MUMBAI: In the advertising world, every agency is pushing the bar in order to give the best to clients by using highly efficient creative tools. However, it seems that these tools were not giving clients the necessary results. In the midst of all this, Happy Finish has now realized the potential of augmented reality in India.
Augmented reality is something where a mobile device is used with a Samsung gear or Oculus to overlay real world objects with digital content and virtual reality. It enables viewing digital content through a wearable device that completely blocks the real world and immerses one in an alternate universe.
The Beginning
Founded in 2004 by Stuart Waplington, Rainer Usselmann and Chris Roome, Happy Finish was set up to represent the best digital artists in the world, allowing art directors, photographers and brands the freedom to develop creative ideas and unique visual styles, often pushing the boundaries of what is possible to set new standards in the industry.
Global presence
Having set a long journey, today Happy Finish has global presence with six offices. The company’s second office was launched in Mumbai in 2011 and since then it has expanded into cities like Shanghai, Portland, New York and another office in London.
Why India?
Speaking to Indiantelevision.com about the company’s India operations and the way forward, Happy Finish India CEO Ashish Limaye says, “We entered the Indian market to cater to domestic demand and advertisers and marketers had realized then that they need Augmented Reality/ Computer Generated (CG) images for their television and outdoor work.”
While Happy Finish possibly provides the best of imagery across touch points, the brand saw the potential in India and aimed to target about 18-20 per cent of the print market where a lot of CG animation and imagery is used. They identified that communication is going to become more sophisticated and hence it was the right time for them to invest in Indian market.
Clients in India and abroad
The brand has worked with brands like Burberry, Nike, Mercedes and Skoda among others in global markets. Meanwhile, Happy Finish has been doing some phenomenal work for the Indian market by working with Mahindra, Renault, Suzuki Ciaz, Johnson & Johnson, HUL, Marico and Baskin Robbins among others.
Limaye adds, “We either directly work with the brand or it gets channelized through the agency. There is a lot of brain storming that goes in all the nuances and are glad that clients are happy with our work.”
What do they do?
Happy Finish provides services ranging from retouch, 3D, animation, interactive and motion effects apart from giving the augmented reality experience and providing CG images. They have worked with clients across the fashion, automotive industry and production houses.
Happy Finish Global CEO Simon Gosling says, “Our imagery work with global magazines like Vogue, GQ or any other magazine has been appreciated. Fashion is something that we always look forward to enhance. Internationally, Burberry is one of the major fashion brands and we have done some phenomenal work for Burberry.”
The company has also worked with a few of the world’s best magazines and photographers.
That apart, it has also worked with the international series 24 where Jack Bauer returned to screens for the latest season of the show for Sky. The work features 24 stills taken over a 24-hour period across the streets of London.
Limaye asserts, “Our work with Renault Duster was so impressive that Renault is using our image in all global markets where it will launch Duster and we are very proud of it.”
Stating an example in the Indian market, Gosling says, “We have worked with Maruti Suzuki India. The company is the latest high profile automotive brand to trust the expertise of our talented Mumbai artists. This collection of images showcases the retouch and CG skills all the way from our Mumbai studio.”
Happily Finishing
The biggest marketing activity that Happy Finish undertook was associating with Kyoorius for Melt 2015, which concluded last weekend.
Though there has been no structured research on the AR/VR industry but it comes under the digital industry. Talking about the industry potential, Limaye says, “My own assessment is that in the advertising industry, primarily where television has about 46 per cent market share of the total ad pie, I think that we have a potential of having a share of at least four per cent of the market size in the next four years. This means four per cent of the television pie, which is a huge chunk in itself.”
