Exclusive | Journey at Fourth Dimension has been fantabulous: Shankar Bala

Fourth Dimension Media Solutions, the company, which specializes in media and media-related sales outsourcing, is the first-of-its-kind in South India. Fourth Dimension which completes 3 years today was launched on 7th February, 2011 with a small team comprising of vibrant individuals and is now one of the best in the field of Media Sales with a large team spread across offices in Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. It is a valuable option for all media brands to outsource their sales division. Apart from this, the company also conceptualizes and executes large format events and activations, specializing in media solutions for television, print, radio and digital arenas.

Adgully caught up with Shankar Bala, CEO, Fourth Dimension Media on this special occasion to understand the company’s remarkable journey since its inception in 2011, their growth, the challenges they have faced, expansion plans and much more.

At the very onset Bala spoke about their three year journey which he considers to have been a fantabulous one. He said, “We are proud to share that we are one of 

The key clients in their kitty include Puthiyathalaimurai Magazine, Puthiyathalaimurai Kalvi Magazine, Chennai Live 104.8 FM, V6 News, media-to-win and Sathiyam TV. “We have done some phenomenal good work in the last 3 years. We do lot of work for Food Food & M tunes in the south and also a lot of events and activations for brands,” says a proud Bala. 

The agency that is headquartered in Chennai has offices in Mumbai and Delhi. Elaborating on the team size he said, “We have people from different sectors working with us. They are capable of undertaking multiple assignments and have been extremely successful.  4 D started off with 3 founders pillars of 4D (4 dimensions) and now we are totally a team of 30 people.” 

Fourth Dimension Media is growing 14% -16% year on year and this could be attributed to several clients that have added to their kitty. Commenting on the growth and development at Fourth Dimension Bala says, “We have given good properties to our clients such as the Puthiyathalaimurai Tamil Awards which happens in April every year, and other innovative properties for news channels. For GEC's we do food festivals all over Tamil Nadu. We understand the needs of our clients and advertisers. Inspite of being the  market leader in our genre we still believe in going and meeting our clients and offering them solutions which are on ground, on air, digital and others. I don't find channels doing this in the south.”

Although enquiries pour in from different markets Bala considers their clients to be priority in terms of business growth. In this regards he says, “We are careful and choosy in terms of the brands we want to work with and would want to deliver our best services. We are in the process of evaluating the proposals which we have got from South East Asian markets. It is no doubt an important market for all of us, but it is equally important to serve them well.”
Their strength lies in stabilizing their business while also keeping their esteemed clients in mind. Their complete focus enables them to build leadership brands across India. Bala believes that there is no point in getting loads of clients and not being able to provide them with the right service. “We are going steady in the path which we have maintained in this span of time,” he adds.

According to Bala the learnings gained in these last three years is that he has personally understood and realized that a client looks much beyond an agency’s rates and value additions. He also is of the opinion that depending only on social media is not the only solution but experiential marketing too is an option.

The major challenge faced by the agency was the absence of TAM ratings in the industry for several weeks during the onset of digitization. Today clients and agencies are dependent on numbers and ratings. “With time things have changed and life is not only about numbers and it’s a challenge for us to make them understand this,” he avers.

In terms of competition there are a lot of small agencies mushrooming whom he considers their competitors. He is of the strong belief that ‘Business should not suffer for want of good people.’ 

Concluding the talk and sharing their plans ahead Bala firmly stated, “We still want to continue doing good work for our clients, brands and our partners. We want to play an important role in our clients and partners life not only through print, radio or TV but other mediums as well. If we are able to add value, we will definitely.”
Their passion for perfection is surely paving the way for Fourth Dimension Media’s ongoing successful journey