Scarecrow M&C Saatchi launches Hax, a footfall generation specialist

M&C Saatchi, Scarecrow is rolling out a new business unit, Hax. The new unit will specialise in the art of footfall generation.

 

It will be headed by Debashis Banerjee, the former head of brand and marketing for Reliance Digital and VLCC among others. In his previous roles, Banerjee was responsible for daily footfalls and conversions.

 

Hax will be focused solely on driving Footfalls and site-visits in four specific verticals – real estate,

electronics showrooms, automobiles and events. It is currently working on a fee + variable model with a client.

 

Hax generates footfalls based on the principle of DEFA (short for Dark Emotions, Frenzied Actions). Banerjee explains that dark emotions create urgency. He said, "Communication can trigger pleasure and pain pathways in the human brain that lead to immediate action, with almost Pavlovian predictability.” 

  

He adds that Hax targets customers who reject ‘push’ marketing and their only interest is ‘inbound pull marketing’. "This is invaluable as ‘tele-caller based’ pester marketing is getting costlier and more outdated by the day. Moreover, our job as communication experts is to leverage emotions rather than behave like hawkers.” 

 

Raghu Bhat, director, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi, said, "With HAX, we are combining 2 things.

Debashis's understanding of the psychology of buying and M&C Saatchi's capabilities in delivering highly personalised experiences using both traditional and tech-enabled marketing tools – to generate

crowds."