Hetansh Desai MSEL ’16 is the founder of Vital20 Communications based in India.

What is Vital20 Communications and who are its founders?

Vital20 Communications is a marketing company that helps businesses win customers in the first three seconds. You & I are exposed to 5000 ads a day and only about 100 succeed in making an impression. That’s two percent. Which means, 98 percent of ads fail because they do not garner enough interest in the crucial first three seconds.

We help in creating content that wins. The list of services include building television commercials, radio jingles, print and outdoor ads, online content, PR, brand identity including devising the right sales pitches. We are not a conventional ad agency. That is because we believe advertising is a conscious effort to reach out to customers, but communication can be subconscious or unconscious. Communication involves the way you dress when you meet a prospect, the first thing you say, the tone of your e-mails, along with of course, the advertising bit involving the aforementioned services.

Where did the idea come from?

This idea came while I was going through the Times Square a couple of years back. One glance around Times Square could fill you up with names of the topmost brands in the world. Yet – how many messages stay with you? Probably a couple. I actually recommend everyone does this exercise.

That is where the idea came from. How much of advertising actually wins? I dug deep into the three-second rule, Pareto Principle (read works of Perry Marshall, Richard Koche) and arrived on how we could structurally create better content.

What makes your business unique?

A couple of things. We not only take up advertising projects but fine tune soft communication as well. For instance, we take up projects where we understand the product thoroughly, conduct a SWOT analysis, and then devise the entire sales pitch. If a software demo is 30 minutes – we ensure that the first two minutes of conversation would close the deal in the mind of the customer. Also, defining the tone and signature of e-mails, the frequency of follow ups, and writing the entire script is something we do.

Another unique bit is the fact that we follow the three-second theory. All material generated from our end is shown to a beta audience for their opinion. We mix content here. Some is generated by us and the other by other brands and we mix it all and show it to the beta audience to pin point what wins them in under three seconds and what does not.

We also have an in-house mobile and desktop application that gives quick updates to clients on the leads received, the number of people reached, the positive endorsements created, the amount spent and other updates on work in progress.

What are your goals for the future?

We want to work for some of the biggest brands in the world – and deliver value to all of them. We have already started doing that. We executed a project for Vodafone for their tie up with Samsung. We are also working for TBZ â€“ a national trend-setter in the fashion industry. We envision us working for topmost brands around the world and my personal ambition is to see offices in USA, UK, Australia, Dubai and Singapore along with India!

How did Babson help you in making Vital20 Communications become a reality?

Wow – Babson has made some great contributions to our success. I remember, I was keenly interested in marketing, data analytics and consultation classes. I have clear memories of my marketing professor making it clear on the first day of the course that the field is all about asking – WHY? Why do your customers employ your product? That has stayed with me; that is exactly what we do when we interact with our clients. We help them win in the first three seconds by answering the why.

Again, we were taught elevator pitches in Leading Entrepreneurial Action Project (LEAP). We were introduced to the art of devising the right hook here. That is what we still do – devise a hook that grabs prospect attention instantly!

Anything else you’d like to add?

It’s been an exciting ride! You grow as a person when you face these challenges. The Babson professors would always tell the class that entrepreneurship is ambiguous. It is only today that I realize the true meaning of it.

If you are interested in learning more about Vital20 please send a message to knock@vital20communications.com.

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