Spotlighting India's independent companies: BMEG
SPECIAL FEATURE: Andy Charles and Anto Noval speak about how the agency won 'Design Specialist Agency of the Year' at the Abbys.
When did you launch? Before you ask when we started, you need to know where we come from. Because that’s what makes us different and gives you a clear insight into where we’re headed. BMEG is the brainchild of VerSe Innovation, a thoroughbred technology company that owns some of India’s most used AI-first platforms. Dailyhunt Premium, Oneindia, NexVerse.ai, Josh – Audio Calling & Audio Stories and VerSe Collab. Collectively reaching millions of users across 15 languages. More importantly, VerSe has been working with machine learning and AI long before the marketing industry made it a buzzword. That’s our DNA. Not a media network. Not an independent startup. A technology enterprise. Which means when BMEG was set up four years ago, data and intelligence weren’t something we bolted on. They were already in the bloodstream. BMEG today is an integrated media and entertainment company. We have seasoned specialists across media strategy, planning and buying, experiential, outdoor and events. And sitting at the heart of it all is our design-led creative team, which is two and a half years old. Young, sharp and built very deliberately. We exist at the intersection of deep tech and creativity. And that changes everything about how we work.
What is the size of the team?
In some cases size matters. In some cases it doesn’t. But here’s some context.
VerSe Innovation, our parent company, is a township of over twelve hundred people. Within that township resides BMEG, a community of one hundred and nine people. And within BMEG, at the very heart of it, is our creative team. Eleven people. Two and a half years old. Possibly the leanest design-led creative unit operating at this scale in India today. Think of it like a city. The infrastructure is vast, the resources are deep, the technology is world-class. But the creative soul of it lives in a small, deliberate neighbourhood where everyone knows exactly why they’re there. That’s not a limitation. That’s a choice.
One thing about the culture of your entity that you want to speak about? Culture cannot be created. But it can certainly be influenced. At BMEG, the one thing that runs through everything, every brief, every system, every problem we solve, whether it comes from within or from a client walking through the door, is a simple discipline.
Depth. Clarity. Creativity. In that order, always.
Depth isn’t philosophical. It’s rigorous. It’s research, observation, building real rapport with real people. It goes well beyond desktop research and data dashboards. Because most of the market is working on known needs. A few push further and work on unknown needs. But the real magic happens when you identify and articulate latent needs. From that depth comes clarity, the ability to see what actually matters. And from clarity comes creativity that isn’t decoration. It’s conviction. But none of that is possible without the four principles we live by. Be mindful. Be insightful. Be playful. Do thoughtful. Only when you’re truly mindful can you be insightful. And an insight is a funny thing. It’s something everyone already knows but has never heard said out loud. The reaction to a real insight isn’t applause. It’s that involuntary oh, f@#!, it’s true. Then you have to be playful. Childlike. Willing to make mistakes, to wander, to chase the firefly just to see where it goes. And everything we put out has to be thoughtful. Every piece of work. Every email. Every decision. That’s the culture. Not a feeling. A discipline. It’s fun, but it’s also extremely demanding. And we’ll have it no other way.
The most Indian thing about your agency that you want to share with the rest of the world? It’s in our name. Bharat Media and Entertainment Group. BMEG. We didn’t put it there by accident. But here’s the thing about India. You can never explain it entirely. You can only experience it. A million spices, a million fragrances, a million contradictions all existing in the same breath. There is beauty in the chaos. There is genius in the complexity. And there is an energy here that is unlike anywhere else on earth. India is not for the faint-hearted. It is demanding, relentless, and more often than not unpredictable. But for those who embrace it, it is the most exciting creative laboratory in the world. You either light up or you burn out. There is very little in between. At BMEG, that’s not something we shy away from. It’s something we run towards. Because if you can crack a brief in this market, across its languages, its cultures, its contradictions, you can crack it anywhere. Indian by nature. Global by design.
Could you talk about the creative freedom you get while operating an independent creative agency? Creativity and freedom are the same word. One cannot exist without the other. Internally, we have been given every reason to think bold. To experiment. To take the kind of risks that most agencies simply don’t have the infrastructure or the appetite for. Being part of a technology enterprise of VerSe’s scale means we have access to real data, real platforms and real audiences. That’s not creative freedom in theory. That’s creative freedom with teeth. Externally, we are very deliberate. We handpick our clients. We do not play safe and we do not apologise for that. In two and a half years, we have worked with two external clients. We won awards for both. The rest of our work has been internal, building products and systems from within. We have said no far more than we have said yes. And we intend to keep it that way. Because creative freedom isn’t something a client gives you. It’s something you earn by being willing to walk away when the conditions aren’t right.
What is the one thing you’d like to change about your clients? Honestly, nothing. And that’s not a diplomatic answer. We handpick our clients. And our clients handpick us. Which means by the time we start working together, we already know we’re aligned. Not just on the brief, but on the ambition, the appetite for risk and the willingness to go somewhere new together. What happens in that kind of relationship is diffusion. The client’s thinking seeps into ours. Ours seeps into theirs. Over time the boundaries dissolve and something entirely new emerges from that exchange. That’s where the real value lives. We have seen agencies crumble because of client culture, or the lack of it, seeping into the agency’s way of working. Slowly eroding the craft, the confidence, the standards. We are very clear that we will not let that happen. The culture has to match. And under no circumstances do we compromise on craft or dignity. We don’t do short-term work. We don’t do transactional work. We only work with clients who are ready for a long-term commitment, the kind where both sides show up, every single time. So the one thing we’d like to change about our clients? We’d like more of them to find us first.
Share five top pieces of work along with a line on each of them. We’d rather not. Not because we don’t have the work. But because a list of five pieces with a line each doesn’t do justice to what we build or how we build it. If you want to see our work, go to bmeg.in. Spend some time there. Because the work only makes sense in context, and context is everything. What we will say is this. Every piece we have put out has been deliberate. Nothing was made to fill a portfolio. Nothing was made to win an award, though we are glad some of them did. Everything was made to solve a real problem in the most uncompromising way we knew how. That’s the only brief we’ve ever given ourselves.
This article was part of a special focus on Indian independent creative companies circulated alongside Manifest's June issue, which can be bought here.
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