help other start-ups transform their dreams into business opportunities by launching a unique initiative called Runway To Success. Runway To Success holds free branding seminars for start-ups every month and helps entrepreneurs build a robust and creative marketing strategy for their businesses through Seagull’s tested proprietary branding tool – Wings for Profit.

Boilerplate:

Seagull Advertising is an 18 year old branding and advertising agency from Pune, offering services including integrated planning and brand management, creative communication and design, social media and digital marketing, traditional and online media planning, and event management. Seagull Advertising helps create winning brand strategies with our proprietary brand planning tool 'Wings for Profit', along with an internationally recognised process formulated by David Rogers, called AECCC. 

For further information, please contact:

Seagull Advertising

Sanjay Wandre

Mobile: +919370695847

Email: sanjay@seagulladvertising.org