Agency Feature: Interskale

Who are we?

Interskale is a full-service digital marketing agency, based in Andheri (West) in Mumbai. We excel in performance marketing and are a badged Google Partner agency. We were founded in 2010 by senior industry professionals (IIT/IIM). We have worked with over 80 clients in India and outside.

What's in the name?

Interskale stands for Inter(net) and s(k)cale. Our forte or rather our mission is to help businesses and brands scale up their business using online.

Rather than just deliver vanilla services to clients, we aspire to work on client assignments that deliver real growth for the client's brands and businesses.

The other bit of differentiation is that we may be the only digital agency in Mumbai with “Consulting” in our name. Our full name reads Interskale Digital Marketing and Consulting Pvt Ltd (Why “Consulting”? That’s a separate story. Check out our website!)

Tagline– We help you grow

What we do?

We excel in digital strategy, online brand campaigns, lead generation, e-commerce marketing, websites, SEO and in lead management systems.

We are an award-winning Google Partner agency. We won Google’s Race to Prague Agency Awards twice in a row in 2017.

Why we do it?

Interskale has been founded by a seasoned veteran of the Internet industry, Rohit. After successful stints as an FMCG marketer, in the consumer Internet industry (CMO, Rediff.com and CEO of social networking start-up, Yo4ya) and as Head of an in-house digital agency (at Aptech), he realized, way back in 2010, that there was a dearth of people who really understood digital well and who can do quality work here. At the same time, there was an opportunity as corporates were not really using this medium well.

He then decided to use his experience to set up a team that does quality work.

How we evolve?

We like our Associates to continuously learn and advance their knowledge in their own fields. We encourage them to also apply new ideas in their work. And we try to bring the learnings from each client engagement to other clients. It’s a learning organization that we are trying to nurture.

Social responsibility in social media

In today’s online world, it’s most important to be authentic and transparent. The history of the Web is rife with second-hand brands which made questionable promises, causing much loss to unwary consumers. So the Web consumer is today very cautious anyway.

Accordingly, we usually advise our clients that in their online communication, they should underpromise and actually overdeliver. We also advise them to talk more about their own products and services rather than the world at large. And websites should be extremely informative, not just beautiful works of art.

Need of the hour

The need of the hours is defining minimum standards (quality, ethics, certifications et al) for the digital marketing industry and profession. Too many people with varying degrees of understanding are causing grievous harm to the industry.

We learned the hard way

1. The client is NOT always right (Yeah, this saying probably turns Ogilvy - or whoever said it first - on its head). Since the medium is new, we are better off advising clients on the best solution rather than sticking solidly to the client’s brief as is.
2. It’s not enough to be the best. We often get plaudits from clients for our pitches (please excuse a little immodesty here) but don’t always win the account. We now understand that past relationships, being loved etc. is sometimes as important. In one word, “luck” is key.

Did we just share that?

There was this technology company in the U.S. which hired us to run Google campaigns for the U.S. market. It was an unusual experience interacting with a team which was more interested in discussing the CRM system and technologies we would use in digital rather than the assignment itself.

They work with us

Cycle Agarbatti group, Godrej & Boyce, Amplifon India (hearing aids MNC), Group Pharmaceuticals, Shemaroo, SBI Life, Reliance Education, ILC Solicitors, U.K. and also a few clients in the U.S.

Also read: Agency Feature: Idea Hub

Industry as we foresee

The industry is maturing by the day. The major ad platforms are coming out with new powerful AI/machine learning features and with new creative units.

A big issue is the knowledge gap. Since the field is advancing rapidly, it’s difficult for the industry professional as well as for the clients to keep up.

There is likely to be more specialization in the days ahead. And consequently, a greater need for teamwork among digital teams. Digital work will need to be equally outstanding from the strategy, creative, marketing and web technology point of view.

A day without Internet

..will actually be great. This will be a holiday at work for us for sure, for one. Goa beaches, Bali…that’s the imagery that comes to mind. Period.

Lastly, are you hiring?

Yes