Dave Banerjee

A new Indian American owned and managed New York company has embarked on what they call “blended outsourcing” for the advertising industry.

“Put it simply,” says Banerjee and Partners’ founder and brand strategist Dave Banerjee, “What to say in an advertising campaign will be decided here in the U.S. and how to say it will be decided in Bangalore and Mumbai.”

Between the two teams -–– 17 in New York and 45 in Bangalore and Mumbai –– Banerjee & Partners would tap into the $280 million dollar mainstream advertising market. “The New York team will crack the strategy and get it approved by the client in the U.S. Position of the brand too will be decided here. Creative briefs will be sent from New York as well. India in turn will decide how to say what we want to say,” Banerjee told News India-Times in an interview. While New York will handle client servicing and creative strategizing, Bangalore will handle creative development and execution.

He claimed his agency was the first one to do this kind of advertising outsourcing from India. “We tell the clients that we bring some of the best creative talents in the world based in India at 40 to 60 percent cost reduction,” he said.

Each member of the company’s global team brings over 15 years experience from the world’s leading advertising agencies including Ogilvy & Mather, BBDO, McCann-Erickson, Lowe, Leo Burnett and J. Walter Thompson, a company press release said.

Banerjee said Swiss boutique watchmaker Alfred Hammel has signed on as the agency’s first client.

“Watches are a fairly complex category, and their understanding of it was quite remarkable,” G. Sethi, president of Alfred Hammel was quoted as saying. “A combination of their strategic direction and creative quality didn’t leave much room for us to consider the other two agencies we were talking to. Banerjee & Partners is doing a wonderful job communicating the superior craftsmanship of our products in this highly cluttered product category.”

Banerjee, who said he dropped out of his school to pursue advertising, worked for Ogilvy and then Lowe Group before moving to the U.S. in 1998. He founded 1947 Communications, Inc. with Seema Trivedi, dedicated to targeting the South Asian community on behalf of mainline clients such as MetLife, RemyMartin, Wells Fargo, Chase Manhattan, Verizon, DIERCTV and Johnson & Johnson.

“We believe that Banerjee &Partners’ blended outsourcing model will cause clients to question the value proposition of traditional agencies,” Banerjee said. “Clients can now have the best advertising brains –– irrespective of geographic location –– working on their brands, creating ground-breaking work at a value they could never have imagined.”

The team in New York consists of Losang Gyatso, executive creative director, who has over 20 years experience on Madison Avenue, Seema Trivedi, clients services director, Mukul Bakshi, creative director, and Amitabh Bhattacharya, producer.