Graffiti Collaborative is a 4.5 years young creative agency. Its expertise lies in identifying the problem of a business and finding a creative solution. It believes that the solution usually lies in identifying the problem. Most people identify symptoms but it’s another skill to be able to differentiate them from the actual problem. That is the USP of this agency.

Although it started out as a digital agency, it soon realised that problems cannot be solved through a single medium alone. Once a creative strategy has been thought through, one needs to choose the right channels of communication based on several criteria. Today, Graffiti develops 360 degree creative communication strategies for its clients and delivers on digital, design, films, events, tech and everything creative. It strictly sticks to its expertise of strategies and tactics and doesn’t venture into the more ‘lucrative’ media buying space. The company will continue to evolve in the coming years keeping up with the times. The best is yet to come.
How was Graffiti Collaborative born (and when)?
This is a little complicated story and quite honestly, is being told to a larger public for the first time. It started out as a digital agency in a small shared room – sitting knee to knee for a few months. Once we realised we had more to offer to the communication industry, we packed off to a beautiful space which became our home for the next few years. As we learned more, we observed how this industry functioned – and we found it rather competitive. We figured that the quality of work is higher when collaborating rather than competing – and that’s how from Graffiti Media, we became Graffiti Collaborative. With that small but very significant change in our mindset, we have now become an agency which strives to change many standards in this industry. Our tagline – served with love – is a testament to it! We hope to bring out love in this industry. Love for what we do, love for people working with us and love towards nature and all things around us.

Tell us about your designers/animators. Did they go into fine art or design schools? Or software? How do you pick them up?
Our designers don’t have any formal design education. They are self-taught – as is the case with most of our team. We have a culture where we don’t really look at the education background or past work experience of an individual. What matters to us is who they are, what they are capable of and what they are willing to do in the future. Its about the attitude and belief system. We just attract the right kind of people. We don’t really go looking out for them. It’s what the universe sends our way. We just believe in it.

How would you define the design style at Graffiti Collaborative?
There is no one style. It is experimentative. We dabble with new styles everyday and push our limits to find new things. We believe in drawing inspiration from everything we see. People need to train to get ideas and researching on what already exists is the first step towards becoming a great creative person. Our style and calibre is evolving, futuristic, thought & concept led. We believe in the ‘less is more’ principle. But the one thing we are very clear about is that our design has to have purpose. We don’t believe in embellishments which don’t serve a purpose.

What does Graffiti Collaborative do which sets it apart from other digital agencies?
We are a creative agency. Our tagline is Served with Love. We stay true to it. And that sets us apart not just from agencies, but any organisation. We do not have a step-child attitude toward any client. Big or small clients – all are given equal love and they feel it. Our love is not limited to our clients – it goes out to our vendors, partners, landlord, everyone! It is a way of life for us. It’s easy to have vision mission statements, but is another milestone to be able to live it.

We unlearn. We change. We make room for growth. We make room for mistakes. And when we do make mistakes, we accept and apologise. We learn. We are brutally honest. We believe most people in this world lack a spine. And we will inspire as many people as we can, to grow some balls and develop a spine. To fight for what you believe in. Our ethics is going to take us far. No one achieved anything great by lying. And saying that in the communication industry might sound blasphemous, but then, we are here for the longer game and we will prove this to the world.

Were there any particular role models for you when you grew up?
I don’t have any.

Who was the most influential personality on your career in Brand Building?
Steve Jobs. He knew what he wanted to create and paid attention to every last detail to ensure it is exactly what he wanted. That kind of clarity is very inspiring.

How important is the focus on good design in Graffiti Collaborative?
We don’t do good designs. We do great designs.

Do you function like a traditional advertising agency? Or would you call yourself more of a graphic design/branding/social media agency?
We are a creative agency. Always will be.

What do you feel about the state of design in Brand Building in India?
It’s evolving. It’s getting better. We like to see ourselves as a part of the change in this country. And the change is happening fast. Indian agencies are still not creating too much original work, but, we will get there. But creative agencies can’t change the state of design if the clients are not willing to share the risk.

How do you think that the digital arena will provide communication solutions to the clients?
Everything communication is online now. It’s personal, it’s targeted, measurable! This is the best we have had so far in the history of communication. It can only get better!

IS Digital Marketing only limited to Social (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc)? What else is there? Can you illustrate with an example?
Definitely not. Digital is an extension of our everyday lives. Like we interact and engage with our environment in real life, we are beginning to see online like that.
The internet is created by people like you and me making and sharing content every minute. If they are not restricting the content to social channels, then why should we limit the marketing to that? We need to be where the relevant people are – which might just be everywhere.

Any other Indian ‘Digital Agencies’ you admire?
Errmm…we used to. But there are no Indian digital agencies left, they have all sold off to International agencies.

Can you share a successful case study of one of your campaigns?
We started working with Britannia Good Day last year. We did their re-launch on digital and have been working with them since then. Their new positioning is ‘It’s a smile that makes a Good Day’. With such a strong message, we had to do something for World Smile Day (WSD). We made it part of their annual communication calendar! We had the first campaign in 2015. It was a challenging campaign. The idea was to simply spread smiles – because we really think smiling makes people happy. A smile begets a smile. The campaign was simple – you share a smile with us, we share a pack of cookie with a child at The Akshaya Patra Foundation (TAPF). Fortunately for us, TAPF is also a client. So we were very excited about the campaign.

We used social media influencers who genuinely smile and asked them to share a message of spreading smiles on WSD. We floated 10 videos online and a host of creatives of the influencers and TAPF children to encourage people to share smiles.

We supported the same with offline hoardings, yahoo masthead and media spends on digital banners. We built a microsite which had the camera enabled to click pictures. The same was made mobile optimised since most people access social media from mobile devices today.

Twitter was abuzz with conversations on WSD.

We trended on twitter for the whole day and received over 11,000 mentions. We gave TAPF 20,000 packs of Good Day cookies! Lots of smiles everywhere

Social media is often used for traffic/traction etc. Do you have any examples where its used for brand building?
There’s always a strong element of brand building even when brands are working towards traffic. And, all the brands which understand Social is not a numbers game but a people game is doing well on social. Brand building is a big piece and it takes time, social contributes in a big way because of the way people use and connect on social. Paper Boat would easily be one of the best recent works of building a brand online.

What is your dream project?
Ruins of the Renaissance. It is where our belief in creativity & innovation will come to life. We can’t really tell you more about it yet – we are hoping this dream will shape up by the end of the year.

What advice do you have for aspiring creative professionals? Would you advise them to take on Digital Agency as a career option? Or Advertising and brand building?
With companies throwing away money for mediocre work, young creative professionals often fall prey to their own ego! So our advice would be to keep your head on your shoulders. There’s a lot to learn out there. Learn, unlearn and relearn.

We would definitely advise them to join a digital agency. It’s young – and where the action is. Things there change everyday – sometimes faster than you can keep up with. There is always an opportunity to keep learning if you have the right attitude. Also, what you learn on digital could possibly be useful for mainline advertising – since you actually feel the pulse of real people in real-time.

What apps do you commonly use on your phones?
Mostly games and social media. I download apps when I ‘need’ to use them but I also delete most of the apps. Which is why when brands want to create random apps to ‘engage’ with their audience – we die inside. Then we get resurrected and tell them to not be part of the herd! Sometimes we lose business for such honesty

Mac or PC?
PC.

Who would you like to take out for dinner?
Robert Downey Junior.

What’s on your iPod?
I don’t have an Ipod – but if you are asking about my music – it’s a mix of old retro (read Elvis), jazz, ghati dance music, mellow Simon & Garfunkel type and Tibetan chants.

Whats your Twitter Handle?
@thegraffitico