Featuring a Social Media Agency: Graffiti Collaborative

Who are we?

We are a creative agency based out of this really nice & happy office in Bangalore. We are idea generators and brand consultants. We create and develop innovative campaigns which get executed through social media marketing, designs, web apps and corporate films.

We are soon to celebrate our first anniversary. The team which started off with one employee and a zillion interns in a tiny shared office space has now grown to a 17 members team. We have a bunch of designers, developers, copywriters, animators, film makers and ofcourse, some jack-of-all-trade generalists! We are a very young and dynamic team which loves to learn new things and execute stuff outside of our comfort zone!

What's in the name?

We did start off as a social media marketing agency and were bitten by the facebook bug then. So from facebook wall, we got the inspiration to become graffiti. We love the colors and randomness of wall graffiti and will hopefully, with (land)lord’s permission, paint our walls red soon!

What we do?

We primarily create and conceptualise campaigns for brands. These campaigns could be online or offline or a mix of both. We have experts in their own field coming together for the execution of these campaigns. We provide execution through the social media platforms, designs – web or graphic, web apps (soon to move into mobile apps), fims and games. We are a bunch of specialists who are being held together by a few generalists so as to provide excellent ideas and awe

some execution. We are not just an SMM agency!

Why we do it?

So we started off as social media marketing agency. We realised that there is a lot of action on the scene but then there are not too many agencies catering to the small to mid market space. We started off with that positioning. However, that didn’t quite materialise very well. But over the months, we started adding some really awesome people in the team and then the idea came to us, that we are a group of creative people sitting together and can do much more than design a few landing pages or small apps. And so we started expanding our services to include all that we have today. Even clients started demanding some uber creative campaigns and we were happy to oblige. Things clicked and now we have kind of moved away from our initial plan but must say we are in a very happy space!

How we evolve?

So between the specialists and generalists, we have a lot covered. We have a few people who love being abreast with all that’s new and happening. Everyone who reads new stuff shares it with all – it doesn’t matter if it pertains to SMM, technology or design or nothing at all! But we believe keeping the eyes and ears open helps us absorb a lot. And ofcourse, since we are young, flexibility is not a problem. No one here has come with a set of rules of how things should be done. We are more than willing to try and fail rather than just procastinate!

Social responsibility in social media

It is a serious responsibility for any agency. We are practically creating brands online. Users and fans are talking to us as they would talk to the brand. Hence, it is important how we communicate, what message we send out, how we execute things. It is like baby sitting your friend’s kid where you know you have some bit of freedom since you are the godfather, but not enough to do your own thing completely.

Need of the hour

We would think there’s a lot that can be done on privacy and copyrights. Whilst the bigger companies are very clear about having copyrights issues, the smaller ones don’t really care. They are also not willing to spend on these issues. With laws coming into place, we believe there could be some method to the madness. Right now, its becoming a free for all. But then again, we would like to also believe that if copyrights become too stringent, there would a loss of content and the current virality we see on the platforms may go for a toss.

We learned the hard way

Well, there are a lot of things start ups learn. But the key learning we would like to share is that if you have a set of people who stick by you through thick and thin, you have arrived. Its very easy to have an awesome team in place when you have the cash to dole out. But for a self funded startup, getting such good people and getting them to stay by your side is the biggest challenge. And once the team is together, well, they are your growth story and there’s no stopping to where your brand will go! So all entrepreneurs should learn people management 101 before taking the leap of faith.

Did we just share that?

Ah well…tricky tricky!! So when we work with the local brands, there is a lot of enthusiasm about SMM, but not much awareness. So in one of our many super crisp pitches, we go all out and explain to the customer what social media can do for his brand. We logged into facebook, proudly showed off the design work, some sample apps, content and the regular stuff. Client looked fairly convinced. Our staff thought, yey…that’s another one for the incentive! Only hurdle left – pricing. So the client understood that it works on a monthly retainer model. Excellent. But the next question by the client truly and completely stumped our kid – What are you going to pay me? Our client thought that he was letting us have the privilege to manage his brand but that wasn’t enough – he deserved some royalty! Well, that sale obviously never closed for us!

They work with us

So since we are not just an SMM agency, we have clients spread across a cluster of activities we do. Some of the names we have worked for are Sab Miller, GE Lifesciences, Barbeque Nation, Kraft Foods, Columbia Asia, Brigade Hospitality, Daily Bread, Just Bake, etc

Industry as we foresee

There is a lot of activity around the big names in the SMM space. However, the belief that we started out with – that small & mid sized businesses need to harness this medium as well – is still to be completely explored. These businesses realise the importance just enough to want to be there but not really want to pay to be there. So we would like to see this space pick up some more. Also, SMM for internal communication, for hiring is still sometime to go. We would definitely like to do some work in that space and meet the challenges.

A day without Internet

Is like a holiday! The whole office does not know what to do – we feel like a herd of sheep without a shepherd and so follow the first one out of the office. Normally, the first one either takes us to Stones (our friendly neighbourhood pub) or to a colleague’s house nearby. Actually, we are seeing such days pretty often now since our team has been spending extra hours downloading youtube stuff! Hmm…time for some control mechanisms – isnt it?

Lastly, are you hiring?

Oh always!! We don’t know how that works out but somehow, whenever asked that question – the answer is yes! We don’t generally release JDs – only when forced to! Our interviews last exactly 10-15 minutes. CVs are not required. But a portfolio is a must have before landing up.  Here is where you can apply.

PS: We are terribly and horribly Apple inspired and don’t have much shame in accepting that!