The Content Lab (TCL)- digital marketing agency and production house announced a strategic partnership with airline Akasa Air a few days back. The primary objective of the association is to enhance Akasa Air’s brand presence and boost the brand’s marketing initiatives on the digital front. The digital agency is responsible of overseeing Akasa Air’s social media marketing, digital initiatives, and content creation mandates.
In conversation with medianews4u.com, Vaibhav Mehta- Founder & Supriya Sehgal- Co-founder of The Content Lab spoke more about their association with Akasa Air, services, and expansion plans.
Speaking about their association with Akasa Air, Sehgal said, “We were awarded the mandate after a pitch. The brand is only 2.5 years old; they have laid the foundation with another agency to set the tone for the themselves. At this point of time, Akasa was looking for an agile partner who can provide them social media strategy as well production capabilities to do videos. The Content Lab is actually that- we are a production, creative, and digital agency- all rolled into one. That was the place where intersection happened seamlessly on that.”
Mehta further added, “One of the major problems faced by brands are that whether in the case of content or larger production thought and idea- someone else is conceptualizing it and a different entity is executing it. In a nutshell- thoughts/ideas are born some where and execution happens elsewhere. Due to these reasons, there is an evident gap- The Content Lab was launched with an objective to bridge that gap.
We make conceptualization to execution- a very seamless journey for the brand in a single point of interaction. There is a great synergy between the two teams that any concept is thought through and seamless all the way in the journey.”
Without delving in detail about the specific strategies or campaigns that The Content Lab plans to implement to enhance Akasa Air’s consumer connect, Sehgal said, “From a broader level, Akasa is focusing on safety, sustainability, they are the fastest growing airline company in the country, they fit into the aspiration of everybody. They are one of the airlines that allows pets inflight- they have an inclusive strategy on that line. Before looking into large level campaigns, we are focusing on Pets on Akasa, they have their food service called Café Akasa which boasts of high-quality service and products. Our job is to get that gets highlighted and that’s an important part of the communication. Also, they are doing network expansion, recently they have announced new flight to different domestic destinations and also going international- this is another important vertical the strategy is focused on. Another factor is sustainability. Akasa has very inclusive value system- the tenets of the same will be highlighted in every communication piece.”
TCL is also planning to bring AI actively in the communication part.
“We will be using AI not just from a visual differentiation but also to scale content,” Sehgal added.
Integrated between digital and mainline
“The Content Lab was formally launched in 2019 with an idea which I have mentioned earlier- to bridge the gap between execution and ideation. This year we have sub-branded few different things to make it very clear for the partners. There are three verticals under TLC- Stir- which is the creative think tank and agency. Then we have Carbon- which is the production backbone and for high-end production, then we have H20- which is the content vertical where snackable content are produced keeping the economics at the mind. But there is a seamless connection all lying under one entity. We are also integrated between digital and mainline. We have taken up big campaigns with some of the marquee brands like Spotify, Swiggy Instamart, Titan. We have done IPL campaign for Acko last year. We have a great team of people from both Digital and mainline, to be able to serve needs, whether it is a larger campaign or digital ones,” said Mehta.
“We handle social media strategy for Sudha Murthy. We have Netflix, Hilton, ITC Ltd, Huggies, Amazon mini-TV etc as part of our clientele,” added Sehgal.
Recalling notable works by TCL, Sehgal said, “The work was for Swiggy Instamart YouTube channel which was a great integration of content, which came under our H20 service category. The idea was to blend humour and recipes because there is a palette for that sort of content.”
Mehta added, “Right from the conceptualisation to the name of the channel to the content- the whole idea of marrying recipe with humour as a content is unexplored. We brought in influencers like Chef Pillai interacting with comedians- it was just not a process of learning a recipe but also entertaining and engaging content. We are in talks with Swiggy to close food related IP. We work with Titan on a project basis for their international market. When they were launching their collection-Marhaba, we did the shoot and campaign planning for the Middle East, the USA, and South Asia.”
“In terms of number of clients, the agency has almost a dozen brands on retainers and with equal number of clients we do consistent projects. Currently 75-80 pc of our clients are enterprise brands,” Mehta said.
The agency has a team strength of over 60 which they are constantly expanding.
“By the end of 2024, we are planning to expand to a 100-member team. Though we are managing quite swiftly with the digital presence, we are planning to opening offices in Bangalore followed by Delhi NCR. We are also looking at global expansion, we are in talks with some partners in the middle east and South Asia ,” Mehta concluded.
