30 Apr Digital Interaction with The Urban Millennial (TUM)
The Urban Millennial is a digital marketing startup based at Kolkata, having their expertise in digital storytelling and helping brands in promoting them with “out of the box campaigns”. The pillars of TUM are Sataparna and Mayukh, who are giving a tough competition to traditional companies in their domain with their innovative ideas and campaigns. Brandholic team has a digital interaction with them to share their success story and share some motivation in current lockdown situation.
BRANDHOLIC: First, let’s start with a formal introduction
Mayukh: Hey, My name is Mayukh and I am one of the founders of The Urban Millennial and I started this with my partner, Sataparna. The Urban Millennial is our brainchild and we have worked very hard for over a year to take it where it is today.
I am the one who deals with the technical ends: Be it the digital marketing part, the website and also the ideation and production of our video content. I am also a food enthusiast who likes to explore and indulge in different types of food and I love reviewing them over my social media handles.
Sataparna looks after the communication and PR. She also does podcasts and she is the anchor of our travelogues. She also has a keen interest in writing and this she also handles our blogging.
Check their website and social media handles here
https://www.the-urban-millennial.com/
https://www.instagram.com/the_urban_millennial/
https://www.facebook.com/The-Urban-Millennial-648677365597173/
BRANDHOLIC: How did you guys planned your startup -The Urban Millennial?
Sataparna: So honestly, when we started Urban, it was just a digital marketing company but soon, we realised that we need to give unique things to the mass to stay in the market and that’s how all the inclusions came. I was a page admin before and a content writer too, whereas Mayukh was a food blogger. We wanted to bridge the gap between the brand and Influencers and wanted the brand to be fully aware of how things work digitally, that was our starting story.
BRANDHOLIC: “URBAN” So why did you guys name it The Urban Millennial?
Mayukh: We are the Millennials; as we are born and we reached our early adulthood in the 21st century. As we were working from a metropolitan city- The city of Joy-Kolkata; so came the “Urban Millennial”. Now, it gets interesting here.
Then I thought if we could add ‘the’ to “Urban Millennial”, it becomes “The Urban Millennial”; the short form of which is TUM, so that’s how we came up with the name as our brand is for the people.
BRANDHOLIC: How many employees are working for you?
Sataparna: I don’t like the word “employees” personally. I feel that restricts the potential of anyone. This is my urban family, working family, we have around 10+ members, including freelancers and our agency doesn’t have a hierarchy.
BRANDHOLIC : Good to hear that, that’s how the startups these days are changing the work environment. We saw your series and absolutely loved it. How you guys came up with and what are the places you guys have covered till now?
Mayukh: First of all, I am really glad that you loved it. Our digital Storytelling series started with #pujorbhuribhoj where we covered our own city Kolkata featuring the must try items from happening restaurants in Kolkata.
To be very honest, the idea of travelogue came on a very precious day. (At Least the Bengalis can relate). We were spending our Ashtami in one of the restaurants in ParK Street after some tiring Pandal hopping. It was almost 4-5 days prior to which the #pujorbhuribhoj series had ended. We casually discussed that we need to do travelogues outside Kolkata so that we get an exposure outside Kolkata, which will eventually help us grow. After the Durga puja ended, we had a client from Kolkata who was opening up in Bilaspur. He told us to cover his property in Bilaspur and from there, we thought that if we are going to Bilaspur, we must definitely cover Raipur; it being the capital of Chattisgarh. However, due to some issues, his opening of the Bilaspur outlet got too delayed but as we had already made a plan for Raipur, we just went to Raipur and covered it. Didn’t imagine then that it would pave our path in this Fashion.
After Raipur, we covered Guwahati, Shillong, Meghalaya and a sequel for Raipur again in 2020 February.
BRANDHOLIC: What are the different series you guys do? Also, the best place that you have visited till now?
Sataparna: The different serieses we do are- Pujorbhuribhoj, FoodSafar, Bake with love, Street-E-Street and Safarnama.
1. Pujorbhuribhoj speaks about the grandeur of Durga Puja as well as the best places to eat out and the famous pandals you definitely must visit during Durga Puja.
2. Safarnama speaks about travel stories, the staycations, the must visit tourist spots, budget travel and much more!
3. FoodSafar brings food and culture together. It includes the food you must try out at some of the best places of that particular city and that culture it brings out to you.
4. Street-E-Street is all about street stories of different vendors, street food and their journey filled with passion.
5. Bake with love is the story of different home bakers, how they coped up with the social taboos, their pressure and eventually their journey to become a foodpreneur.
My favourite destination would be cherrapunji as that is one of the prettiest places we went but yes, I love Raipur too, as I connected to many people there, it’s like an extended family. We covered like 6 places in 8 months and counting .
BRANDHOLIC : How much has lockdown affected your work?
Mayukh- Well definitely COVID19 & Lockdown has taken a toll on the work but we have tried to stay as positive as we can. Initially, it was a bit difficult but as time went by we moulded ourselves as per the requirement. We kept sticking to the basics by getting things done for our existing clientele.
We have started this new “Lockdown Cooking” where people send us their homemade lockdown recipes and we feature them on our Instagram and Facebook pages.
Also, very recently we have started with a podcast featuring eminent persons from all platforms in their particular field sharing their stories of journey and struggle from all over India. It will be released very soon and will be available on our Instagram channel and Spotify too.
BRANDHOLIC : How do you feel that you can maintain a sustainable business?
Sataparna: I feel one should work hard and work the way he feels to reach his goal, with honesty, perseverance and dedication. This will surely ensure that the business will sustain. Another point would be staying updated with the current trends in the market, otherwise businesses tend to be extinct in the longer run.
BRANDHOLIC : What inspires you guys to work hard?
Mayukh: I am someone who always thought that I would do something different than the rest. This has been a constant which has always pushed me to think differently. Also, when you do things differently, you need to put up a hell lot of effort because you are the only one who has had that idea and only knows how you can reach your goal. Maybe the tenacity to not stay ordinary, drives me to work as much hard as I can.
BRANDHOLIC : Any business ethics which you follow?
Sataparna: I won’t say it’s an ethic but I feel that to be an entrepreneur, you need to feel it from within. The confidence, personality, everything. It’s not a job or a role to play during working hours but a trait to carry always. So I feel before you take up any professional role, you should connect with it and if you do that, your work is going to go for different parameters.
BRANDHOLIC : What do you say to someone who is planning to for a startup?
Mayukh: One should startup only when you are passionate about it and you think that you have it within you. If you just start because it is “cool” or watching some motivational video, I would tell you to think again!
Yes, there is freedom in it which no other job in this world can give you but also you might have to go through struggle which no other job usually has.
But if you have a problem solving mind, you like thinking out of the box and you are doing something you like, then I feel no one can stop you.
BRANDHOLIC: What do you feel is the trick to success?
Sataparna: Depends on what success means to you. But I feel consistency, growth, sustainability and being versatile helps you to be successful soon, so I would just advise to follow these steps!
BRANDHOLIC: What is your biggest fear?
Mayukh: Well, I was introvert before and now I am trying to become an ambivert. The biggest challenge I had to face was being on camera. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I will be on camera but when situations came my way, I had to because if not me, then who?
It was immensely difficult in the first place, I messed up quite a number of times because I was conscious in front of the camera. I am not perfect even today but one thing I can say is I have learnt a lot and am trying to improve myself on a daily basis. This struggle to become a better version of myself has helped me alot.
BRANDHOLIC: Managing a partnership is not easy and conflicts on different issues arise very often. How do you guys balance everything?
Sataparna: Yes, even we fight. We have our differences but what keeps things intact is that we respect our differences. Our differences help us bring changes to our work and improve us gradually. But, our work never collides because both of us handle different domains so there is usually not much difference in opinions.
So that’s something which is really helpful to avoid fights. But the first rule is mutual respect , without which no partnership would ever exist!
BRANDHOLIC: If not an entrepreneur then what would you have been?
Mayukh: I would have become an Income Tax officer. I always wanted to do a central government job. The amount of power and respect it can give you is unparalleled. More than money, the power and respect is something which is more important to me on personal grounds.
BRANDHOLIC: How are you making the best use of time this quarantine?
Sataparna: Honestly, I have been up with cooking, doing online courses, podcasts and watching and reviewing web series. Along with this, for Urban, we started with podcasts of interviews of different Entrepreneurs all over India as well as, lockdown cooking where we share unique recipes to try at home everyday. On the business part, we are doing campaigns based on the current situation. That’s all!
BRANDHOLIC: Any motivational line that you would like to say to our readers?
Mayukh: “Things won’t change if you sit back and think. Things will change only if you are ready to go out and face the heat.”
You may fall, you may be bashed, you may be demoralized but when you rise after the fall, make sure to regenerate like a phoenix bird!
BRANDHOLIC: How was your experience with us?
Sataparna: I would personally recommend Brandholic to everyone. Looking forward to more such great work in near future. You guys are doing very well in the influencer marketing domain and we, from this part of India also follow your 10 ten listicles of bloggers and influencers. We are very impressed with your team’s capability to manage top rankings on Google in India making Brandholic, the leading influencer marketing agency in India.
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