Tilt-ing the creative agency model - A whole new angle

In a recent development, former group chairman and chief executive of Mullen Lowe Lintas Group Joseph George has announced the launch of his independent advertising agency Tilt Brand Solutions.

A 150-year experienced team from across advertising, marketing, content, consumer advocacy, data analytics, storytelling, studio production, digital, media, qualitative research, behavioral science and video analytics have come together to offer consulting, communication, content and video production services for brands and businesses under the name Tilt Brand Solutions.

Its founder, chairman and MD, Joseph (Joe) George says, “The context in which brands operate is everything. When that changes, everything about the brand outreach needs to change. What, where and how consumers buy, and What, where and how they consume content, have all changed. These changes cannot be responded to, by shoe-horning existing models into new structures. They need to be addressed by structuring a new; not re-structuring an old. Ergo Tilt.”

George opines, “We believe, that the adjacency of “Belief” insights and “Behaviour” data is critical in formulating brand strategy and brand storytelling today. Inexplicably, data analytics today sits only in digital, media or analytics agencies. At Tilt though, composite teams of left and right-brained strategists evaluate brand and behavioral data in human and cultural contexts and vice versa. Specialists in brand management, consumer behavior, digital & media, data analytics, video analytics and communication planning work together to provide what we at Tilt call, “Full Brained Thinking.”

Democratisation of data and proliferation of screens of all sizes, have resulted in Indians consuming more videos than ever before; contributing so, to 70 per cent of all IP traffic and 75 per cent of advertising spends. Tilt believes thus, that getting right the conceptualisation and production of advertising and content in the video format, has become critical.

Explains Joe, “Tilt’s creative philosophy of “One Brand, Many Stories” is built on the belief, that brands have, and need to tell many stories. More the stories, the more the brand begins to breathe and belong in people’s consciousness. The assumption that one video asset will work across audiences, objectives and platforms is flawed. Content creation and production needs to be tailored to each platform and experience across all forms of video-based advertising and content – from commercials to long, short and very short format video content.”

The leadership team,(Shriram Iyer, chief creative and content officer, Srikanth Sarathy, chief operating officer, Rajiv Chatterjee, chief business officer and soon to join Kedar Teny, chief strategy officer) is confident that Tilt’s “Strategy-Story-Studio” offering, driven by its twin philosophies of “Full-Brained Thinking” and “One Brand, Many Stories” could well serve as proof of concept for brand owners and creative enterprises who are seeking to influence, engage and entertain consumers of today.

Concludes Joe, “Our output sits in the union set of Consulting, Communication, Content and Video Production; drawing inputs however, from the intersection set of Brand building, Communication Planning, Storytelling, Analytics, Media & Digital strategy, Behavioral Science and Production Management. This meant that we had to look at talent with specific experience and skills; and so, our starting team couldn’t be more diverse from each other, and different from norm in terms of careers and academics - Airtel, Culture Machine, Disney, Franklin Templeton, Hindustan Unilever, IIT, Infosys, ISRO, Leo Burnett, Lintas, London School of Economics, McDonald’s, Mediacom, NID, Omnicom Media, PWC, Sony Sports, Star TV and The Viral Fever”