In an exclusive interaction with MediaBrief, Anjali Chauhan, Co-Founder and Director of Garage Group, speaks about the immense possibilities that lie within the realm of digital media, which enabled her to launch her digital creative agency – Garage Group.
She underscores how Garage Group leverages strategic approaches, creative expertise, and data-driven optimization to deliver impactful results and outlines how she ensures her agency’s creative work stays fresh and relevant.
Chauhan highlights the need for balancing creativity with the practical requirements of a campaign and discusses the metrics that Garage Group employs to measure the success of an idea or campaign.
She also speaks about the latest trends or technologies that are impacting the future of marketing campaigns and shares her vision, approach, and plans for the future.
Read on.
What inspired you to start Garage, and what was the vision behind it?
Creating Garage was a natural progression for me, fueled by a combination of inspiration and a clear vision. Having worked in advertising agencies, I had the opportunity to witness the power of creativity and media and the impact it can have on brands and the people consuming that piece. This inspired me to create something of my own, where I could be the visualizer who can think beyond set boundaries and bring those ideas to life.
In 2015, my co-founder Saurabh Gupta and I recognized the immense possibilities that lay within the realm of digital media, foreseeing its remarkable capacity to shape the trajectory of communication and marketing in the future. The rise of social media, the increasing accessibility of the internet, and the evolving consumer behaviour all pointed towards a significant shift in how businesses would connect with their audience.
The vision behind Garage was to create a creative digital agency that would serve as a one-stop solution for businesses looking to establish and enhance their online presence. I wanted to provide comprehensive services that would help businesses navigate the complexities of the digital landscape and leverage the power of digital media to achieve their goals.
Our vision was to become a trusted partner for businesses, empowering them with the knowledge and tools needed to succeed in the digital world. We wanted to be at the forefront of industry trends, constantly adapting and evolving to stay ahead and provide our clients with the most effective strategies and techniques.
Moreover, a fundamental aspect that deeply resonated with me was the opportunity to positively impact people’s lives. By helping brands achieve their goals, I saw an opportunity to contribute to their growth and success. Additionally, I aimed to create employment opportunities and foster a supportive work environment where my team members could thrive and grow both personally and professionally.
How does Garage distinguish itself from its competitors in the creative and advertising space?
First and foremost, we prioritise a deep understanding of our client’s businesses and their specific goals. We believe that effective creative and advertising strategies are rooted in a thorough understanding of the client’s industry, target audience, and unique value proposition. By taking the time to truly understand our clients, we are able to develop highly tailored and impactful campaigns that resonate with their audience and drive results.
Secondly, our team at Garage is composed of experienced professionals who bring a diverse range of skills and expertise to the table. We have experts in various areas, including digital marketing, content creation, design, analytics, and technology. This multidisciplinary approach allows us to deliver integrated and holistic solutions that go beyond traditional advertising and encompass the entire digital media landscape.
Furthermore, Garage is known for its innovation and staying ahead of industry trends. We constantly monitor the ever-evolving digital landscape to identify emerging technologies, platforms, and strategies that can benefit our clients. By being at the forefront of industry developments, we ensure that our clients are always equipped with the latest tools and techniques to stay ahead of their competition.
Lastly, Garage prides itself on exceptional customer service and building long-term partnerships with our clients. We prioritise open and transparent communication, and we see ourselves as an extension of our client’s teams. Our goal is not only to deliver outstanding creative and advertising solutions but also to provide ongoing support, guidance, and strategic insights to help our clients achieve their long-term business objectives.
Tell us about Garage Group’s suite of offerings. How do you create value for brands/customers?
Garage Group offers a comprehensive suite of offerings to create value for brands and customers. Our services are designed to help businesses establish a strong online presence, engage with their target audience effectively, and drive meaningful results. Here are some key aspects of our offerings:
Digital Strategy: We work closely with our clients to develop customized digital strategies aligned with their goals. This involves understanding their target audience, analysing market trends, and identifying the most effective channels and tactics to reach and engage with their customers. Our strategic approach ensures that every action we take is purposeful and contributes to the overall success of the brand.
Social Media Management: We specialise in managing social media platforms for our clients. This includes content creation, community management, audience engagement, and performance tracking. By curating engaging and relevant content and implementing effective social media strategies, we help brands build a loyal and active online community.
Content Creation: Our team of creative professionals excels in producing compelling content that captures attention and drives engagement. This includes visual content such as graphics and videos, as well as written content like blog posts, articles, and social media captions. We ensure that the content we create aligns with the brand’s identity and effectively communicates its message to its target audience.
Digital Advertising: Help brands optimise their digital advertising campaigns to maximise their reach and impact. Our expertise covers various platforms, including search engine marketing, social media advertising, display advertising, and influencer marketing. By utilising advanced targeting techniques, A/B testing, and data-driven optimization, we ensure that our clients’ ad spend is utilised effectively to generate tangible results.
Website Development: We offer website development services to create user-friendly and visually appealing websites that align with the brand’s identity and objectives. We focus on creating responsive designs, optimising loading times, and implementing SEO best practices to ensure that the website not only looks great but also performs well in search engine rankings.
Our strategic approach, creative expertise, and focus on data-driven optimization allow us to deliver impactful results and help our clients achieve what they came to us for.
How do you balance the need for creativity with meeting the practical requirements and goals of a campaign?
Balancing creativity with practical requirements and goals is a key aspect of our approach at Garage Group. We understand that while creativity is essential for making a campaign stand out and capture attention, it must also align with the practical aspects and objectives of the campaign.
Let me break it down for you, this might help someone out there who just started:
Understanding the Client’s Objectives: We start by thoroughly understanding our client’s goals and objectives for the campaign. This includes understanding their target audience, desired outcomes, key messaging, and any specific practical requirements they may have. This helps us ensure that our creative ideas are rooted in the strategic goals of the campaign.
Creative Brief and Collaboration: We develop a comprehensive creative brief that outlines the campaign’s objectives, target audience, key messaging, and any constraints or practical considerations. This brief serves as a guideline for our creative team, ensuring that their ideas are aligned with the campaign’s practical requirements. We also encourage close collaboration between our creative team and the client throughout the process, allowing for feedback and input to be incorporated effectively.
Research and Data Analysis: We conduct thorough research and analyse relevant data to inform our creative decisions. This includes understanding market trends, consumer behaviour, competitor analysis, and campaign performance metrics. By combining creative thinking with data-driven insights, we can ensure that our ideas are not only imaginative but also practical and effective.
Iterative Approach and Testing: We adopt an iterative approach to campaign development, allowing for continuous feedback and testing. This helps us identify any practical limitations or adjustments needed early on and allows us to refine and optimise our creative concepts to better meet the campaign’s goals. Through testing and analysis, we can ensure that the creative elements are resonating with the target audience and driving the desired outcomes.
Flexibility and Adaptability: We understand that campaigns can evolve and change over time due to various factors. Being flexible and adaptable is crucial in balancing creativity and practicality. We stay open to adjustments and refinements based on feedback, performance metrics, and market dynamics. This allows us to continuously optimise our creative approach while keeping the practical requirements and goals in focus.
Even with limited time for campaign execution, we adhere unwaveringly to our standard process. This is our modus operandi, where efficiency and quality are never compromised.
Walk us through your creative process, from ideation to execution.
Certainly! Again I would like to provide a detailed, step-by-step discussion, ensuring that I don’t overlook any crucial aspect. Here’s a walkthrough of our creative process at Garage Group, from encompassing ideation to flawless execution:
Briefing and Research: We begin by thoroughly understanding the client’s objectives, target audience, messaging, and any specific requirements. This includes conducting market research, analysing competitors, and identifying key insights to inform our creative approach. This stage sets the foundation for the entire creative process.
Ideation: Our creative team comes together for brainstorming sessions where we generate a wide range of ideas. We encourage a free-flowing and collaborative environment to spark creativity. We explore various concepts, angles, and formats that align with the client’s objectives and resonate with the target audience.
Concept Development: Once we have a pool of ideas, we evaluate them based on their alignment with the brief and their potential effectiveness. We refine and develop the most promising concepts, considering factors such as visual appeal, storytelling, emotional impact, and relevance to the target audience. This stage involves sketching, mood boards, and initial visualisations to bring the ideas to life.
Concept Presentation and Feedback: We present the refined concepts to the client, explaining the rationale behind each idea and how it addresses their objectives. We encourage open and constructive feedback from the client to ensure that their vision is incorporated into the final execution. This stage involves a collaborative dialogue to fine-tune the chosen concept.
Creative Execution: With the chosen concept, our creative team dives into the execution phase. This includes designing visuals, developing content, scripting, storyboarding, and any other necessary creative elements. We pay attention to details, maintaining consistency with the brand’s identity and ensuring that the creative aligns with the overall campaign strategy.
Review and Refinement: We seek internal and client feedback at various stages of execution to ensure that the creative elements are meeting expectations. This iterative process allows for adjustments and refinements as needed to enhance the impact and effectiveness of the creative work.
Final Production: Once the creative elements are refined and approved, we move into the final production phase. This includes producing high-quality visuals, videos, or any other deliverables needed for the campaign.
Launch and Performance Tracking: Once the creative assets are ready, we collaborate with the client to launch the campaign across the desired channels and platforms. We closely monitor the performance and gather data to evaluate the effectiveness of the creative elements. This feedback loop helps us learn and optimise future campaigns.
Throughout the creative process, collaboration, open communication and flexibility are key. We value the client’s input and work closely with them to ensure that the final execution aligns with their vision and achieves their goals.
Give us an example of a campaign you worked on that had a uniquely creative approach and how it impacted the campaign’s success.
Certainly! Let’s delve into a recent campaign we worked on for Caprese Bags, which had a uniquely creative approach and made a significant impact on the campaign’s success in a very short span. We designed the campaign, shot a film and disseminated our content and strategy in a week’s time.
Objective: Caprese Bags, a renowned handbag brand, wanted to celebrate Women’s Day by honouring the spirit and achievements of women while also promoting their latest collection. The objective was to create a campaign that would resonate with women of all ages and highlight the brand’s commitment to empowering women and also not forgetting the 2023 theme for Womens Day 2023: #EmbraceEquity.
We devised a campaign titled “#PoseForYourself,” which focused on celebrating women. The brief was simple – Celebrate Women, #EmbraceEquity and keep it stylish. The campaign aimed to celebrate the unique personalities and strength of every woman.
This is how we arrived at #PoseForYourself, where we wanted every woman to pose as who they are, be confident in being themselves and accept their own style. It served as a reminder that true empowerment comes from within, and by embracing our individuality, we contribute to a more inclusive and equitable world.
We only launched it on social media platforms where we released each personality type everyday leading up to Women’s Day. These personalities were accompanied by engaging captions and shareable graphics to encourage audience interaction.
We asked people to guess their and their friend’s personalities and share why they fit in that personality type. We were confident that women would love this campaign and we generated The winners from each personality set would get a Women’s Day hamper from the Caprese Team.
Caprese Bags – Women’s Day Campaign: #PoseForYourself
The campaign created a lot of buzz leading to the campaign receiving thousands of views, likes, comments, and shares, creating a sense of belonging with the brand.
It generated a wave of inspiring stories from women nationwide, fostering a sense of community and empowering women to be who they are.
It holds a special place in our hearts as the success of this endeavour was achieved by the dedicated efforts of only women within our organisation, accomplished within an impressively short timeframe.
How do you ensure that your agency’s creative work stays fresh and relevant in an ever-evolving industry?
Other than the process itself we strive to build a balanced team consisting of experienced specialists and young, innovative minds who bring fresh perspectives and create exceptional strategies. Recognizing that many brands seek to break away from traditional approaches, our team embraces unique thinking and continuously pushes the boundaries to deliver outstanding results. By fostering collaboration between seasoned experts and emerging talents, we harness the power of consistently staying fresh with our creative and strategic approach.
Now coming to the process, we embrace continuous learning by staying updated with the latest trends and best practices. We monitor industry trends and consumer behaviour to adapt our creative approaches accordingly. Conducting market research provides valuable insights into our clients’ industries, target audiences, and competitors. Collaboration and cross-disciplinary approaches foster a dynamic creative environment. Data-driven optimization allows us to evaluate performance and make informed decisions.
We never believed in containing the team’s strategic or creative thought process in constrained boundaries. How will the young minds enjoy and feel the sense of belonging, if they are not heard. So we always encouraged everyone in the team to experiment and innovate to push boundaries.
How does Garage Group measure an idea or a campaign’s success, and what metrics do you use to evaluate performance?
At Garage, we evaluate the success of ideas and campaigns using a blend of qualitative and quantitative metrics tailored to the campaign’s objectives. Key metrics include KPIs(website traffic, conversions, sales, brand reach, engagement, lead generation, social media metrics like likes, shares, comments, and follower growth) aligned with client goals, engagement metrics like CTR and social media interactions, reach and impressions, conversion metrics, customer feedback and surveys, and ROI analysis.
So the metrics used for evaluation may vary depending on the nature of the campaign and the client’s specific goals. By closely collaborating with clients, we identify relevant metrics and provide performance reports to measure impact and optimise future campaigns. Through this data-driven approach, we assess success, refine strategies, and strive for continuous improvement.
How do you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies in the creative and advertising space?
Staying abreast of latest trends and technologies in the advertising industry is deeply ingrained in our agency’s ethos. It is an unwavering commitment we hold dear and consider a fundamental aspect of our approach. It requires us to employ various strategies. We conduct industry research, follow publications, and stay informed through blogs and newsletters.
Continuous learning is crucial, so we invest in professional development by attending conferences, webinars, and workshops. Collaboration, networking, and partnerships with technology providers keep us connected and up-to-date. Internal research and development, cross-functional collaboration, and close client partnerships further enhance our knowledge and understanding.
Embracing the constant pursuit of knowledge and innovation broadens our horizons as a team. This enables us to deploy effective strategies and leverage industry standards, ensuring we stay at the forefront of our field.
What are some trends or technologies in the marketing industry that excite you and how do you see them impacting future campaigns?
I find great excitement in the trends and technologies shaping the marketing industry, as they hold immense potential to transform future campaigns and brand positioning. Among these, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning stand out, with AI-powered chatbots and predictive analytics revolutionising customer experiences and data-driven campaigns.
AR and VR let the brands create immersive and interactive experiences, while Influencer Marketing and User-Generated Content (UGC) empower brand advocates and enhance brand storytelling.
Marketers must navigate the evolving landscape of data privacy regulations while delivering personalised experiences. Additionally, sustainability and purpose-driven marketing have emerged as crucial considerations, with consumers demanding socially responsible practices.
Deploying the latest technologies in brands functioning and campaigns can really transform brand-consumer relationships. Staying updated and agile is essential to outpace the competition and meet evolving consumer preferences. Agencies and brands that fail to adapt, risk stagnation and falling behind. By embracing change and staying ahead of the curve, agencies can position themselves as industry leaders and empower brands to thrive in an ever-evolving marketplace.
What are the plans for growth and expansion for Garage Group, and how do you plan to achieve them?
We have an exciting year ahead with ambitious plans to conquer the market. Our main objective is to expand our presence into new markets and regions, catering to the unique demands of each location. Our strategies encompass geographic expansion, service diversification, technology innovation, talent acquisition and development, client partnerships, thought leadership, and data-driven optimization.
However, our vision extends beyond Garage’s growth alone—we aim to provide our partnered brands with expanded services and opportunities. Stay tuned for updates on our progress and future plans. There is much in store, and we look forward to sharing the journey with you.
Anything else you would like to add?
As the founder of Garage Group, I would like to express my gratitude for this opportunity to share our vision, approach, and plans for the future. We are passionate about driving innovation, creativity, and measurable results for our clients in the dynamic world of digital media and advertising.
At Garage Group, we believe in the power of collaboration, continuous learning, and staying at the forefront of industry trends and technologies. Our dedicated team of professionals is committed to delivering exceptional work, exceeding client expectations, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the creative and advertising space.
We understand that the industry is constantly evolving, and we are excited to embrace the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. We will continue to adapt, innovate, and refine our strategies to provide our clients with the most effective and impactful campaigns.