Barin Mukherjee the Co-founder and CEO of Digital Refresh Networks shared his journey with The Global Hues.

Digital Refresh Networks started as a team of two between Ravi Dubey and Barin Mukherjee. “It has been quite an exciting journey since the inception of Digital Refresh Networks,” said Barin. Soon, the company reached a count of 130 members at the end of a decade, which is indeed a phenomenal experience.

Barin’s involvement in the field has given him a great perspective. With a lot of learnings and efforts to stay relevant at every given point in time, specifically given the dynamic nature of the industry in which Digital Refresh Networks operates, there’s a constant state of flux.

“The path is full of challenges but within those challenges, one needs to find an opportunity to evolve and grow. This is exactly what I have been experiencing in my 18 + years of experience,” stated Barin.

The ‘Digital First’ approach

Digital Refresh Networks promote a ‘Digital First’ approach which is an orientation brought onboard by a company. It’s as simple as the designers starting to design a website with mobile as the first round of interface. Digital Refresh Networks feels it’s meaningless to show a flashy website on a desktop when 99% of consumers are going to consume it on mobile. That is one of the smallest manifestations of what the company emphasizes by ‘Digital First’ and its approach.

It also depends on how segmentation and sub-segmentation of a target group occurs and moves away from one size kind of communication that traditional media uses to leverage. For instance, a television commercial is viewed by everyone whereas a digital domain is very personal. Hence, the strategy undertaken on how to target a communication rightly to the audience is vital. Hence, Digital Refresh Networks believes in the ‘Digital First’ approach.

Differentiating Factors

The Digital Refresh Networks stands out from the competitors by its ability to string it out altogether. Every company has an upbringing that they get from the company’s Founders or the founding members. Holding a strong marketing background, the essence of Digital Refresh Networks is the ability to think marketing and further ensure that these marketing understandings start reflecting in everything that the company does.

It’s a core identification with the marketing challenges or business challenges and how to use various digital domains to create the right solution. This is what categorically differentiates Digital Refresh Networks from the rest of the companies.

Impact of Covid-19 on the Digital Marketing industry

COVID-19 has had a drastic impact on every individual and has brought about years of change in the way companies in all sectors and regions function. However, for the digital industry, it has acted to be a boon and has positively accelerated the businesses.

During the pandemic, the majority of the consumers have moved dramatically towards online channels. However, the digital sector as a whole has experienced significant growth. As such, this has paved the way for roles within e-commerce and digital marketing companies to not only increase in numbers but also have resulted in higher salaries and significant career growth for the newcomers.

Digital Refresh Networks always aimed to have centers beyond Mumbai. Therefore, they took the opportunity to reorganize their teams and expand to other regions of our country. The individuals who were heading these centers were always a part of the organization.

Hence, there was a very strong identification and similarity in the objectives and vision. This further led to reposting the company’s members and building centers in various parts of India. Digital Refresh Networks now has centers operating out of Bangalore, Kolkata, and Indore apart from having a headquarter in Mumbai.

Also, during the pandemic, a lot of small businesses have understood the importance of digital and having an existence in the digital domain. This further boosted the company to establish a set up in different locations and support these brands and businesses in not only creating digital awareness and engagement but also in generating growth. The expansion has eventually been instrumental for Digital Refresh Networks as well in driving the growth in the market.

Vision and Future Prospects

The company is aiming at scaling the business and expanding to other centers. However, the core vision is to scale the business to institutionalize it and build it to being the default agency for any large and medium business in the country.

Every agency has a story but the ability to take businesses ahead is carried forward, Digital Refresh Networks is trying to build further through expansion plans. They are targeting to introduce new services and strategies to stand ahead in the competition and to offer end-to-end digitally-driven solutions for businesses and brands around.

“My aim is Digital Refresh Networks should be one of the best agencies in the country by acting as a one-stop-shop solution for every brand and business. I believe we do have the ability and the expertise to empower and build every business and brand digitally. I don’t really look at having a number vision of being in top 10 or top 5, but for me, most important is to support and guide businesses move forward using relevant digital means, that’s the core of the agency,” he added.

Having collaborated with various leading brands of the country, Digital Refresh Networks has come up with the opportunity to leverage its services. Vernacular is one space where the company is looking to grow big and various associations with brands like Spice Money, Mahindra Krish-E among others, are helping in tuning the ability to talk in multiple languages.

The company’s project with Unilever has further enabled them to learn short format content and the principles that define the efficacy in short format content. Collaborations with multiple brands from the eCommerce space have added on to grow the company’s capabilities in serving the e-commerce sector.

“I think it is truly a give and take relation. We help brands grow and in return, they help us strengthen our services on a larger scale,” said Barin.

Favorite Quote

Barin can relate his entrepreneurial journey‘s ups & downs and twists & turns almost at every given situation and daily with one quote. In his opinion, the ability to show up every time always helps. Show up in the time of crisis, show up when the brand needs your consulting, and your help to execute things faster. Show up to be with the brand in its journey of growth. I think it’s all about showing up every time, time, and again which truly makes all the difference.

“All you have to do is show up. Be late. Be scared. You can Be a mess. Be weird. Be confused. Just be there. You’ll figure out the rest as you go”- Nanea Hoffman

Also Read: