Agency Feature: Everything you need to know about Black Cab

Who are we?

Black Cab is a creative digital marketing agency headquartered in Mumbai with a regional office in New Delhi, housing a team of over 100 creative minds specializing in comprehensive media solutions for the entire brand-building process, from inception to sales and loyalty. The agency, guided by a founder-led approach, has cultivated profound partnerships with global brands such as Marriott, Four Seasons, JioSaavn, Indri Single Malt, Terai Gin and more. Its unique model encompasses an agency network that includes creative, design, marketing, tech, production, and influencer marketing agencies, each helmed by experienced founders with specialized skill sets. Recent expansions have seen the addition of network agencies, such as Binary Chai (Web, App Design, Marketing Automation), Radar (AR/VR solutions, Immersive Tech), and Secret Sauce (Content Studio), all led by founders with domain knowledge and scaled with Black Cab's agency infrastructure. Committed to transformative work, Black Cab continues to drive brands to new heights through innovative marketing efforts, establishing itself as a beacon of creative excellence in the digital marketing landscape.

What's in the name?

Our ethos at Black Cab has always been to focus on key marketing ideologies and principles rather than providing trend and fad-oriented solutions to our clients. Keeping core principles in mind, we chose the color Black to represent our unwavering focus. The idea of Cab is to be able to take clients from point A to B, C, D, and beyond with our efforts.

What we do?

At Black Cab, our services go beyond traditional agency boundaries, encompassing creative digital marketing with a multi-faceted approach. We are committed to delivering innovative solutions at every stage of the brand journey. Guided by visionary, founder-led leadership, we have cultivated profound partnerships and established ourselves as a beacon of creative excellence.

Our services specialize in delivering innovative solutions that drive brands to new heights. These services include:

Creative Solutions:Crafting compelling brand identities, stories and visuals.
Digital Marketing: Strategies including SEO, SEM, social media, performance marketing and influencer marketing.
Design: Innovative web, app, and graphic design services including packaging design.
Tech Solutions: Web and app development, marketing automation, and AR/VR experiences.
Content Production: Short and long-form video, photography, and more.

Our network of specialized agencies, including Binary Chai (Web/App Design & Automation), Radar (AR/VR), Secret Sauce Studios (Content Production), M CUBE (music marketing for independent artists: dedicated to trend-defying, pop-culture-defining, and engagement-defending strategies) allows us to provide a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach to digital marketing. Guided by expert leadership, we ensure that every stage of the brand journey is handled excellently.

Why we do it?

At BlackCab, we are driven by a passion to revolutionize India's creative consultancy space. Co-founders Siddhartha Singh and Aayush Bansal recognized the need for a comprehensive agency network that could prioritize long-term client partnerships while offering boutique, super-specialized services. Our journey began in 2017 as a social media consultancy, and we have since expanded our services to secure mandates from notable clients like Kolkata Knight Riders and JioSaavn.

We believe that the creative consultancy space has a gap in agencies who can foster long term, meaningful partnerships with their clients by becoming thought partners and working beyond a contract. To do this, a 100% in-house workforce, integrated services and sound leadership is key.

Our mission is to provide diverse marketing and technology solutions, emphasizing a super-specialized suite of services and fostering strong client relationships through our unique agency network model. We aim to be strategic partners in our clients' success, helping them grow and innovate. Looking ahead, we aspire to further growth, innovation, and influence in India's creative entrepreneurial landscape.

How we evolve?

BlackCab maintains its competitive edge by prioritizing the target audience's characteristics, ensuring our strategies align closely with audience interests. This customer-centric approach allows them to stay ahead in the industry by creating campaigns that garner high engagement and interest. The agency invests in talent development to ensure its team remains adept at leveraging new tools effectively. Fostering a culture of innovation and experimentation further enhances their ability to deliver forward-thinking solutions. By staying agile and adaptive, BlackCab distinguishes itself continually. For example- the launch of Secret Sauce Studios- our short-format content studio is owed to the shifting trends towards short-form mobile-first content.

Social responsibility in social media

For an agency, it is paramount to respect privacy policies and data policies. Besides this, verifying information is a key function of a responsible agency partner. In the objective to jump onto trends and garner reach and engagement for clients, agencies often become targets of misinformation. This is even more prevalent after the onset of AI.

As brand custodians, it is also our responsibility to understand what conversations to be a part of and what conversations are avoidable.

Need of the hour

Laws around the ethical use of AI on social media is the need of the hour. We have seen several cases of misuse of AI to misrepresent information and interviews. This can not only be severely damaging to brands but even more damaging to individuals’ image and safety.

We learned the hard way

Building a brand in today’s hyper-connected and supersaturated ecosystem means you have to start from the brand identity and brand voice, and not just simply from a social media strategy. Investing time and energy into understanding the brand and building guidelines for what the brand would speak, interact, and engage with is essential.

Did we just share that?

That one pitch where we were sitting in the meeting without the pitch deck ready. We ended up doing half an hour of small talk about random topics like Mumbai traffic and road conditions while the team at the office was finishing the presentation. One of us was even coordinating with the design team under the table in the conference room to get updates on the presentation's status.

They work with us

As an agency, we focus more on identifying a target group that we would like to market to, instead of industries we would like to cater to. We have focused on marketing to audiences in the SEC-A category with high disposable income, audiences who are typically internet adept, already users of e-commerce, and ideal target groups for social commerce. We have designed our suite of services for these customers and hence tend to attract luxury and lifestyle brands with a consumer focus.

We work with large hospitality companies such as Marriott, Hyatt, Four Seasons, ITC amongst others. We also work with some of India’s leading homegrown alcobev brands including Indri Single Malt, Camikara Rum, Terai Gin, Svami Drinks, Short Story Spirits, and more. 

Industry as we foresee

We foresee that there will be a series of consolidation events where larger agencies will start to acquire smaller agencies to be able to cater to growing demand through a standardized offering. We also believe that there will be a rise in super-specialized agencies focusing on niches where subject matter expertise is paramount. 

There will also be a lot more development in the creator economy including innovative solutions for creator-driven content and brand solutions.

 A day without Internet

However hypothetical this scenario might be, right, having a day without internet at a company that is in the business of internet seems to be something that can batter the business down.  So, by God's grace, we don't hope that we have to see that day. But yeah, in an idealistic world where without a loss of business, if we are allowed to have a day without the internet, I think a day at office is going to be all about music, food, and some fun games. I think the team enjoys having some time off from the devices and just interacting with each other, playing different games, be it indoor sports or be it indoor games or going for some outdoor activity in terms of sports. I think we do have certain initiatives for our team members to venture out from the office as a team and be part of certain activities, just like, for example, sports day itself, which is a combination of indoor sports and outdoor sports. So yeah, a day without internet should be all about some fun conversations, some great food, and top it off with some banging cocktails, because I think that somehow is in the DNA of Blackcap to have fun. 

Gender ratio and policies

We maintain a strong gender ratio threshold in our team. We have focused on making the workplace as gender inclusive as possible. We are proud to be one of the few workplaces that provide paid menstrual leave for all employees who may need it.

Our inclusive policies

We have policies and culture which revolve around creating a workplace where everyone feels welcome and respected, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or neurodivergence. This includes anti-discrimination policies, flexible work arrangements, holding regular communication and feedback. Moreover, we have a program MINDCAB in collaboration with the platform Moodspace that provides access to specialized therapists and conducts workshops or talks on mental health topics relevant to managing stress, creating a supportive environment for LGBTQ+.

Maternity and paternity leave

Maternity Leave- Upto 26 weeks in a year

Paternity Leave- Upto 21 days in a year

Work culture and values that we believe in 

Black Cab is built through its people. Your ideas are welcome. In the past, a lot of the great things Black Cab has achieved and continues to do today are a product of decisions made by team members and not the management. There are no secret teams, you can butt-in wherever you like and you feel you may add value. No matter what project, you’re already invited. All you have to do is either (1) Start working on it, or (2) Start talking to all the people who you think might be working on it already and find out how to best add value. You will be welcomed— there is no approval process or red tape involved. Quite the opposite—it’s your job to insert yourself wherever you think you should be.

Black Cab’s Hours. We want everyone in the team to enjoy a healthy balance between work, play, family, and whatever else is important to them. We do provide Flexible working hours for our employees.

Black Cab trusts the people onboard. As we put in considerable effort in finding and hiring the right people, we know you’d want the best for us. Hence, you are open to suggest ways for us to improve by simply writing to us. 

Agency growth YOY

YOY has been 90% since inception on average.

Our work

We have executed several campaigns, but most recently, we executed a great campaign for Sofitel Mumbai BKC to create an immersive culinary journey that celebrates the flavors and traditions of Mohammad Ali Road. Through Secret Sauce Studios, part of the BlackCab Agency Network, the campaign leverages expert photography and cinematic videography to spotlight Sofitel's culinary excellence. Inspired by the vibrant culture of Mohammad Ali Road, the “Jashn-E-Iftar” festival features a diverse chef team recreating the street’s magic within Sofitel's luxurious ambiance. This fusion offers patrons an authentic experience, while Secret Sauce Studios captures the heartfelt stories behind the chefs and dishes, creating a rich cultural narrative that honors the enduring traditions of Ramadan.

Awards bagged

1. Siddhartha Singh & Aayush Bansal: Co-Founders of BlackCab Agency Network bagged the 30 under 30 Award by Agency Reporter.
2. Siddhartha Singh won the Millennial Entrepreneur of the Year by Marketing Minds.
3. Social Samosa nominated Siddhartha Singh for 40 under 40.

Employees and hirings

We are currently hiring for the following: 

1. Graphic Designer: Fluent in Photoshop, Illustrator, & After Effects. Provides concepts for digital, offline, & Social Media Campaigns

Experience: 2+ YEARS

2. Account Executive: Develop and execute innovative campaign strategies, manage social media to drive engagement, oversee digital marketing initiatives, build strong client relationships, and coordinate with cross-functional teams.

Experience: 1+YEARS 

3. Account Manager: Fully manage and be accountable for delivering social media strategies. Excellent team management skills as you will be leading a team of executives. Be the first point of contact and handle client communication effectively.

Experience: 2-4 YEARS

4. Cluster Head: Leveraging leadership skills to guide a team and craft social & digital marketing strategies. You'll be the client champion, building relationships through effective communication and creative content to achieve various business objectives

Experience: 4+YEARS