Indian advertising poised for creative growth as brands open up to new media, says Pranav Agarwal, Sociowash

Sociowash, a digital marketing agency founded in 2015 by Raghav Bagai and Pranav Agarwal, today offers services ranging from influencer marketing, video production and AI solutions to performance marketing.

In a conversation with Storyboard18, Pranav Agarwal, co-founder, Sociowash touched upon 2023’s key achievements, key marketing trends and advertising trends that will take the spotlight the coming year, and a lot more.

Edited excerpts

From a business point of view, what are the key achievements of the agency this 2023?

I think, as an agency, we've done good business with regards to influencer marketing.

We've also been able to cater to a very specific model, which has more to do with micro and nano influencers.

From a business standpoint, I think that's one of the achievements in this particular year if I were to really look at it.

Secondly, the studio (SW Studios) is something that we've been able to set up and grow. So, we've been able to sort of grow other lines of businesses, which is more media and studio related.

We've also been able to expand our team in Bombay and register ourselves in New Zealand. And, we'll be expanding into Bangalore as well.

According to you, what are the key marketing trends that stood out for you this year?

CGI (Computer-generated imagery) is one of them. AI is definitely there, and it's not just a temporary trend, but obviously the one that is going to stay for a while.

There are things like memes and video games. Then, there are brands, especially traditional ones who would never think of doing such content. But, they adapted to this kind of content.

Whatever the case might be, depending on whichever trend we're looking at, brands are a little more open to experiments to be able to see what kind of results will pop up.

What are the key tasks that you have listed on your to-do list for 2024?

There is the Bangalore expansion and the New Zealand set up. There is a UAE expansion that needs to be looked at. Getting CXO's (chief experience officers) in place for India so that it is a little more automated.

What advertising trends will take the spotlight in 2024?

It's very subjective. I think AI will definitely take some spotlight. It has been taking a lot of spotlight in the last few months and it will continue to take some spotlight.

For the advertising industry, 2024 will be …

If I were to speak about India in the advertising industry, it would be prosperous because I feel that the advertising scene in India has been changing a lot.

So, I feel Indian advertising has a lot of potential for growth both from a creative perspective and business perspective. I feel India will first become the APAC (Asia-Pacific) hub and then it will become a global hub.

A lot of Indian brands will be able to foster themselves on the global stage which also means that Indian agencies will have that kind of opportunity to be able to grow these brands across the globe as well.