Elephant Strategy+Design expands with Brand Planet Elephant

A new brand outfit has come into existence. Brand Planet Elephant is the entity formed with an equal partnership of Shouvik Roy, ex-hand of Alchemist (the marketing consultancy firm led by Samit Sinha), Anjan Roy, ex-hand of Vyas Gianetti Creative (VGC), and Elephant Strategy+Design. The new outfit will operate out of Delhi.

Brand Planet Elephant will focus on three verticals: strategic advisory, traditional communication such as advertising, and the emerging aspect of corporate identity. Shouvik, who has spent seven years at Alchemist, has experience in brand strategy. Anjan will focus on the advertising function.

He adds, “It will help us to lead clients who come to Elephant for design solutions into the domain of communication. Again, we can introduce design to clients who have communication needs.”

Ashwini Deshpande, director, Brand Planet Elephant, says, “We were often asked why we did not offer advertising solutions as well. Entering the advertising space would have been a natural move for us. We believed that we needed to offer services beyond conventional advertising. Brand Planet Elephant is an outcome of getting those specialised skills together, in addition to Elephant's knowledge and experience of brands and design across diverse domains. Brand Planet Elephant will be the new age consulting company that provides communication strategy through focused transmedia solutions.”

Design units such as Elephant Strategy+Design and Ray+Keshavan (incidentally, both companies were formed in 1989) have raised the standard of design in India to the current levels. Elephant Strategy+Design partners Indian brands and companies in the health care, information technology, banking, FMCG and consumer segments. It has dealt with clients such as Unilever, P&G, Nissan, Henkel, Britannia, Bajaj Auto, Kirloskar Group, Commonwealth Games Federation and Titan.

Sudhir Sharma, director, Elephant Strategy+Design, says, “Brand ecology is blurring the edges of specialisations. This is so evident in the international award programmes like Cannes 2008. This blurring is bound to create outfits like Brand Planet Elephant. Brands of tomorrow need simple world class ideas that require the coming together of such masters.”

Anjan Roy, director, Brand Planet Elephant, elaborates on the alliance, “This is the first time that brands doing business in India will have one partner with multidisciplinary skills, instead of distinct companies. At Brand Planet Elephant, strategic advisory, communication and the design and transformation domains are all being led by specialists. Over the last three years, we have observed that brands have a primary need in these core areas.”

Shouvik has been in marketing for nearly a decade and has two years of experience in advertising. Anjan quit VGC as chief operating officer. He had looked after the Delhi branch of VGC since it was set up.