The Webchutney Blog

by Meghana Bhat, ECD

This probably makes me sound like an old disgruntled person envious of the age, beauty and promise of immortality that these kids wear on their sleeves or skinny jeans. Well, obviously I am, and I’m going to go right ahead and rant (yes, kids this is how that feels!) Sure, growing up in the sunshine of India’s millennium boom must have been nice. Children of yuppies, living in a time of plenty, of great possibility, these kids have it all. Brands love them, economists love them (demographic dividend and all that) and of course they love themselves. But I’m not sold. Maybe because I work so closely with their kind, I’ve become wise to their entitled ways. Yeah, yeah… they’re not all bad, but I’ve identified a few choice specimens who tick me off on a daily basis.

1. The Indian ‘Hipster’: Less than 5% body fat, skinny jeans and nerd glasses and of course an iPod full of indie Indian music – the hipster trend has arrived in India. Except that ‘rejection of mainstream culture’ apparently translates to exact copying of the ideal of the American hipster. While we’re on the subject, somebody please kill Bollywood kitsch.

2. The ‘I’m awesome because I exist’ believer: There should be a law that limits how much one person can ‘believe in himself’. Agency heads, you know what I’m talking about. The ‘Give me a promotion because I’ve actually managed to not get fired for an entire year ‘– types. Or the 20-something intern complaining about ‘I’m being undervalued/ <insert indignant adjective here>’. Reminds me of a joke by the great comedian Louis CK– “Hey 20-year-old, we know your job sucks, that’s why we gave it to YOU!

Continue reading ‘The ‘Age’ Old Battle’

The unsettlingly hilarious new viral sensation has made its way to Webchutney.

Watch the Delhi office shake the Harlem way!!

As these 5 young creatives complete their first year at the House of Chutney, we decided to find out what made them stick around this long.

 Shray Chawla  (Junior Copywriter, Webchutney Delhi)

If there was ever a superlative of ‘craziest’ then I would use that to describe the year I’ve spent at Chutney. The exposure  right from the start was amazing with my first ever campaign being the 5^th Airtel Delhi Marathon.

Epic Chutney Moment - I’m a non-alcoholic who likes to be around drunk people. Don’t ask why because I am still trying to figure it out. Jokes apart, I was at an after office hour party when Sattvik asked me, “Why don’t you drink?”. And that was the start of a long conversation which ended rather abruptly because he thought that he was trying to sell ‘drinking’ to me.

I’m sure he doesn’t remember this conversation.

Advice to budding copywriters-

1.  Write well to write well.
2.  Deadlines are like women. You may not understand them, but you have to accept them and that too with a smile.

Continue reading ’12 Months of Chutney’

We are hiring again. And this time we’re on the look out for a Client Servicing Director, Account Manager and an Account Executive to join the Mumbai Servicing team and Social Media Executives to work with the creative. All positions are full time and based in Mumbai.

We all love to love Roger Federer. A shining beacon of athletic achievement and sportsmanship, he is the quintessential Good Guy Greg of Tennis. We just had to give him a kick-ass Chutney tribute.

So, on the 28^th of December, 2012, we released The Life and Times of Roger Federer, a graphic novel for iOS to celebrate his life and stellar sports career.

Continue reading ‘Game-Set-Match!’

Webchutney is proud to present ‘Peeloo’- an Interactive Loo Service.

You saw a glimpse of this at the Yahoo hack, but the real deal is live now. What we’ve tried to build (and succeeded) is an interactive loo service which removes the queue from the loo.

Sounds Interesting?

Here’s how it works

This project took months of research, testing, development and hits & misses to come up with, and we are glad today to have succeeded in doing the same. We are sure that this is only the beginning in experiential digital advertising from the house of webchutney.

Big Shout out to the team that made this possible

Gurbaksh, Abhishek Saxena, Hemant, Mandeep, Akshay Raheja and Sattvik!

Check the website out here

So you’ve probably read this about us recently. Here’s our official response.

Over the last decade or so we’ve made WebChutney into something we’re all very proud of. We’ve built an impressive client roster (Airtel, Coca-Cola, MasterCard, Unilever to name a few), our talent is fantastic and we’re growing like a virus. So naturally, all the boys are in the yard. And we’re loving it. Its great fun being the prettiest girl in the room, all the compliments, the wooing, we’re thrilled that we’re finally getting the respect we’ve worked hard to earn. The thing is though, this has been happening for quite a while. Of course we’ll go on a few dates with every one of our suitors because all of them are pretty amazing. It’s an honor to be considered by the biggest agency networks in the world. But it’s too early for us to take a decision & settle down.

So don’t believe everything you read in the news about us. When we’re ready to make a commitment we’ll shout it out from the rooftops. Meanwhile, watch our latest sexy move.

The digital industry has seen an explosive growth over the last few years, and 2013 is set to be an exciting year. Digital marketers can no longer view their contribution to a brand as a means to end. They need to take risks, be innovative and prove to be a brand’s most valuable partner.

There is no ‘golden rule book’ that guides us to achieve the same, but having worked with one of the best digital agencies in the country, here are some of the things I picked up along the way…

Tell everyone you’re an agency, but act like a startup
The great thing about being the guys who straddle technology and artistry is that you can build stuff for brands. Learn from tech startups how they do it. Take more risks, create a culture of innovation, be faster and leaner, and learn to launch in beta. In fact, teach your clients about it. Brands are hardwired against the ‘iteration’, but tech startups know better than anyone that a product is never really ‘finished’ and iterative development helps ensure it stays relevant.

We recently worked with a financial brand to create a digital travel experience that has seen over three iterations in the duration it’s been live. We’ve been learning from customer experiences, independent research and our own observations to consistently improve what has now become an owned asset for the brand.

Ideas are important, but Skill is critical

In a digital world, where anything seems possible, everyone has ideas. But only few have the skill to execute. Invest in getting the most skilled guys to produce your idea as much as you would in finding the best thinkers. And I don’t mean just the technologists. Digital agencies often tend to make do with anyone who can barely string together a sentence or make collages on photoshop. You need artists, writers, scientists, and engineers. People, who will obsess about a missing comma, spend hours searching for the right font or throw a fit about an inelegant line of code. Those are the guys who will take you to Cannes.

To coninue reading , visit http://www.exchange4media.com/49164_6-success-mantras-for-digital-agencies.html

What if you could be a part of the Formula One excitement by simply pressing the F1 key on your keyboard?

Pepe Jeans and Webchutney present ‘One with F1′- A Formula One themed gaming contest application for all the speed freaks out there who want a piece of the racing action.’ The application consists of 4 mini-games that tests users on their speed, racing knowledge, reflexes and timing.’And of course, each of these games starts by pressing the F1 key on the keyboard!

What makes this even more exciting is that the winners stand a chance to win the grand prize ‘main grand stand tickets to the Indian Grand Prix along’ with official Red Bull Racing Merchandise and a chance at a pit-stop tour!

Here’s a look at the 4 mini-games.

Continue reading ‘Webchutney and Pepe jeans present an f1 gaming contest powered by the f1 key’