|
|
From the file
Company: Direct Agents Inc.
Position: Josh Boaz, left, executive director; Dinesh Boaz, right, executive director
Education: Josh: bachelor’s degree in marketing and economics from New York University; Dinesh: bachelor’s degree in psychology and philosophy from Rutgers University.
Age: Josh, 26; Dinesh, 32 | NEW YORK – The worst financial crisis to hit the United States in decades has impacted nearly every industrial sector of the American economy – and not in a good way. Even online advertising – once thought to be immune from pullbacks – is exhibiting signs of a slowdown, as retailers tighten their belts and make tough decisions about where to spend their leaner budgets.
Yet while many online-advertising firms are reporting slower growth – a trend that industry analysts anticipate will linger deep into 2009 – Direct Agents Inc., an interactive advertising agency founded in early 2003 by Dinesh Boaz, 32, and his brother, Josh, 26, is actually thriving.
“With the downturn in the economy, consumer spending has slowed, and that has been reflected in some of our clients’ sites. However, on the whole we are either in talks or have secured budgets from some very big brands online,” Dinesh, the company’s executive director, said. “Clients are putting more of their budget online and slashing some of their traditional marketing budgets. But we are seeing a tremendous increase in both performance marketing and search marketing spends. It has been these [return-on-investment-focused] services that have helped us sustain our business through the economic slowdown.”
The brothers developed an interest in online advertising in 2001, when they landed jobs at separate companies as media buyers and in online marketing. When the opportunity presented itself two years later, they jumped ship to start their own company. Direct Agents began as a one-person operation based in a small office; nearly six years later, it boasts a payroll of more than 40 people and has seen its revenues grow at least 50 percent during each of the last five years. Although the firm’s 2008 sales figures have yet to be announced, Dinesh expects they will be at least 50 percent higher than the $25 million that the company brought in the year before. He anticipates slower growth in 2009, but is upbeat given the circumstances.
“We’re optimistic that our 2009 revenues will surpass last year’s figures,” Dinesh said. “I don’t expect the company will achieve the same rate of growth as in previous years. But the fact that we are growing in this down economy is impressive, and that’s a testament to our staff. They are very motivated and good at what they do.”
What’s In A Name?
Headquartered in Manhattan’s trendy SoHo neighborhood, Direct Agents bills itself as a full-service, interactive advertising agency that specializes in online performance marketing, Internet search marketing and media-buying services.
The name “Direct Agents” reflects the company’s agency approach to the online-advertising market; whereas a traditional network’s core service might be its base of Web sites or a network of affiliates, Direct Agents offers additional services that include campaign management, media planning and buying, and search-marketing solutions.
“[The company name] is also where the word ‘Agents’ makes sense,” Dinesh said. “‘Direct’ is a nod to our direct-response approach to advertising. It also signifies the direct relationships we have we advertisers and publishers. Their success is a pivotal aspect of ours, so we strive to give our clients and partners the best service possible.”
Direct Agents bills itself as an “integrated” firm because it not only helps its clients buy media and place campaigns, but it also helps them identify their target markets, develop related materials and consult with them on other needs. “Our years of direct-response knowledge have helped clients over and over again grow in the online arena,” Dinesh said. “We can help clients reach into different channels (search, affiliate marketing, display advertising) where we are able to track and discuss options to improve strategy to optimize return on investment.”
Then there is the “interactive” part of the Direct Agents’ approach to online marketing, which seeks to communicate with consumers and to promote its clients’ products, brands, services and even public-service announcements. As such, the company’s marketing campaigns encompass all aspects of traditional Web ads, mobile ads and social media, like Facebook applications and various other new-media types, according to Dinesh.
“We are interactive in helping our clients utilize every channel available to help reach their goals and ensure that they’re reaching their target market.”
Most of the firm’s clients are mid-to-large-size brands that market direct-to-consumer products and services; core clients tend to hail from three sectors: financial services, e-commerce and consumer services. According to Dinesh, they typically seek Direct Agents’ help in boosting sales and traffic to their own Web sites.
“We custom-tailor an online campaign toward each particular client’s goals and objectives. For example, for our client [United Service Organizations], we have deployed an extensive e-mail and display marketing campaign,” he said. “For clients such as “Spain … on the Road Again” – the PBS special starring Mario Batali and Gwyneth Paltrow – we focused solely on search marketing to increase sales.”
Other examples include:
-
Direct Agents recently worked with a large, online movie-ticketing Web site to promote new movie releases. Together, they developed a consumer-based e-mail campaign that targeted a specific demographic.
-
A search-marketing campaign developed for a client that produces mobile phone-based games. The effort drove consumers to download the games directly to their phones.
Doing What it Takes to Succeed
Direct Agents offers a variety of other services to its clients, including e-mail list rental, which Dinesh considers the most effective way to generate leads for service online; display advertising, a popular form of online marketing that often takes the form of banner ads on Web sites; and performance marketing, an increasingly popular advertising method during the current economic condition with companies that want to pay only when a lead or sale is generated by an ad.
“In years past, [cost-per-impression] advertising was popular with companies because they bought ads and paid a fixed cost for them. There was no guarantee that the ads would generate impressions, but advertisers were happy with them,” Dinesh said. “But with the economy worsening, we’ve seen a shift from [cost-per-impression] ads to performance marketing, which basically requires that an action must take place before we as an agency are paid, or the Web site that his running the ad is paid. It could be a sale, or it could be lead, but something has to happen before the advertiser pays. And that’s why performance marketing has become so popular in recent months – the advertisers want to see results.”
One thing is certain: Direct Agents is seeing results of its own. Since its founding, the company has realized extraordinary growth – greater than 400 percent – which is a major reason why it is expanding services and when the competition is cutting back. In the last year, it launched DA Search, a new division dedicated to providing clients with search-engine-marketing services, which doubled the company’s New York-based workforce; and it launched the Affiliated Response Network, a new London-based business unit focused on the United Kingdom and Europe. Josh Boaz, who oversees the Direct Agents operations team and is responsible for guiding the expansion and development of the Direct Agents media buying team, supervised the launch of the Affiliated Response Network.
Since its inception, Direct Agents has received numerous accolades from a variety of respected business publications and the nation’s largest nonprofit organization for Asian Americans. In 2006, Entrepreneur magazine ranked the company No. 64 on its annual Hot 100 list of the fastest-growing new businesses in America, and in 2007, it ranked No. 67 on the News India-Times Top VII 100 list of the fastest growing, privately held Indian-owned companies in the United States. Eligibility criterion for this distinction is based on annual revenue generated; businesses must be privately owned and/or operated by persons of Indian- American descent.
More recently, the U.S. Pan Asian-American Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation honored Direct Agents as one of the 50 Fastest Growing Asian-American Businesses in America. The ceremony was held May 28 at the White House. In August, Direct Agents learned that it had been included in Inc. magazine’s 2008 Inc. 5000 Index of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States. And last December, the News India-Times announced that Direct Agents had been included in the 2008 Top VII 100 list of the fastest-growing Asian-American-owned companies in America. This time, Direct Agents came in at No. 50 on the list.
The Boaz brothers attribute much of their success in life to their Asian heritage. Dinesh was born in Chennai, India, and Josh was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, their mother’s homeland. The boys immigrated to the United States with their parents at a very early age – Dinesh was 7 and Josh was 2 – for a better life. “We arrived here in 1984 and we started with very little and really built up from the ground up,” Dinesh said. “Both our parents worked very hard –working multiple jobs and attending grad school at night. They eventually secured successful careers that they have maintained for over two decades. They have been a true inspiration for us and they have been a big part of the foundation and drive for starting our own business.”
The brothers both pursued their educations in the United States; Dinesh attended Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he graduated with degrees in psychology and philosophy, while Josh graduated with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and economics from the New York University Stern School of Business. He is currently enrolled in Fordham Law School, where he expects to receive his Juris Doctor this spring.
Though the brothers have called the United States home for the last 25 years, they still feel a strong connection to India, where they still have family and try to visit several times a year. |
