Adgully Exclusive | Advertising campaigns hit the wall!

The four-year-old company is said to be a pioneer in implementing mapping, tracking and monitoring technology for ad-campaigns in India and are the first ones to rollout digital wall-paintings and glow-in-the-dark ad-units amidst other path breaking accomplishments.

Talking exclusively to Adgully, Mihir Mody, founder and CEO, Adwallz, shared some key insights about the company.

Briefing us about Adwallz, Mody said, "We specialise in wall paintings all over India. We have a network of about 5000 painters in small towns and also a network in around 300 districts in India. We help from planning and designing to executing the entire budget of a brand. This is more of a rural and BTL activity."

Officially, the team is made up of thirty-thirty five and has eight offices in eight cities with around 30,000 painters.

Wall painting is a very affluent medium, especially where promotion is concerned. This medium was hardly noticed before. There have been companies like Vodafone that spend around five to ten crore on wall painting annually on a national scale, then there are cement industries; then top FMCG companies, telecommunication companies, now even banks have started using this medium.

Sharing the clientele, Mody said, "We handle almost 35 corporate giants as per now like Unilever, HDFC, some parts of Vodafone, Godrej, Philips, Samsung, most of the FMCG companies, the cement companies such as Ambuja and have worked with almost 70 to 80 brands."

What Adwallz does is they channelise the whole system of ad-wall-paintings and makes sure that every penny spend by a client is used in an effective way.

They have a unique online monitoring system wherein all the painters, equipped with digital cameras, upload their work from a small cyber café, then they are also connected online and the client can actually sit at one place and see how the work is being done.

It is more of a B-town and C-town phenomenon, if I may say. Towards rural side, this medium is really effective since it is cheap. If compared, one hoarding is equal to 5 or 6 wall paintings." Giving a very significant example, Mody said, "If one has a twenty lakh budget, one can only buy few bill boards in Mumbai or in metros but one can paint the entire Maharashtra in that budget in terms of wall paintings."

Giving a sense of how Adwallz work, Mody said, "Companies always want to execute and indulge in cheap advertising but also simultaneously want an organised form. My company is the first such firm which is really organised in this space. We work according to client's market and distribution strategies. Firstly, we understand what the market is like and then we work upon their distribution strategies, then we see how the client's sales are. Post that, the client gives us a list explaining the expenditure including how and where he wants to spend."

Talking about the advertising plan, Mody explained, "We understand and identify their competition and give them the actual sense of how this budget should be used and what will be the right way to spend it. Then we go state wise and nationally, also villages to mark a sense of what will be good for them and we give them a break-up of how the money would be used."

This of course is done only after a thorough research. Adwallz has actually visited 300 cities, met the painters, understood how they work, made them more organized and also gave them a platform to express themselves, so that they can give their work on a regular basis. The best part about it is that they are all street painters. All of them a really fine artists but they are jobless and they can't market themselves, so in a way it is a valuable platform for them.

Speaking about how wall paintings are better than hoardings, Mody said, "Firstly, this wall painting medium is cheap, secondly it helps in reaching masses, thirdly, since it is more attractive it creates an impact on the consumers and also once a wall is painted it stays for years and expenditure is nothing."

When asked which have been the most receptive companies in the start, Mody said, "Since I think telecommunication has just started expanding on the national scale so they have been really active and gave us a very positive response. Also for cement companies, this is a very useful medium and so they have also been very optimistic."

When asked about marketing, Mody told us that first of all "word of mouth' has been really good. Then we also at times go for email marketing and at times, I personally go myself to promote my company." According to Mody, the company believes in working directly with the clients. They do not believe in roping in an agency.

The company seems to know its business as it has done a thorough research, has painted in villages where there is no electricity, not even transportation and where the painters have even travelled by cycles for one of their clients, Unilever.

With such an amazing network across the country, Adwallz is growing at a fast speed. You name a city and they have it in their kitty. They sure are on a path to painting more walls. | By Aanchal Kohli [aanchal(at)adgully.com]