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Published on July 18, 2007

Nude Communication is small and only 18 months old. The boutique ad agency does not have the resources to offer full agency services and no global network to give it know-how and customers across continents.

What it has is "Surprise, simple, sexy" as a slogan, about 20 staff and four main clients.

Just a few months after its start-up, the agency was confident enough to enter its staff name cards in the local Adman 2006 competition - and it won the silver prize for corporate identity graphics.

This year, Nude joined the competition once again but this time with work it had created for clients - Bio Consumer's BeNice shower cream and body lotion and SSUP Bangkok 1991's Cute Press face powder. The BeNice campaign was short-listed in one category and the Cute Press campaign won in the Integrated Marketing Communication category.

Considering the agency's age and limited facilities, it was a good start for Nude. Billing figures are also positive. It billed Bt200 million last year and expects Bt300 million this year.

Nude's initial team was 15 people from the Bangkok branch of agency giant TBWA\.

"We discovered that we all like to create work that has fresh ideas and is easy for targeted consumers to understand. That means surprising and simple. If we have something that is surprising and simple and also sexy, then we have what we need - the big idea," says managing director Kanaporn Hutcheson.

The big idea is the key element in attracting targeted consumers amid the current economic sluggishness, when consumers are reluctant about spending.

"If you have the big idea, you have the direction to consistently advertise through all media channels and activities for targeted consumers to have the same 'experience' at all touch points," Kanaporn says.

In the BeNice campaign, the big idea is "Skin Firming Challenge". The idea is being shown in the TV ad, featuring women dancing and clapping on their beautiful skin. Then, Nude initiated an event to launch the product and the campaign, which later was showcased through TV reports and many newspapers. After that, when consumers leave their houses, the idea is once again showed to them through billboards and other outdoor media. And when consumers finally arrive at the shelf in retailers' stores, they will once again see BeNice's ad with the same big idea.

"Surprise, simple, sexy seem to be easy words, but in reality, it takes quite a lot of effort," Kanaporn says.

First, it is a matter of how well Nude and clients can tune their working styles. The agency is careful about which work it pitches for because of its limited human resources. "If we pitch, we need to call on our staff to devote a significant part of their working hours to work for the pitch, which could mean their current work gets stuck," she points out.

More often, Cute approaches possible clients and shows its working style and how it could help the clients achieve their goals. At this stage, if the person that Nude approaches has the power to make a decision, that is ideal.

"When we and the client start working, it's like a period for us to see whether we speak the same language," she adds.

Second, it's a matter of human resources. Again, all staff should themselves incorporate the ideas of surprise, simple and sexy - interesting people with fresh ideas and the ability to simplify the ideas for communication. Such people are quite difficult to find, Kanaporn says.

Like many other agencies, it doesn't matter where and how the staff work and whether they like to play the guitar in the office so long as the work is good and meets the deadline.

After each ad is launched, the agency looks at results to try to determine how much Nude's creative ideas helped increase sales or widen awareness among targeted consumers. They also evaluate strong and weak points of the work.

Being a medium agency that doesn't have a headquarters abroad telling it how much billing it should reach, Kanaporn counts as an advantage.

"We don't have to pressure ourselves, which could possibly affect our working efficiency. In addition, being a small agency allow us to have more flexibility than big-sized companies. We can work more closely with our clients. Advertisers tend not to be concerned about the size of an agency anymore, instead they want an agency that's really able to work closely with them - which is to our advantage."

Other benefits come from being a medium-sized agency.

"It's all about the big idea. Creating work that has a big impact is more important than having many departments and having to keep worrying about their performances," she says.

Today, Nude has total four main clients - Bio Consumer (for BeNice), SSUP (for Cute Press), Nonthavej Hospital in Nonthaburi and Charoen Pokphand Food (for Jerhigh dog treats). Two more clients are in the discussion stage.

Asked whether Nude expects to become a giant agency, Kanaporn replies with a smile that being big is not in its focus yet, at least for this year. Rather, the agency will devote its time to striving for big ideas and finding clients that best fit the agency. Creating work that really fits the clients' needs is Nude's priority.

And if the chance for regional or even global stages comes, "Why not try for it?"

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation