One Hand Clap: The agency that got MS Dhoni to re-enact Ranbir Kapoor’s 'Animal'

Several campaigns have done rounds on Indian social media in the last few months that seem to understand the digital zeitgeist with uncanny precision: Swiggy assembling a platoon of meme-famous influencers; Battleground Mobile India's (BGMI) ad featuring YouTuber CarryMinati taking a satirical 'sanyaas' (retirement); Netflix's Playback 2024 blending internet personalities with mainstream actors; and more recently, electric cycle brand EMotorad's latest ad film that sees MS Dhoni don Ranbir Kapoor's Animal character. 

Riddled with pop culture references, what these campaigns share is the signature of one agency, One Hand Clap. 

In a bustling street of Andheri West, Mumbai, sits the ad agency that was founded in January 2019 by Aakash Shah and Naveed Manakkodan, both alumni of the now-dissolved Mumbai-based popular comedy collective All India Bakchod (AIB).

The agency has now effectively carved a niche by being unapologetically focused on getting social media right. Speaking to afaqs!, Shah chronicles One Hand Clap's journey in the Indian ad world, and shares the key learnings he's acquired along the way. 

Genesis: From creators to agency founders

"Brands didn't get content right," Shah recalls of the advertising landscape six years ago. Having cut their teeth in content creation—Shah led AIB's social media department while Manakkodan headed production—they spotted a gap in the market.

Their hypothesis was simple: combine their content expertise with brand understanding to create social media content that would be funny, attention-grabbing, and eminently shareable. 

The agency's beginnings were humble. Operating without a formal office for the first year, the founders worked from home before moving to a co-working space.

Their initial hires weren't traditional advertising professionals but creators—skilled meme-makers and sketch artists from the internet. "We didn't have strategists or account management," Shah explains. "We were solely a team of creators, including myself."

This creator-led approach yielded dividends early on, with Prime Video, Bumble India, and YouTube India becoming their first clients—relationships that continue to this day.

The pandemic pivot: When social became essential

If One Hand Clap's founding was well-timed, the COVID-19 pandemic was an unexpected accelerant. As traditional marketing channels became inaccessible during lockdowns, brands increasingly turned to social media to maintain connections with consumers.

"During the pandemic, people started spending about five to six hours on Instagram and Twitter," Shah notes. "Reels got introduced, TikTok came to India then got banned... People started spending a lot more time on their devices."

This shift in consumer behaviour prompted brands to reconsider their approach to social media. What was once an ancillary marketing initiative became the primary channel for brand communication. 

During the pandemic alone, One Hand Clap expanded its workforce from 10 to approximately 60 employees. Today, One Hand Clap has 90 employees and a client roster including Swiggy, BGMI, Netflix, CoinDCX, and Bajaj Chetak, among many others.

MS Dhoni and EMotorad, tell us more!

The agency's work with EMotorad featuring cricket icon M.S. Dhoni perfectly illustrates its knack for tapping into cultural moments. The journey began with their 2023 "Bole Jo Koyal" campaign, where they convinced the typically stoic cricketer to embrace a meme about himself.

"He heard the script and he was convinced," Shah reveals of Dhoni's reaction to the pitch. "He was smiling. 'Yeah, I know what you are trying to make me do. But let's do it. I think it will be fun.'" Dhoni drew the line at actually singing, however. "We actually asked him to sing. He said, 'No, I am not going to sing. I will give you a lip sync, but then you will get the voice treated.'"

The campaign's success paved the way for this year's follow-up, which placed Dhoni in the context of director Sandeep Reddy Vanga's controversial film "Animal"—creating an attention-grabbing juxtaposition between Dhoni's calm demeanour and the film's aggressive themes. Getting filmmaker Vanga onboard was another challenge, but equally crucial to the campaign's authenticity.

"If you were to actually imagine Dhoni, who is supposedly calm and really cool and never angry, in Animal, the juxtaposition works as a meme, it works as a video, it works as anything," Shah explains.

Competition and collaboration in a growing ecosystem

In terms of its social-first identity, One Hand Clap competes with other independent agencies such as Youngun, WLDD, RVCJ, among others. Despite the seemingly cutthroat nature of the industry—with "500 agencies in Mumbai alone" competing for the same clients—Shah maintains a collaborative outlook. "Because the pie is so huge now, I don't actually sense competition," he says. 

The agency often works alongside other agencies, which provide complementary services such as meme seeding, a marketing strategy where a brand distributes its meme content, often through influential individuals or social media.

“I think everyone has a lot more room to play with now. The budgets have gone up, so of course, more players will enter. But in retrospect, I don't really see competition being a big worry for any of us. There are too many clients wanting to work with you with so many campaigns lined up, where no one agency can actually take up everything by themselves,” Shah elaborates.

He credits this ecosystem to the "unbundling of services" from mainline agencies, as specialist teams branch off and take over specific functions. "We were all born out of the unbundling of services from mainline agencies. When unbundling started happening, mainlines lost control of social media, and then they lost control of TVCs. If unbundling is why we won, then unbundling is the way forward," he asserts philosophically.

For aspiring agency founders, Shah's advice is crystal clear: identify one thing you can do better than anyone else and stick to it religiously. "There's no way to make a name for yourself if it's not for a niche," he says.

One Hand Clap's own experience bears this out. By focusing exclusively on social media—even charging premium rates when others treated it as an afterthought—the agency established itself as a specialist in a field that would soon become crucial.

Looking forward: Focused expansion

As it looks to the future, One Hand Clap plans to double down on four core domains: Social media retainers, influencer marketing, writing & campaigns, and production. Rather than diversifying broadly, the agency is deepening its expertise in areas that naturally extend from its social-first philosophy.

"The idea is simple," Shah says, adding, "If we're known for doing fewer things, but doing them exceptionally well, that's how we win both people and partners."