By Shoebahmed Shaikh, Director
“Mergers are like marriages. They are the bringing together of two individuals. If you wouldn’t marry someone for the ‘operational efficiencies’ they offer in the running of a household, then why would you combine two companies with unique cultures and identities for that reason?”
– Simon Sinek, motivational speaker and organization consultant
The communication services industry has entered the fray after playing a fringe role for a long time. As brands are tripping on each other to craft differentiated story narratives to engage consumers, communication and marketing professionals are in the driving seat to lead clients into a new customer-centric era of communication relevance.
This necessitates us to be able to understand and leverage various verticals, channels operating at the cusp of creativity and technology to paint the larger picture of long term engagement. But let’s face it, agencies acquire expertise and technical know-how in limited areas as business demands and market opportunities present themselves. Here’s where the old adage – 5 fingers individually, but a strong fist when they come together, applies.
In an era where digital and offline have enmeshed to a level where campaign elements are almost indistinguishable, partnerships between agencies with differentiated skill-sets is an increasingly common trend. PR firms are increasingly retain digital agencies to bring finesse and impact to digitally led campaigns. Luckily for us, our digital partner – Ourbit – has been by our side throughout our entire journey. Borrowing matrimonial parlance from the mercurial Simon Sinek, we had a chance to fall in love, live-in and eventually marry our digital partner.
As one amalgamated entity, our already seamless insights, content and amplification approach now even blurs the lines of culture and team collaboration. As our people fuse together PR, digital and offline strategies together, we see our clients enjoying a two pronged benefit. Firstly, there is a more robust strategy towards integrated communication which is more business outcomes oriented. And secondly, execution efficiency through teams wired towards message and audience while being medium agnostic.
As we embark on this journey, we realize that it will be equal parts bliss and blithe. Cultures, personalities of people and customer obsession show large spectrums of variations, irrespective of the size of the agencies. Merging companies should forecast challenges that might affect clients before-hand and ensure that the merge does not result in a purge of clients. We are already experiencing the highs of integrating cultures while jumping over process hurdles in a bid to marry our strengths together. Baaratiyon ka swaagat hain!