In case you were wondering like we were, Frodoh World’s name is a Lord of The Rings reference. Founder and CEO Russhabh R Thakkar added the ‘h’ to the name of the world’s most famous hobbit because of domain names. And in case you were wondering further, the most significant holder of Frodo is a Michigan-based ice cream company.
Closer home, Frodoh World is an adtech company headquartered in New Delhi, founded in 2020, which has evolved since its beginning, much like Frodo did when he left the Shire.
“I started out as a media planner-buyer; I came into Isobar in 2014-15. That is when I started working on the Mondelez account along with many heavy offline accounts. And that's where I learnt a lot about TV, TV Plus, and a lot of integrated media planning. I did my stint for a couple of years and then wanted to start something of my own,” reminisces Thakkar.
“We initially started out as an interactive, engaging immersive ads company, competing with many in the market. So it always stayed a challenger brand in that space. We were late to the party and the market sort of saturated,” he adds.
That’s when Frodoh decided to take a different route and focus on the NEXT big things that may happen in India as a market, wherein they picked up three: retail media, digital out of home (dOOH) and Connected TV (CTV).
“Connected TV is now the champion product for everyone and everyone who wants to be on Connected TV can put it as the oldest screen that’s turned new again. We also did a little bit of analysis, and found our competition was predominantly global. Having a planner background, we realized that if we create a niche Indian-centric inventory SSP, we’ll be able to work with almost any advertiser or agency in the market.”
And as the oldest screen has turned new again, Frodoh has found a path.
“We've all grown up watching TV all of us, before we even had a handheld. Many of us came into the 10th or 12th, when we first got the hang of the phone. Maybe for some Gen Z's and millennials it was slightly earlier. But then ads that have been viewed on TV are not as intrusive as anywhere else,” notes Thakkar
While you may be waiting for the skip button on your phone, with consumption on the mobile being far more fragmented, wherein one has 20 apps on the phone, TV, at least before the Connected era, was mainly passive viewing. That is no longer the case, meaning companies like Frodoh have plenty of grist for their mill.
Similarly, as digitally driven OOH has become more ubiquitous, and we move towards device interoperability, Frodoh has been exploring the space, quite literally, with several brands and advertisers. Which brings us to the third of this trilogy, if you will.
“In the next three months we will also launch a retail platform, which is in the retail media space, where on one platform you will be able to buy unified first party audiences across a couple of apps that we are partnering with,” says Thakkar. So watch this space for more.
For more updates, be socially connected with us on
Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube & Google News
