Headlion, an advertising agency that remained active in Pakistan from 2005 to 2014, has been re-established in Washington DC by its founder and CEO, Neil Christy, after he relocated to the US in 2014.

According to Christy, “After understanding the intricacies of the US market and building a network here, I relaunched Headlion in Washington DC, as the city is the hub of political and non-profit activities – which forms our core clientele.”

Christy, who has more than 20 years of advertising experience and has worked with several large-scale companies including Citibank, DHL, FedEx, Nestle, PepsiCo, Reckitt Benkiser, Tetley and Unilever, says that Headlion is planning to focus on small businesses for now, “who cannot afford big agencies and suffer from the quality offered by smaller agencies – we want to be the Walmart of the advertising world.”

The agency currently has eight employees, and their client portfolio includes Al-Qalam Academy, City University of New York, Serenity Assisted Living and Two to Tango DC.

Speaking of the challenges of setting up an agency in the US as a Pakistani, Christy says: “it helps if you are white when pitching [for a project]. But then there is no start-up that does not begin with challenges. If you have talent in your team, there is no reason you can’t succeed.”