UMM Advantage. We re a young passionate and curious bunch with big dreams.

Transcription

1 Our Company

2 We believe in the power of Internet and technology and the influence it has on our daily lives. We help brands create customer experinces and also thrive the digital economy. UMM Advantage Fluid & dynamic delivery across projects Young and creative minds Strategy driven design Cross functional knowledge Consistent quality Quick turn around time Founded 7 years ago, we started as a creative agency and have evolved to a one stop solution for brands, bridging the whole marketing cycle with a mix of services that range from consumer insights and strategy to creativity, technology and media. We re a young passionate and curious bunch with big dreams. Born a design agency, UMM has evolved into an holistic and integrated marketing and communication agency with a team of over 60 people. We are young, curious and creative individuals on a mission to revolutionise the digital industry. Our expertise ranges from Design, Advertising. Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Brand Communication, Web and Mobile Technology. Being cross functional across various digital platforms enables us to provide a seamless brand experience across all touch-points.

3 Leadership Team Strategy Driven Our work is more than design and build. We believe Its about the organisation behind it. We spend our time better understanding the organisation, before helping build a digital business strategy. Having cross functional domain knowledge, we get a comprehensive understanding of the business and the strategy and help power it. We are not just service providers, doing, we believe in adding value by looking at the larger perspective of the business and client s position in it. Here at UMM, we believe in strategy driven design and transformational experiences and insights. Santhosh Palavesh Founder & CEO Premkumar Suresh Exec Director Neethi Arasan Head - Account Relations (Tech) Thriving Digital UMM believes that detailed research and prioritization of key objectives of organizations are intrinsic to an effective strategy. Thus, its Google certified strategists helpclients to devise their complete digital presence from developing digital assets to monitoring their marketing efforts.likewise, its social media marketing experts run a thorough research of a brand and helps it achieve the best-suited option, while continuously keeping it informed about its activity. Vikram Chandrasekhar Head - Account Relations Sarath Eric Leander Manager - Account Relations Every digital marketing services of the company, including Search Engine Marketing, , online marketing, SEO and Social Media Marketing, functions on the same belief. Itsmarketplace analysis, digital acquisition, asset development, digital media planning & optimization, and advanced analyticsare the additional perks that portray the company as a one-stop-shop for all the digital marketing needs.

4 Awards Maddy's Award for best UI/UX Rashtriya Udyog Ratna Award 2012 European Quality Award Nominee - European Business Assembly Flipkart Advertising Partner 2016 Mother Teresa Excellence Award 2013 Janakalyan Award 2014 India's Top 20 Digital Marketing Agency 2016 Bharat Sevaratna Award 2013 Quality Grade Awards Of Business Excellence 2014 QUALITY BRAND AWARDS September 2012 Indira Gandhi Purashkar Award 2013 Gaurav Chakra Purashkar Award 2014

5 Beginning Scripting a success story, as published on Live Mint As a second-year student of mechanical engineering in Velammal College of Engineering, Santhosh Palavesh and seven other friends made short films on the handycam in 2007 as a hobby. The films received praise from those who saw them, and the hobby turned into serious fun when the team began to enter every competition and won every single one. And, before they knew it, they began making visual effects for ad films and Tamil movies, all the while learning the tricks of the trade from the Internet right from how to mix sound to animation. Today, five years later, 23-year-old Palavesh employs 17 people, and his company, UMM Studios, has 80-plus customers, which include big names such as Larsen and Toubro Ltd, Royal Bank of Scotland Plc., HCL Technologies Ltd and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. UMM Studios provides various creative services such as design, branding, ad films, corporate films, visual effects and animation. UMM also has a technology division which looks into web designing, web hosting, and even software solutions. For Palavesh, the owner of the Rs.48 lakh company, the turning point came in his final year of engineering, when the talk all around college was to decide whether it would be an MS, an MBA or a job. I was a good student, and I had been placed in Caterpillar for a package of Rs.7.5 lakh; but I knew what I wanted, recounts Palavesh. Having just received Rs.75,000 for an ad film they made, the choice was clear for him. UMM studio was incorporated in But sadly, from the eight-member team it was initially, only five stuck together. Luckily for Palavesh, he had the support of his father and mother, who encouraged him. The team began by targeting the small and medium companies whose budgets were small and were looking for good work. Palavesh began UMM with an initial capital of Rs.80,000, which it earned through ad films, and set up an office by renting a 350 sq. ft space in his own house. He even paid his mother a rent of Rs.3,500 for it. She wanted me to be serious about the business, and that s why she demanded rent, he says. By spreading the word, and building a contact base, soon the team went about acquiring order after order. The reason why we were able to win over clients is that people liked our fresh ideas, and also the fact that we were young and energetic, says Palavesh. He also believes his young age helped win people s trust. The CEOs I met would give me advice as to how I could do things better, and what mistakes I should avoid, which were very useful. Being a first-generation entrepreneur, Palavesh learnt his business fundamentals by also being an active member of the National Entrepreneurship Network. It was here that I saw young entrepreneurs talking about their ideas and experience. I was totally awestruck by it, and learnt to implement those ideas. Palavesh and his team had the confidence that they could do just about anything in their domain. Even if I didn t know the job, we would say we know it and get the order, and then learn it, and give a quality job. However, being a company with a team of students fresh from college, they executed their jobs by simply going after it one after another without any process or business model. The lack of a process hurt the company as it encountered the problem of plenty. There were too many orders, and too few employees. This resulted in everyone doing whichever job was assigned to them. This was a wrong move as it resulted in a lot of time delay. Though the clients were understanding, we lost about four to five clients because we could not deliver the projects in time, says Palavesh. He decided that the company will need to move towards specialization, and be more process driven. They also went on a recruitment drive and regularly added employees. But finding the right team was also proving to be a big challenge. Two more team members of the five-member core team quit as they wanted a regular nine-to-five job and a regular salary, said Palavesh. His solution to this problem of forming a right team was to recruit people based on their talent and not their resume. Some of the employees who work here are dropouts. But they are bubbling with ideas. I keep the resume aside while recruiting. We let them work for a day or two, and if we like their work, they have found a job. It s as simple as that, says Palavesh. Palavesh is also working on brushing up matters of finance. We still haven t grasped numbers too well. I let my father handle all matters related to finance, admits Palavesh, who is pursuing an MBA from Anna University through correspondence. The company is also trying to shake off its low-cost image, as sometimes their services were 75% cheaper than the competition. But being a cost-effective firm has resulted in orders flowing in from all directions and even from overseas. Palavesh plans to set up offices in the UK and Dubai by the end of next year. He also plans to recruit some more management graduates for marketing and business plan development. To support growth, the company will also be adding five more employees by the end of next year. The Chennai-based entrepreneur s company has already received interest from venture capitalists. But Palavesh feels it would mean too much interference. He realizes his company is at a crucial stage now, but he says by thinking one step ahead, one can remain at the top of his game. Mint is a strategic partner of National Entrepreneurship Network, which hosts the Tata First Dot competition.

6 For more info log on to