Bold & Beyond was founded in 2021 with the aim of challenging the traditional agency model, where brands often work with multiple partners for different communication needs. Sonalika Pawar, Founder and CEO of Bold & Beyond, says the agency was built around the idea of bringing PR, branding, digital, influencer marketing, creative and experiences together under a common strategic vision.
What began as a two member, self funded venture has grown into a team of over 60 professionals working with homegrown and international brands across categories. The agency’s approach centres on identifying a brand’s business objectives and bringing together the capabilities needed to address them, rather than offering a fixed set of services.
From visibility to brand relevance
Pawar believes that visibility alone does not necessarily translate into a stronger brand. With audiences encountering brands through media coverage, creators, social conversations, campaigns and real world experiences, the challenge is to ensure that these interactions contribute to a consistent brand identity.
The agency’s work with Heads Up For Tails reflects this approach. While the brand had established a retail presence across India, the opportunity was to deepen its emotional connection with pet parents and position it as more than a place to shop for their pets.
Through PR, influencer partnerships, experiences and hyperlocal storytelling, initiatives such as Wag Away, Pettin’ Out and Dogathon created opportunities for the brand to engage with pet parent communities. Collaborations and founder led narratives further strengthened its relevance beyond the retail environment.
The initiatives contributed to a larger brand narrative centred on community, care and the evolving culture of pet parenting.
Influencer marketing and the question of credibility
As influencer marketing moves beyond follower counts towards credibility, community and measurable outcomes, Pawar believes brands need to evaluate what visibility actually changes.
At Bold & Beyond, creator selection begins with the campaign objective. The agency considers audience quality, category relevance, engagement patterns, the creator’s voice, brand safety and the relationship they have built with their community.
Its work with The Wellness Co. illustrates this approach. With science led wellness and recovery therapies still relatively unfamiliar to many consumers, the opportunity was to help audiences understand the therapies, how they fit into a wellness routine and why they might be relevant to their lives.
Creators helped make these unfamiliar concepts more accessible through relatable experiences and explanations. For Pawar, the objective is to identify creators who can contribute meaningfully to a brand’s narrative rather than simply distribute its message.
Measurement also depends on campaign objectives. While reach, views and engagement remain useful indicators, saves, shares, audience interactions, sentiment, traffic, enquiries and conversions can provide additional measures of performance where relevant and reliably tracked.
Pawar also points to the role of subject matter experts, niche communities, employees and customers in building trust, depending on the audience and the conversation.
Linking creativity with business objectives
For Bold & Beyond, creative experimentation begins with understanding the business problem a brand needs to solve. Pawar believes agencies must establish whether the objective is to build credibility, enter a new market, shift perception, reach a new audience or generate demand before determining the communication approach.
The agency’s work with NxtGen Cloud Technologies demonstrates this thinking. In a crowded AI market, the campaign moved beyond product features to a broader business narrative around accessible, sovereign AI for Indian businesses and institutions. According to the agency, the campaign generated over 50 media features.
Pawar believes that accountability requires agencies to define success upfront and select metrics that reflect the intended outcome. While some communication efforts can be linked directly to enquiries or conversions, others contribute to reputation, credibility and consideration over time.
She also emphasises that reporting activity is not the same as demonstrating impact. For Bold & Beyond, the distinction lies in bringing multiple capabilities together around a specific business challenge rather than applying a standard playbook to every client.
AI, trust and the road ahead
Looking ahead, Pawar identifies discovery, trust and accountability as three shifts shaping the future of brand communications.
AI is changing how people search for information, evaluate options and make decisions. This is extending brand visibility beyond traditional search rankings and media coverage to how clearly and credibly a brand’s expertise, content and point of view surface across emerging AI led discovery environments.
At the same time, influence is becoming more distributed. Alongside large creators and mainstream platforms, specialist communities, subject matter experts, employees and customers can shape how audiences perceive brands.
Pawar also sees a need for the industry to better connect communication efforts with changes in perception, audience behaviour and commercial outcomes. AI can make research, analysis, content workflows and measurement more efficient, but she believes strategic judgement, original thinking, cultural understanding and relationship building will remain important differentiators.
For Bold & Beyond, the next phase involves strengthening the connections between strategy, PR, creator partnerships, branding, digital and experiences, alongside investments in talent, tools and processes to support the agency’s growth.
Pawar’s ambition is to build Bold & Beyond into a benchmark for modern communications consultancies in India, combining commercial understanding with cultural relevance and creative ambition with accountability.
