Phonethics scripts branded animated characters story

Phonethics has ventured into brand advertising through its set of animated characters. Besides having their own content across Internet and mobile, these characters are also increasingly being licensed by brands looking to tap into their fan base.

Speaking about the opportunities for brands to promote using animated characters, Saurabh Gupta, Founder and CEO, Phonethics, said, “We are involved with brand advertising through our characters. Animated characters can be used to extend a brand’s presence through each of their personalised content like videos, blogs and other related stuff. Our gallery of animated characters is derived from native Indian landscape and territories with varied background and culture, but they represent their each individual vertical.”

Gupta further said that brands like Sony Entertainment Television and Tata Motors had already licensed their characters for promotional activities in the recent past. Mian Fekoo, a character from Phonethics’ stable, recently represented a popular show for Sony Entertainment Television, while Tata Motors had benefited from another character’s endorsement of the Sumo Grande across consumer review sites and licensing of their character ‘Baimalai’ to Panel animation.

Elaborating more on the future of such branded characters, Gupta felt that the characters would develop over time and brands would be ready to use them a lot more. “We expect that they will not only use these characters for consumer communication, but also use it in their internal applications, including, employee trainings,” he added.

Phonethics already has 24 brands in it kitty, with reportedly a lot of repeat businesses for the branded characters space. The company has two divisions – one is the IP products division, which is creating character-led content, and another is the services division, which is into executing advertising / corporate assignments.