“Let’s quit our jobs and start a company together,” Hassan told Kumail as they finished one of their usual meetings. Kumail was an account manager in a renowned multinational advertising agency and Hassan was his client who worked in the financial sector.
Their decision to leave work and start a business together was made almost ten years ago. Founded in 2012, ECHO Digital now has a team of 55 employees and has worked with clients ranging from Pakola to Toyota in Pakistan.
According to the agency, their largest client by billings currently is Toyota, providing services ranging from content creation to community management. The total market capitalization of the advertising industry in Pakistan is $2 billion and the market is dominated by two players Brainchild communications of Z2C limited to the first place followed by GroupM.
The agency says that one of its biggest competitors is Digitz, which recently merged with the giant subsidiary of Publicis Group Digitas, another competitor mentioned by the agency spokesperson is Viral edge.
ECHO is the physical embodiment of the phrase ‘humble beginnings.’ This company got its first clients by teaching them what Facebook likes are and how to implement social media marketing at a time when everyone thought of these platforms as dating portals.
ECHO consisted of a small team, but their ambitions were limitless. Their journey began by working with some of the best local restaurants, then expanded towards the FMCG industry, working with insurance, e-commerce and automotive giants to establish themselves internationally.
Almost every company falls when they stop growing and evolving and ECHO refuses to ever fall prey to that mindset. Constant development and the constant need to invest not only in your operations but also in your human capital is a trait that comes naturally to ECHO Digital executives.
The company was able to sustain itself even during the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenging challenges. The company has been hiring and expanding its departments during the global pandemic, while most agencies have been laying off their workforces.
Their key USP? No discrimination. Whether it’s clients or the people they hire. The team at ECHO is built purely on talent. They went after clients regardless of the budgets they had, only the ambitions they had as a key selector. It was always about building a team of ambitious people who wanted the right platform for their growth and working with partners who were hungry to succeed – that’s the secret formula of this company. And it paid off. It’s incredible to see a true story of hard work like ECHO Digital’s in this day and age.