Harshil Karia, Paritosh Ajmera, Suveer Bajaj, Pratik Gupta, Founders, FoxyMoron

“FoxyMoron- balancing skills”

It is an oxymoron to be a fox and a moron at the same time. However despite all appearances suggesting that such a fantastical name could hardly suit any venture, the fantastic four at FoxyMoron seem to have taken it to the bank.

In the world of advertising FoxyMoron turns heads not just with its name but also its work. Harshil Karia, Paritosh Ajmera, Suveer Bajaj, and Pratik Gupta are the four entrepreneurs behind this venture.

They spoke to Yourstory for the benefit of our readers and explained their choice of name saying “The advertising space is vibrant, teeming with endless possibilities. FoxyMoron was founded with the vision of turning creativity on top of its head. We believe that for success you have to be both 'Foxy' and a 'Moron'. You need to be smart or 'Foxy' enough to catch on to trends and you need to be 'Moronic' enough to have the ability to learn, question yourself, and 'dumb down'. Our philosophy is cornered on transience, learning, and fluidity.”

“We push for excellence with every venture we undertake. FoxyMoron was founded by 4 Young 20 Year Olds (who have obviously grown up a little now) with the vision to create the most creative advertising & media company in India. We provide end to end creative solutions that are tailor made for your brand. Our services include strategic planning, brand identity, website activation, online engagement strategies and execution, e - commerce websites, social networking portals, all coupled with extreme detail on the cornerstones of design and content.”

The entrepreneurial four spoke about who their clients are and the standards that they have set for themselves saying “Our organization primarily has Business to Business service offerings. We pride ourselves on understand brand dynamics, the aesthetics that accompany it and bring to the forefront a new philosophy of marketing – marketing with consumers as opposed to marketing to consumers.”

“Our clients generally seem to be happy about the strengthened identity that we bring to their brand. They find us increasingly understanding their philosophy and seem to appreciate the fact that we can distribute the same to the last mile using offline as well as online media.”

“Our key services are website development, brand identity, graphic design, social media monitoring & research, social media conversations, viral video creation, and concept event creation. Most people who start businesses are passionate about their business. We are extremely passionate about helping those people who have started their business to make it reach the next level.”

“Our scope is unlimited in terms of creativity and content development, designing, everything that is a prerequisite in advertising. Conceiving, creating, developing, executing ideas- we truly try to live up to all of it in true foxymoron style.”

“Some of the people/clients who have benefitted by our services- NLPL, Valencia, Neeta Lulla, Cadbury Bournville, Big Pictures, Anand Jon, PVR Cinemas

H.R. College, Hampi, ICICI Lombard, Hello The Film, Cornetto, Red Bull, Sprint”

The advertising ball game may seem to the casual observer to be mere spin doctoring but behind the scenes there is a lot of talent and understanding in delivering a unique perspective. The four at FoxyMoron told us what their outlook on the market is saying “The differentiator of our business is that we understand the online space well, and are consumers of online media ourselves. This gives us an edge while creating digital strategies for brands.”

“The business model is based on 2 pillars. 1 is services which is currently the revenue generator. This includes the services outlined above.”

“The second pillar is the creation of event concepts/ online concepts and online engagement sites that drive revenue because of the participation of brands who see value in participating due to a synergy of philosophy and target audience.”

Like any organism that is living and breathing FoxyMoron too is evolving. They told us what their desired pathway is saying “The services part of the business will scale up via the systemization of processes in key verticals such as web development and social media. We are currently in negotiations with an international player in the website development value chain for mass development of multiple websites for clients from the World over. The design business will ironically ‘scale up’ by remaining small and focusing on premium quality work, something that’s much appreciated in the market today. With respect to social media, it could go either the website way or the design way. It largely depends on the quality of work we are able to achieve over the next few months. It’s a strategic call we are mulling over.”

“The media part of the business (concepts/ events/ online properties) will be looked to scale up one at a time. Focus on unique concepts and developing them holistically with hard work is what our current outlook to the same is.”

Their entrepreneurial journey is founded on similar desires and passions for what they do. They explained their unified view of entrepreneurship, “For all the founders, it was a matter of trying to do something unique, something exceptional and something creative and be in a situation where there are no limits. We love creating communication for all our brands. It’s a great feeling.”

Their company has been experiencing the edge of a double edged sword with regards to their age in the field. They explained how they have been countering this saying “the biggest challenge so far has been the ’20 year old tag’. It works both ways. It helps at times. For bigger projects, for complicated concepts that require focus and the spending of big monies we have seen clients hesitating to trust us completely.”

“Work harder, create good work, build some good buzz around yourself, learn to back yourself, and ensure that you let the client know you care about what he or she cares about as strongly – these are some of the things we do and will continue doing.”

With their positive outlook they have been turning the tide in the battle for recognition. They told us of a few memorable moments saying “There have been small milestones worth remembering. The most memorable of those was Distortion 2008 – 6 Bands, 6 Causes, a FoxyMoron event initiative that gathered much publicity in the mainstream media and saw about 1,000 people involved was quite an achievement for the company. It was coupled with a good cause which makes everything a little better.”

“Client referrals are always a measure of recognition in our business. If you look at our client list, you will see that with at least 4 companies we are working with their respective sister concerns as well. This is an indication of clients seeing value in what we do.

Apart from that, we have been featured in mainstream media vehicles like the Mumbai Mirror, the Times of India, Outlook, DNA, the Economic Times, ETNow and UTVi. Our founders have been the recipient of the Young Entrepreneur Recognition Award at HR College and have also been invited to speak at the Birla Institute of Technology & Science in Pilani on the Future of Advertising.”

They also delved on what they feel makes working at FoxyMoron worthwhile saying

“The people you get to work with every single day are a big driver. Recognition and appreciation of clients towards your philosophy and style of work is another bonus. The lack of limits and the opportunity to challenge oneself every single day – these are just some of the reasons we continue doing what we do.”

The entrepreneurial four have a theory of what a prospective entrepreneur should be leaning towards, and gave us their take advising “Find something in the World that you want to change/ make better. Back yourself to change it. And then persevere. Never stop.”

Their journey has been unified through common passions and beliefs and we hope that remains constant for them. We wish the entrepreneurs behind FoxyMoron many happy years of work and rewards to come.