Nomination for Best Animated Ad Film (International) at the FICCI Best Animated Frames awards 2014

As a startup success always seems fleeting and elusive, but when it does arrive it is a rather calming and reassuring experience. It is simply an acknowledgement of the risk and effort involved and often serves as an encouraging reminder that bigger, better things await. At Last-Bench, despite our infancy, we've had many such moments and none bigger than getting nominated for a prestigious award - Best Animated Ad Film (International) at the FICCI BAF awards.

The FICCI Frames is a three day global convention covering the entire gamut of Media & Entertainment like Films, Broadcast (TV & Radio), Digital Entertainment, Animation, Gaming, Visual Effects, etc. with nearly 2000 Indian and 800 foreign delegates encompassing the entire universe of media and entertainment attending the event in 2014. It is also Asia’s largest global convention on the business of media and entertainment. The highlight of the conference is the Best Animated Frames (BAF) awards that celebrate excellence in the digital entertainment and animation industry over the last year.

Last-Bench representatives at the FICCI BAF's

What's makes this recognition extra special is to see something we built from scratch, enthused with all our hard work, get recognized on an international stage. It's almost like a David vs Goliath story, where we were pitched against some industry heavyweights like Prime Focus, Cartoon Network, Hungama, Disney, Nickelodeon and still managed to get recognized. Of course winning the award would have sent us to cloud nine but getting nominated itself was far beyond our imagination.

Our entry was our in-house sales video for our content design services. Prior to development, our goal was simple: create video that would convince every viewer that they needed a video made by us. For that we'd have to truly create something special. And we did. In retrospect, we did accomplish our goal but it would be a lie to say we were supremely confident about getting there. It is through sheer effort, dedication and creative brilliance of the entire team that we even came close to achieving something this big.

Our Content Design Services video

What made the development process even more challenging were the many hurdles that we had to face as we lacked the size or muscle power of a bigger production house. Remember, when we developed the video we were a team of 5 and it would be impossible to dedicate people to the making of this video without negatively affecting other aspects of the business. The big question was: Can you develop a high quality video, inclusive of ideation, scripting, storyboard, animation, editing, etc., with a virtually zero budget, within a month and without a dedicated team? What turned the odds in our favor was the abundance of skill and creativity within the team. Discounting timelines and budgetary constraints we not even for a moment ever doubted if we could build something this special. We knew we could create something spectacular but the real challenge was developing a 3 min animated video with a minuscule budget and within a month! Suddenly we felt like we were our own clients! And like every other client of ours, didn't we end up satisfied :D

Last-Bench featured on CNBC Awaaz

In late september, when we signed up for an online 30 minute personal mentoring session with Gozoop's Ahmed Naqvi to help us align our Social Media strategy, little did we imagine we'd end up getting a WHOLE lot more. In fact we were geared up to just listen to what Ahmed had to say and try  and get as many of our questions answered within the duration of the hangout. Hence when we got a call from Ankita Gaba (of Social Samosa, who organized this amazing event) asking if we were willing to have our mentoring session covered by CNBC Awaaz, our response (quite understandably) was a resounding YES! It's not everyday that you (a) get picked by CNBC Awaaz as the startup they want to cover for a entrepreneurial feature (b) welcome the immensely knowledgable Ms. Gaba to your office (c) get your strategy fixed by Mr. Naqvi. A one-of-a-kind triple whammy! :D 

Of course our joy soon translated into a massive bout of nervousness by D-Day morning and it was a rush against time to ensure we got our message perfected for the viewing audience. But more than the TV feature, it was important that we didn't lose focus from the objective of this exercise - to learn, get ideas and tips from Ahmed himself and understand how we can leverage the massive opportunity that Social Media provides small companies like ours. A few cups of coffee, lots of notes and brainstorming were enough for us to feel confident about getting past this exciting yet important day.

In retrospect, the could not have gone any better. We really accomplished all the we had intended to. Ms. Gaba too was kind enough to build on Ahmed's invaluable, precise and thought-provoking advice and help us get some expert tips to start doing the right things to gain momentum on Social Media. The interview with CNBC, as expected, gave us much needed mileage and the opportunity to be discovered not just from a local, but from a national perspective as well. We've heard some great feedback and inputs from friends and family who saw us on TV (one even refusing to believe he was seeing us on TV and had to change the channel and go back to ensure it wasn't a 'lack-of-sleep induced hallucination' :D) and also happened to generate a lot of interest from students, professors and educational institutions curious as to how we can help them achieve their goals. 

We'd like to end by saying a big than you to Ankita Gaba for providing us with all the help, support and the opportunity, Ahmed Naqvi for his great insights, advice and incredible patience and CNBC Awaaz for choosing us amongst the many other startups to be featured on their show. Needless to say, we're over the moon :)

Here is the CNBC awaaz video and pics from the event:

Click here for pictures of the mentoring session & CNBC Awaaz

For all of our friends outside of India:
If you wish to view the CNBC video, kindly send us an email on chalktalk@last-bench.com with the subject as "CNBC VIDEO LINK" and we'll be glad to share with you the link for the video (with english subtitles).

The celebrity among us: Sajid Chougle!

Apart from all the creativity and practicality we bring to education content and learning, we have a life too (contrary to popular belief :P)! Some of us are part-time superheroes, samurai fighters, archers, angry-bird dummies, parcour specialists, race-car drivers, etc. (just kidding! :P) but there is one amongst us who is an adventure junkie and celebrity- Sajid Chougle! (No! Really! :D)..

He's part of a reality adventure show on MTV and is about to take extreme to another level! Here's a quick look...