Where creativity meets technology for unmatched client success
Mumbai: Efficacy Worldwide is a rapidly emerging advertising and marketing agency based in Gurugram, India, founded in 2021. The agency focuses on delivering innovative marketing solutions that blend creativity with data-driven insights, enabling clients to achieve impactful results in a competitive landscape. Under the leadership of Founder and CEO Vishnu Sharma, Efficacy Worldwide has secured partnerships with significant brands, such as Hero Cycles, showcasing its capability to handle prominent clients in the advertising landscape.
With an unwavering motto—”Nothing is impossible; believe and you will”—Sapna charted a career path brimming with brilliance. Armed with an MBA in Marketing from the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, and a Bachelor of Arts from Sri Venkateswara College, she embarked on a journey that redefined success. Her corporate career began over 23 years ago at McCann-Erickson, where she demonstrated remarkable acumen, transitioning seamlessly to media planning for major brands like Nestlé India and L’Oréal.
Balancing personal and professional realms, she found her entrepreneurial spirit, launching Aariana Media Services Pvt. Ltd. in 2018 and making strides in digital and offline media sales. Amid the pandemic’s challenges, she co-founded Efficacy Worldwide and took on the role of Chief Operating Officer, leading the agency to meteoric success with a vision to rank among the top three media and marketing agencies. Known for fostering a culture of motivation and growth, Sapna prioritizes values like dignity, respect, and shared brilliance. Top of FormMadeInmedia.in’s Kalpana Ravi in conversation with Sapna Sharma – Co-founder & COO Efficacy Worldwide on the growth of the agency in a short time and the uniqueness of the agency and much more……
Excerpts: Efficacy Worldwide has quickly established itself in a competitive market. What key strategies have contributed to the agency’s rapid growth since its founding in 2021? “Grit, Grind and Hardwork” is the mantra we follow at Efficacy. Since inception, these are the ethos we, as founders, have been following. We learnt this from our trainee days and have tried to inculcate in our teams as well – from leaders to the last man managing the pantry.
Someone truly said Rome was not built in a day. So Efficacy, while its 3.5 years old only, comes with the legacy of the founding team and their capabilities and relationships built credibly in the market over the past 25+ years. So both Vishnu Sharma (Founder of Efficacy Worldwide) and I along with our key team members – Karishma Sharma, Ravindra Singh, Shubham Sharma, and various other team members have spent long years in delivering results to our clients year-on-year during our corporate years and that gives the much needed edge to Efficacy.
In terms of strategies, we believe business strategies don’t change much but we bring on the table few of the most overused but seldom practised words like Honesty, transparency, technology, client delight, going that extra mile.
Truly as a team while Vishnu held leadership roles at various agencies and publishing houses I held senior roles at client ends (being head of marketing at Spice Telecom and Director Marketing at Housing/proptiger.com) together we knew the pain points both at the client end and at the agency end. So we started off by building key strategies at managing those shortcomings of our competitors which they have not been able to manage given the sheer size or intent or both. We built great tech stacks, built in house tools, ensured agility as a key delivery area, managed to build a culture of complete transparency, answered uncomfortable questions about Volume discount deals with publishers and last but not the least fostered a culture of picking up calls and reverting with the speed of light on all client calls.
“(We call this warrior culture – which means the team at Efficacy follows the commando rule – like they carry their weapons and are ready for action, our teams carry their macbooks and phones and are ready for action anytime of the day. :)”How do you balance creativity with data-driven insights to deliver impactful marketing solutions for your clients, especially in today’s fast-paced digital landscape?
If one adopts the fast paced digital landscape well then balancing the two aspects becomes a breeze. While earlier we had to wait on the A B testing of creatives and the post campaign brand surveys to measure the impact but that’s not the case today. Thanks to the contextual serving of advertising and various measures of effectiveness of communication. We can manage creative serving dynamically across TG sets, markets and various cohorts ensuring the data driven insights ensure the best use of creative assets – that too with smart AI and ML tools.
We, at Efficacy, always believe that having a world class tech stack is paramount in today’s fast paced and always metamorphosing digital landscape. And we invest a lot in tech upgradations and tools to ensure we remain at the forefront of tech. Under your leadership, how has Efficacy Worldwide differentiated itself from other advertising agencies, and what unique value do you bring to your clients?Client delight is the only mantra we follow and everything else falls in place. In my definition of client delight, it is not being a “yes man” agency but ensuring that we are able to guide our clients appropriately on the final outcomes of the campaigns, which might have resulted after lots of debates and deliberations. Deliver the results the client is looking for hence, resulting in client delight in real terms. If any agency, truly believes in client delight than great planning, most effective buying and implementation, path breaking strategic inputs and award winning business solutions driven media injunctions become a given and that’s what I believe is my single largest KRA and contribution which is helping us drive the growth.As a relatively new agency, how has Efficacy Worldwide been able to build trust with established brands, and what has been the key to forging strong client relationships?
As a new agency in the initial months the agency is as good as the team and both Vishnu and I have been blessed to not only have our long years of credible business experience behind us but also a rock solid team. Once the initial ice breaks and the agency starts to deliver then it is more a word of mouth. Our initial wins were more individual led but as we delivered path breaking solutions, which were never at par with the top competitors but time and again much better than what the brands have ever experienced. It started spreading a positive word for us as an agency. Can you share insights into the agency’s approach to handling high-profile clients and ensuring consistent results across different industries?One of the biggest differentiation we have at Efficacy is managing all clients with the same rigor and focus. We believe, and it cannot be truer than this, that the definition of high-profile client or vice versa is completely a figment of our imagination. A great piece of strategy, a great media innovation, a most candid but effective brand integration will bring the same smile to an IIM alumnus brand manager at a blue chip company or a 2nd or 3rd generation owner driven corporate from Bharat (a term we use for otherwise what marketers call the tier 2 and 3 cities and the rural belt). As I said earlier, the focus has to be on client delight all clients are managed the best – be it so called high profile client or otherwise.With the rise of digital marketing and evolving consumer behaviours, how does Efficacy Worldwide stay ahead of trends and incorporate the latest technologies into your campaigns?In today’s world where a very long experience or deep rooted practices of yore are becoming obsolete, we, at Efficacy started with this undue advantage (which none of our large competitors have) of starting on a clean slate. We knew what needs to be done and we did not have any baggage dissuading us from doing it. So we knew tech is the way to go, scientific processes are the only way and we started off by building tools and tech stacks for which most our competitors depend on outsourcing the same. This way, we managed to reduce a layer of intermediary dependencies and managed to be more agile, cost-effective and hands on. This also helps us in easy upgradations and keeping up with the latest tech. We have our own DSP with integrated Lotame DMP, we have multiple tools for discovery and management of influencer marketing. We even created our own NFT marketplace when we saw web 3.0 developing towards that directions – though it slowed down now, but that’s going to be the future and we are ready for that.What role does collaboration play within your team, and how do you foster a culture of innovation and creativity at Efficacy Worldwide?
We work on a culture of Project management. While most agencies would have different specialists managing different services the one common client servicing role is missing. At Efficacy, we assign a project manager or a business spoc for each business. If a business is mostly digital focussed, the spoc would be a digital specialist who will also manage the client requirements for OOH, TV/Print radio anything, and work with the internal delivery teams to deliver the services. This way the client is saved from the trouble of multiple interactions and internally we have a bustling house with multiple delivery heads working in tandem with the all the business spocs. This builds a great culture of collaboration and fosters innovation and creativity.What are the next steps for Efficacy Worldwide’s expansion, and do you have plans to explore new markets or service areas in the near future?
While we are headquartered in Gurgaon, we already have our footprint across the country with multiple offices. We also have our registered and functional office in Singapore and demand generation partners across Dubai, Toronto and LA in US. We have plans to consolidate market by market and while we have lots to cover in India itself. We have ambitious plans for the middle east market as Dubai alone might not be the largest market but with the economies opening up and booming in Qatar and Saudi Arabia those are the places the ME markets will generate.Looking back since Efficacy Worldwide’s inception, what has been the agency’s most defining moment or campaign, and how has it shaped your vision for the future?While both Vishnu and I started off our careers when digital media was in embryonic stages, we learnt on the go. We started off at Efficacy majorly delivering digital services to our clients. How we acquired Black Panther advertising and got an INS accreditation, to becoming an IBF agency, all have been various milestones, which gave us a 10x multiplier whenever they happened.
This helped us in our unique positioning. There are these top 5 network agencies who work on scale have great capabilities but would not be able to service clients even with substantial budgets considering the size. On the other hand there are these agencies who manage social media, some do basic google/meta services etc.
We are the one and only agency that stands at the intersection of innovation and tradition, leveraging the power of digital media while maintaining a strong commitment to the effectiveness of conventional channels such as print, TV, radio, and outdoor media. With a comprehensive understanding of the diverse needs of modern audiences, we craft holistic campaigns that resonate across a spectrum of platforms.