The branding practice of Onesto · Est. 2016
We build brands for companies arriving somewhere they have never been.
Identity, film and campaigns, made in India, for European companies landing here for the first time, and for Indian organisations that need to be understood rather than admired.
We began as a volunteer film studio making public-awareness work. We are now the branding and marketing practice inside Onesto Management Consultancy.
What we make
A small studio rather than a full-service agency. We would rather do three disciplines well than list twelve and subcontract nine of them.
Deciding what a company looks and sounds like in a market that has never heard of it.
Where we started, and still the thing we are best at. Written, shot and edited in-house.
Built to run in India, in Indian languages, on the platforms people actually use.
Why companies come to us
Most European companies arriving in India spend their first two years buying recognition they already had at home. The logo is fine. The English is fine. Nothing else travels: the register is wrong, the photography is wrong, the channels are wrong.
So the distributor ends up writing the marketing, and the brand becomes whatever they say it is.
We sit inside a consultancy that is already handling the market entry. That means the brand work starts before the launch instead of after it stalls, and the people making the film have read the same market study as the people choosing the distributor.
It also means we will tell you when you do not need us yet.
2016 · Where this came from
Social Dexters began as voluntary work, a small video production house in India making films for public awareness. No clients, no invoices, no brief beyond getting something across to people who had no particular reason to listen.
That work was made with and for public organisations, including the Delhi Police and the Border Security Force: road safety, civic behaviour, security awareness, recruitment. Subjects with no budget for gloss and no tolerance for anything dishonest.
It taught us the thing studios usually learn late: an audience can tell instantly when a film is talking down to it, and no amount of production value covers for that.
When Onesto was founded, Social Dexters became its branding and marketing practice. The clients changed. The standard did not: we still make work for people who have to be understood, not admired.
Public awareness and civic behaviour films.
Awareness and institutional film work.
Documentary and campaign films for civic and non-profit organisations.
The branding and marketing practice of the consultancy.
“We made films for years for people who could not pay us. It is the best training a studio can get: you find out very quickly whether the work is any good, because nothing else is carrying it.”Shashank Malik · Founder
Who we work with
Most of our work arrives through Onesto's India Desk. Some of it arrives on its own, and that is fine too.
Arriving in India
Positioning for a market that does not know you, launch identity, product and factory film, distributor and trade collateral, and a digital presence that makes the first meeting easier than it would otherwise be.
Usually run alongside the market entry itself, so the brand is ready when the entity is.
Going out, or staying home
Indian companies that need to look credible to a European buyer, and Indian organisations, public, private and non-profit, that need something explained to an audience properly.
The second is the work we started with, and we still take it.
Enquire with us
Tell us what you are launching, where, and who has to understand it. We will tell you what it needs, and whether that is us.
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