Social Samosa Agency Feature - Merry Men

Who are we?

We are Communication Partners for forward thinking brands. We help them strategize, develop a clear plan and execute creative ideas across the board, from digital and social media, to print and television. We work with all kinds of clients from Fortune 500 brands to challengers and startups. But they all have one thing in common, the need to disrupt and be innovative. We love audacious ideas, challenging the status quo and of course being Merry.

The agency was founded in 2009 by Kartik Mani, who has worked at several leading agencies like Ogilvy, Rediff and Madison and worked on brands like Nestle, GSK, Royal Enfield and so on.

What's in the name?

We are named after Robinhood’s legendary army that defeated those many times their size by using strategy, guile and guerilla warfare. This is our core ideology from the day we started. We don’t believe in outshouting or outspending our clients’ competition but outsmarting them.

What we do?

We are an integrated agency with a deep focus on social media. We help brands with social media marketing, video content, campaigns, digital creative and strategy.

Why we do it?

Quite simple really; nothing gives us more pleasure than seeing the brands we handle, grow and do really well.

How we evolve?

By the time you have fully understood a platform or a medium it has changed or another one has come up. This is both the beauty and challenge of working in social. Apart from reading stuff online we lay a lot of emphasis on constantly upgrading skill sets. This year one of the key team members took a three-month break and went to Hyper Island, arguably the world’s best digital school to upgrade his understanding of digital strategy.

Social responsibility in social media

Staying authentic and true to who you are is the simplest way to not worrying about your imagery constantly.

Need of the hour

Social media has put power in the hands of the masses. Those in power must stop trying to control the conversation and listen more. Laws are important to ensure that nobody crosses the line or foul play is not at work. But beyond that, it’s hard to regulate this medium. How can you stop someone from having an opinion?

We learned the hard way

When we first started 6 years ago, social media was still nascent and talent was hard to come by. Our first hire was a guy we had never met before but was hired over Skype because he lived down south. But in less than a month we realized that this was a terrible mistake, the gentleman was fairly clueless and to make matters worse was extremely homesick.

Did we just share that?

We wanted the client to get an idea of what the timeline would look like once we start posting, so we uploaded it to a private page that was not published and shared it with the client. The client did not realize that this was the case and thought these had been published. What followed was a lot of reassurance and helping them understand how it works.

They work with us

Some of the clients we work with include Mahindra First Choice, Moo Shake Agami Realty, Class Hopr, Switzer Hospitality and Autonebula

Industry as we foresee

We expect to see a shakeup in the social media industry in India. As the marketing pie of the mainline agencies continues to dwindle the acquisition of SMM and digital agencies will increase. In spite of growing concerns about Facebook fatigue, it will continue to clock numbers. With Insta and Twitter testing advertising now in India, although still fairly expensive, we expect to see a lot more brands keen to engage on these platforms. Video will thrive forcing a lot of digital agencies to start producing in-house.

A day without Internet

We’d all have to be put on life support.

Lastly, are you hiring?

Yes!