I expect the days to come to be really exciting. Budgets, agency size, team size, efficacy, conventions, luxury of time, ROI – everything will be questioned. Even without the recession the world has been a bit confused about where advertising and communication should be going. Digital, integration, mobile, new media, social media are words and phrases that have been baffling the pundits for sometime now. The rapidly evolving communication needs has anyway brought a 30-year old network agency and a two-year old independent agency on the same plane.
Since the age of 11, Sajan Raj Kurup was possessed with the idea of starting his own country. Twenty years on, he realised his dream. In the summer of 2007, he set up Creativeland Asia, the land for people in the business of creativity. Today, from advertising and brand management, Creativeland Asia has already made forays into design, film production, motion picture, brand incubation and licensing, music and digital media.
Kurup started dabbling with work from the age of 13 – a newspaper boy in his summer holidays, an animal caretaker, a spoken English tutor, a pizza maker, a sales guy, a stage actor, a masseur and a bartender. Finally, after completing his Honours in Mathematical Economics and happily dropping out of Business School, he settled for advertising.
He has worked in six countries in Asia and Europe. He has worked on some top multinational clients, including Toyota, Top Ramen, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, LG, Diageo, Deutsche Bank, P&G Pantene and AXA.
Kurup’s office resembles that of a metallurgist’s, what with over 280 awards, including the One Show, D&Ad, Asia Pacific AdFest, Cannes, Abby, GoaFest, Creativity Annual, London International Awards, and New York Festival, among others.
In his free time he loves interacting with students and learning from them. He has been invited to motivate and speak at several institutions, companies and colleges, including Hocshule Fur Kuntz in Bremen, Germany, when he was just 21. He is rated amongst the top 10 creative people in India and the hottest Creative people in Asia. He is also on the panel of leading award juries.
In conversation with exchange4media's Pallavi Goorha Kashyup, Kurup speaks about Creativeland Asia’s growth over the years and thriving in times of slowdown.
Q. How much do global affiliations help in the progress of any Indian agency? Any disadvantages, especially in times of a global slowdown? Global affiliations certainly help in the progress of any business. And being part of any network will have its advantages and its disadvantages, I would reckon. What gives us an edge as an independent agency in a time such this is the fact that we can be nimble-footed, judge conditions, change and adapt to circumstances as and when we’d think appropriate. We don’t have to explain, seek permission from, or be answerable to anybody. Nor do we need to toe anybody’s line. The buck stops right here and not with some worldwide guy sitting half way across the globe, who probably has to take a macro look at the world and decide for India.
Q. What is the direction that you would seek to give Creativeland Asia? What I have endeavoured to do with Creativeland Asia in the last two and a half years is engineer a culture – a culture that is rooted in honesty, sound thinking and cutting edge creativity. A culture quite evident in the work we create for our clients. A culture that’s evident in the way we work with our clients. A culture that’s evident in the number of people who aspire to work with us today. Right from the days when we used my dining table as the office, up until today when we are spread out across a two-storied office building, I continue to emphasise on words like belief, faith and respect. Everything else is transient. Money, fame, recognition, good times, bad times will come, go and come back again. Some days, we’ll be down. Some days, we’ll be good. Some days, we’ll be an unstoppable force. As long as we believe in the place, ourselves, the kind of work we create, goodness and magic, we’ll continue to be Creativeland. And we’ll continue to be in business.
Q. How are you feeling after Cannes this year? After five in the One Show, thee in the D&Ad, a couple at the Asia Pacific AdFest and debuting amongst the top 10 at the Abby – all in this very first award year of ours – just one shortlist out of the six campaigns at Cannes was a bit tough to understand. Especially when two of them have consistently won at every show. We decided it was God’s way of telling us, ‘Boys, this is just the beginning, you can’t have everything yet’. But all in all, a great year of Creativity for Creativeland, I would reckon.
Q. Where are we lacking compared to global ad industry at Cannes? While the number of metals looks as good as last year, we tend to forget that there were 1,000 entries from India this year, of which 25 won. That’s about 2 per cent. This year, India spent over Rs 3.5 crore on Cannes entry fees. It has cost us approximately Rs 14 lakh per metal, irrespective of its quality. This is not including cost of proofing, material and courier, which could easily add up to more than a crore. Bad ROI.
Q. How has the slowdown impacted you? Though we’ve been able to keep ourselves quite busy, the market and new business have been slower than usual. We don’t believe in pitching recklessly. And we are not in a tearing hurry to become bigger than what we are. But then, the cost advantage in the market today has encouraged us to look at a few newer markets that otherwise would have been impossible for us to enter. In short, no adverse impact. We are being cautious and sensible with our business plan. That’s all.
Q. We have heard that Creativeland Asia doesn’t pitch. How does that work in times such as these? It is not that we don’t pitch for new business. It’s just that we don’t agree with the way it happens. We try not to take part in community pitches. It’s like one of those arranged marriage meets. Grooms meeting many prospective brides and checking out what all she can do. Just that here the prospective bride walks out of the kitchen with a lot of cardboard layouts
(joh usne apni haathon se banayee hai). Everyone’s at their best behaviour, saying the right things and making the right noises. We’d like to believe that we are a little more progressive than that. On a more serious note, we believe working on a project together is a better way to judge each other. So, we’d rather work with our prospective client partners on a project for an hour, for a day, for a week or for a month. If they are convinced with our approach, if they like our quality of thinking, if we like their commitment to their brand, and if we like working with each other, we’ll get married.
Q. How has 2009 been so far for Creativeland Asia? So far, 2009 at Creativeland has been quite exciting, lots of interesting work, new launches, brand revamps and learning. We revamped three brands – Frooti, Medimix and Nakshatra. Launched LMN, Saint Juice and Grappo Fizz. We managed to showcase some good work and effective thinking in the market. We managed to grow the businesses of our clients substantially.
Q. In creative terms, where would you want to be as compared to the other top creative agencies in India in the next 2-3 years? Today, we’re handling clients, projects and launches that are as big as it gets in any of the top creative agencies. Our work has been featured in every advertising book that matters. Our work is becoming case studies for students of marketing. The quality of work we are putting out in the market is being appreciated by consumers and our peers. Over the next 2-3 years, we hope to sustain this. We hope to stay focused, stay humble and stay young. And, of course, stay Creativeland.
Q. What are the things that the Indian ad industry need to watch out for in days to come? I expect the days to come to be really exciting. Budgets, agency size, team size, efficacy, conventions, luxury of time, ROI – everything will be questioned. Even without the recession the world has been a bit confused about where advertising and communication should be going. Digital, integration, mobile, new media, social media are words and phrases that have been baffling the pundits for sometime now. The rapidly evolving communication needs has anyway brought a 30-year old network agency and a two-year old independent agency on the same plane. Now with the newer lexicons like downturn, slowdown and recession, it will only add to the excitement.
