It's been three years since Pushpinder Singh quit his job as NCD of Publicis Ambience to become the founder of Saints & Warriors. afaqs! finds out what the journey has been like
Pushpinder Singh aka Pushpi felt that it was getting “difficult to be true to his bread”, and therefore, decided that he wanted to get out of a network agency to start out on his own.
After quitting Publicis Ambience in 2006, where he was NCD, Singh had the option of joining another network agency, but he didn’t really want to adhere to the business methods of a bigger network agency.
The upshot: Saints & Warriors (SAW), an acknowledgement to those, according to Singh, who have been pure to their trade (Saints); and Warriors is symbolic of the aggressive businessmen in the game, who have the mettle.
For the first three months, Singh worked out of the Origin Beanstalk office, which is founded by Shom Mazumdar and Upendra Singh Thakur, who were very encouraging and supportive.
He found like-minded partners in Mahendra Parab ,who handles art at SAW and Pankaj Acharya, (Partner & MD, SAW), who handles the servicing. “There was the initial phase of soul-searching but then, when the right set of people started coming together, it was great,” says Pushpi nostalgically.
Some of the things that enticed him into starting his own agency were, “Of course, money, but also the fact that I was happy getting up each morning thinking of work and not about people that I work with,” he says. He enjoys the independence that comes with running his own agency, as against conforming to the thoughts of another. “I’m just stubborn, I guess,” he shrugs.
Singh, who studied to be a pharmacist, enjoys advertising for purely personal reasons. “It makes me very happy to see an ad that will tug at the heart,” he says.
An ad can do more than just tug at the heart, of course. It can generate a lot of buzz, court controversy and draw a lot of attention to its creators. The famous Amul Macho campaign managed doing all that for SAW. And since the campaign, Singh admits to many new businesses coming his agency’s way. “The ride has definitely been smoother since Amul happened,” he says.
The other brands that SAW has worked on include J Hampstead, Streax Hair Colour and Piramyd, the clothing store by Piramal’s. Brands that SAW currently works on include elf lubricants, Lokmat, Amul Innerwear, Faber, Cremica, Pantaloons (Future Brands), OYO (children’s clothes brand), Apnaloan, Prozone Liberty International, Staples, Frankfinn, Wire and Wireless, and Navneet books.
SAW’s capitalised billings for the year, despite the slowdown, are approximately Rs 70 crore. On Singh’s wish list now is getting to work with FMCG businesses.
According to Singh, the good part of having his own agency is to see young people, who are fresh out of college, come up with “kickass” work. It makes him “papa proud”.
He adds that what he likes the most about being an entrepreneur is, “I’m making my own mistakes and not someone else making them for me. If I succeed, it’s because I did it right. And if I don’t, it’ll be me to blame.”
Finally, he looks forward to building SAW into an institution. Again a parental feeling, we ask? Stroking his beard, he says, “Yeah. That’s how my hair has gone grey.”
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