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Tech-Driven Digital Marketing Solutions are Our Key Focus, Says Hashtag Orange's Mukesh Vij
1. What is the story behind the foundation of Hashtag Orange? What was your idea behind the company?
Being a part of an advertising and marketing agency like Group M for more than 15 years, I realized the clear gap when it comes to providing 360-degree digital marketing solutions to evolving brands. The agencies were struggling with their partner outfits to provide integrated solutions to the aggressive needs of today’s growing brands. The customer journeys are not linear anymore and with time it has only become complex with the evolution of multiple channels, and I could clearly see a vision of building an integrated digital marketing agency that could cater to the end-to-end value chain of the customer journey, starting from product discovery to sales.
And that’s how the idea of starting Hashtag Orange was conceived to develop it as a technology-driven integrated digital market solution provider and help brands to have holistic digital marketing solutions to manage their customer journeys.
Today, we have traveled a distance from 7 employees to 70 and built a people-first organization in less than 5 years and are one of the fastest growing digital agencies in India. We are being driven by a strong leadership team across the domains at the top level and driving business with a mindset to create differentiation and innovative solutions. We are a preferred partner with Google and Facebook that helps to get additional competitive insights to drive brands’ businesses. Hashtag Orange is more inclusive and fulfilling the digital marketing gaps for various brands through an integrated strategic approach, platform-agnostic creatives, insights based on data analytics, and technology-driven solutions.
2. What are some of the unique experiences you have had and the types of clients you have worked with after establishing the company?
In my journey of the last 5 years with Hashtag Orange, the pandemic was the time when brands were struggling with their business growth and agencies were fighting for retaining their existing businesses. With our strength across domains and integrated approach, we were able to drive the business performance for our brands through innovative digital solutions and helped them sail through difficult times the trust we have with the brands is the reason behind 80% client retention so far.
We have worked for more than 100 brands across categories – B2B, B2C and D2C. To name a few, we have a strong business relationship with GMR Group, India’s leading infrastructure company, Honeywell Global, Snickers from Mars Group, Wildcraft, an explorer apparel brand, Water Aid – an NGO, Monte Carlo, LPU Online, Vivo and a lot of D2C brands like Forest Essential, Kapiva, Kama etc.
3. What is the current market position of Hashtag Orange?
Hashtag Orange is being positioned as a technology driven digital marketing solution provider with a focus of driving end-to-end value chain of consumer journey. As an Employee First firm, our priority has always been adding value to clients across categories and verticals. We are a preferred partner with Google and Facebook that enables targeted solutions for our brands.
We've started a digital transformation journey to strengthen the connection between digital and advertising. Through content creation, marketing, advertising, and technology solutions, we are establishing a strong digital presence for our partner brands. Our digital marketing outfit aims to help brands grow on both digital and traditional platforms.
4. What are some of the emerging trends within the marketing industry? How are you aligning your strategies with these trends?
Technology is a bane, boon and hope for brands these days. Meta and Artificial intelligence will gradually but progressively determine how space flows. To be honest, the camera is already the first Virtual Reality device! Additionally, analytics and intelligence will play a huge part in determining the content. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2025, 30% of outbound marketing messages from large firms will be synthetically generated.
We do all it takes to make any digital objective successful with a team of digital media experts. Our team works with a consultative and solution-driven approach toward the brands’ business objectives. We work on mobile apps, up-to-date data and analytic tools, DevOps tools, and UI/UX technologies to keep up with the evolving technology.
5. How do you measure your brand’s success so far?
With much accomplished and much more in the works, we anticipate 5X growth in the current fiscal year. We commit to assisting organizations in achieving their objectives through effective digital marketing strategies. With this growth trajectory, we are optimistic and confident that Hashtag Orange will be one of the Top 3 digital agencies in India with a global footprints in next 3 years.