YAAP tips its hat to independent agencies in new video; releases old-school recruitment ads

Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the 'Vocal for Local' call, a sort of mini-war has erupted among netizens. Tea and dinner time conversations seem to be all about preferring 'local over foreign'.

The debate stretched to a preference for domestic manufacturers - companies that can stand up against the perceived big, bad MNCs. The original call, however, was for India to become a self-reliant economy that doesn't demonise anyone - brand, or company.

While the debate raged on, it also touched the advertising industry – the independent home-based agencies versus the big networked ones with offices all over the globe.

The latest voice in this debate is YAAP, a digital content company. It has released a video extolling the spirit of independent agencies. "The ones who love and fight for their independent spirits..." goes a line in the ad copy.

“While we’re faced with the larger crisis as humanity, we, as a community of independent agencies, also have a set of day-to-day realities to deal with. Keeping the lights on, delivering work for our clients with minimum disruption, and most importantly, keeping everyone inspired..." says Manoj Pandey, creative director at YAAP, and the visualiser of the film.

Along with this film, YAAP has also released a set of old-school, copy-based recruitment ads with a contemporary splash of colours. The ads urge professionals, who have fallen victim to mass retrenchment across independent agencies, to apply for a job, and get preference, at YAAP.

Commenting on these ads, Manan Kapur, partner at YAAP, said, "This has been a challenging time for our industry, and it’s more important than ever that we come together and try to make the best of these testing times."

"This initiative is YAAP’s way of supporting the talented professionals, who have lost their jobs, by offering them the opportunity to come work with us. We want to show them that while YAAP may be a new home for them, they’re still in the same family – a family of passionate, like-minded people from independent agencies.”

The film was created in collaboration with KSlient Productions.

Around a month ago, we did a story on what the PM's call meant for independent ad agencies, and asked several employees for their thoughts on this subject matter.