The Indian AdGeek

He spent 13 years at BBH, from Brand Partner to Managing Director of BBH India. Then Arvind Krishnan traded the comfort of a global network for Manja, a 16-person independent agency named after the glass-coated kite string built to cut through. In Episode 36 of The Indian AdGeek, the founder & CEO of Manja talks about the business of building an agency: 📺 Why you pay for 20 years of experience, not 30 minutes of typing: The mechanics of value-based pricing over FTE headcount. 📺 Operating a 16-person "players-only" agency without bloated middle management or redundant approval layers. 📺 How BBH insulated its creative culture after the Publicis acquisition, & what London understood about work that moves products. 📺 Pitching strategy & post-pitch debriefs: Why spending time defining the real problem beats jumping straight to creative answers. 📺 The "Fuck It, Move On" mindset when losing pitches and why ruminating destroys agency momentum. 📺 Pitching disruptive work (like Urban Company's "Filter Toh Pagal Hai")…

Marketing has one job: create memory. Everything else - the channel, the format, the algorithm, is just the delivery mechanism. That's the argument Shubhranshu Singh makes in this episode of The Indian AdGeek. Shubhranshu has built brands across categories most marketers only get to touch once in a career - Hindustan Unilever, Star Sports (where his team created Mauka-Mauka), Royal Enfield, and Tata Motors Commercial Vehicles. He's a Global Board Member at the Effie LIONS Foundation, a Global Fellow at The Marketing Academy London, sits on SEBI's Apex & Executive Committee, and writes some of the sharpest columns in Indian marketing today. In Episode 35 of The Indian AdGeek, Vishal Mehra discusses with him why most modern marketing is "karaoke marketing" - singing someone else's hit song and calling it a strategy; the "-er positioning" trap that quietly killed a generation of differentiation claims; whether the CMO is turning into an endangered species inside Indian boardrooms; what PepsiCo's no-pitch move…

Why does Indian advertising keep agreeing that its agency business model is broken and then keep behaving exactly the same way? In Episode 34 of The Indian AdGeek, Vishal Mehra turns the questions on Prasad Sangameshwaran, Editor of ET Brand Equity, for a wide-ranging conversation about the economics, power structures and future of Indian advertising. Prasad discusses why agencies have underpriced themselves, how procurement has changed the agency-client relationship, why the industry failed to make pitch fees stick, what the decline of the traditional AOR model means for brands, and why independent agencies increasingly have an advantage over large networks. The conversation also goes inside advertising trade media: editorial independence, the economics of industry events, whether Cannes Lions still delivers enough value, how AI is changing publishing and discovery, the rise of micro-dramas, and where long-form storytelling could go next. And perhaps the biggest question of all: if advertising is brilliant…

In Episode 33 of The Indian AdGeek, host Vishal Mehra sits down with Mike Follett, CEO of Lumen Research, to untangle the science of human attention in advertising. From late-night client debates in Mumbai over how big a logo should be, to building cutting-edge infrared and webcam eye-tracking technology, Mike reveals why traditional focus groups give us useless data and why humans everywhere are wired to ignore ads. We dive deep into: The Advertere Fallacy: Why forcing people to look at ads in focus groups invalidates market research. Media Realities: Why linear TV and cinema ads outperform glitzy digital platforms on raw attention, and why cricket remains the greatest ad vehicle ever invented. The Creative Multiplier: How great creative can effectively boost your media budget by 50%—and why relying solely on algorithms is a trap. The AI Slop Problem: What eye-tracking data says about AI-generated creatives and their 10-20% drop in effectiveness. Gaming Attention: Why proxy metrics fail and how programmatic…

Gautham Narayanan runs Virtue, VICE Brand Group's creative agency, across Europe. Before that, 13 years at AMV BBDO London on brands like Guinness and BT, doubling profits at BBDO South Africa, and a run as Managing Director at Wieden+Kennedy Delhi. In this episode, Gautham talks about what network agencies still do better than anyone else, why he pushes back on the term "anti agency," and the WhatsApp message from a client that unlocked Guinness's Made of Black campaign. He also unpacks how VICE convinces brand-safety-nervous Fortune 500 clients to work with it, why brands are now competing with MrBeast and Netflix for attention, and the one thing he'd bet on for advertising's next five years that has nothing to do with AI. As Gautham puts it, culture isn't something you tap into. It's something you earn your way into. The Indian AdGeek streams on all podcast apps. Host: Vishal Mehra - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@vis⁠hal1mehra⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Indian AdGeek, Episode 32.

What do you actually say when someone asks what AKQA does? That's the question Episode 31 opens with, and Bianca Dordea, Global Client Lead at AKQA answers it. Before AKQA, Bianca was CEO of DDB Berlin, and before that, EVP Client Service Director at Energy BBDO in Chicago. Her career spans three very different definitions of what an agency is supposed to be: a traditional creative shop, a full-service network office, and now a business that refuses to call itself either. 📺 Why AKQA calls itself a "frontier agency" and rejects the labels of creative agency, consultancy, and design firm 📺 The real story behind AKQA's founding relationship with Nike, and what being "embedded in a client's business" actually looks like day to day 📺 How WPP's OpenX model works for Coca-Cola, and whether capability-based (not geography-based) teams are genuinely more efficient 📺 Why AKQA is moving away from slide-deck pitches toward working MVPs and live demos 📺 The exact type of client AKQA works best with, and the type that…

In our milestone 30th episode (& our very first video podcast), we are joined by one of the true greats of Indian advertising: Santosh Desai (MD & CEO of Future Brands India, author of Mother Pious Lady, and legendary columnist). In this unfiltered chat, Santosh talks about why the traditional agency model is fundamentally broken, how tech acts as a consumption pacifier, & why regional brands are leaving national giants in the dust. Inside the strategy behind VIP Suitcases' "Belong Everywhere" shift & an ahead-of-its-time Stayfree campaign that fought shame decades before it was trendy Why the K-shaped economy and digital "doom scrolling" are redefining what aspiration actually means in non-metro India How centralized agency structures fail to comprehend hyperlocal realities, and why the linear development gap between cities is officially dead Why AI easily replaces mediocre advertising, and how the industry completely missed the short-form creator boom on Reels A sharp critique of why the advertising…

Episode 29 of The Indian AdGeek features Tracey Barber, Global Chief Transformation and Growth Officer at Havas Creative Network, in a conversation that moves from war rooms to advertising's version of them. Tracey spent eight years as a Non-Executive Director at the UK Ministry of Defence while building her career at Havas, and she brings that same discipline to the biggest question facing global agency networks today: what needs to be transformed, and what simply needs to be replaced. We get into the mindset shift from winning pitches as Global CMO to re-architecting how an entire network creates value, the real signals that separate genuine transformation from relabelled old habits, and why Havas' Village model still holds up a decade after it was conceived. Tracey also gets into details about India's structural position in Havas' global playbook, what Converged.AI actually looks like when it is commercially deployed end to end, and the uncomfortable strategic challenge she would hand India's leadership…

Episode 28. What do you get when one of India's sharpest advertising minds walks through the doors of Sequoia Capital, watches how the world's best money thinks about brands, and then decides neither world is doing it right? You get Spring Marketing Capital. India's only SEBI-registered AIF that doesn't send you a retainer invoice, it takes a seat at your cap table instead. Raja Ganapathy, Founding Partner of Spring Marketing Capital, joins Vishal Mehra on Episode 28 of The Indian AdGeek for one of the most structurally unusual conversations this show has ever hosted. 📺 We open with the culture shock of moving from FMCG brand management to Sequoia's investment floors and what that crossing taught Raja about the enormous, dangerous gap between how founders romanticise their brand and how investors coldly price it. 📺 The Spring model: not just monthly retainer (mostly), rather skin-in-the-game equity with returns tied to exits that could be five to seven years away. Then the obvious question, how do you pitch…

On Episode 27 of The Indian AdGeek, Vishal Mehra sits down with Laurent Thevenet, Head of Creative Technology APAC, Publicis Groupe. What does creative tech actually look like inside a large agency network? Laurent talks about how AI is being used in day-to-day creative work, where it adds the most value, what still needs to stay “technologically inefficient", and why the real moat is not just tools but culture, structure, and taste. Also, APAC’s most underrated innovation pockets, the rise of India as a creative-tech force, & the technologies that may matter even more than AI in the years ahead. 📺 Why AI is a foundational utility rather than a differentiating competitive moat 📺 How Le Pub and Le Collective are discarding traditional agency models to make tech an organic reflex rather than a final layer 📺 Centralising tech capability in Singapore without losing the hyper-local cultural nuances of markets like India, Vietnam, and Indonesia. (Plus, a shoutout to the incredible work coming out of Leo Burnett…

What happens to advertising when AI agents shop for us, Q-commerce becomes a media channel, and a team of five can do the work of twenty? In this episode, Babita Baruah, CEO of VML India, talks about her 30 year journey in WPP, breaks down how BX, CX and commerce come together to build human-centric, connected brands in a Bharat-first, AI-fuelled market. We talk global brand guidelines vs local realities, the future of the big TV spot, talent in an AI world, value-based pricing and why creativity still has to stay stubbornly human. 📺 What happens when one of India's most enduring advertising leaders sits down to talk about everything the industry is too polite to say out loud? You get this episode. 📺 Going deep on the fault lines defining the industry right now: why friction in the purchase journey might be a feature, not a bug; and how AI is reshaping the agency P&L in ways most leaders won't say on record. 📺 They talk Q-commerce and the 6-inch shelf where decisions happen in under 10 seconds. They talk…

Episode 25 What happens when an agency refuses to call itself an agency? In our silver jubilee episode, Vishal sits down with Advait Gupt, Co-Founder & CEO of Kulfi Collective, the Mumbai-based creative powerhouse behind Supari Studios and brand work for Spotify, Netflix, Crocs, Nothing, LEGO, Red Bull, and CRED. Advait unpacks how Kulfi stayed bootstrapped while peers chased eye-watering valuations, what changes now that Divya Karani has joined as chairperson, and why the company sits in the awkward, beautiful space between branded content, original IP, and immersive experiences. The conversation goes deep on the commercial model behind a collective, the procurement problem that's quietly reshaping Indian advertising, the rise of dark social and creator-led communities, the q-commerce squeeze on creative canvases, owned-IP economics, the so-called “independence tax" of the AI era, and what brand building looks like in 2027 when consumers never see an ad. Plus: how a frozen dessert became the name of one of…

Episode 24 What does a Global Chief Strategy Officer at one of the world's most sophisticated out-of-home companies actually think about the state of media? Quite a lot, and almost none of it is comfortable. In this episode of The Indian AdGeek, Vishal Mehra sits down with Ranganathan Somanathan, Global CSO at billups and former CEO of both Publicis Media and Omnicom Media Group across Southeast Asia. Ranga has spent over two decades running some of the most complex media operations in the APAC region, and he's arrived at some sharp conclusions. They cover the holding company model's quiet unravelling, why outcome-based pricing remains a zombie idea despite years of industry consensus, whether programmatic DOOH is solving the right problem or destroying what made OOH powerful in the first place, and what Zepto and Blinkit's rise actually means for outdoor media's next brief. They also go deep on India's pitch culture dysfunction, the real margin story inside media agencies, and why the seniority trap in…

In Episode 23 of The Indian AdGeek, we sit down with Toby Southgate, Global CEO of We Are Social, to dissect the fundamental evolution of the agency model. Toby has navigated every corner of the advertising world, from the upstream consulting of Brand Union and the global scale of McCann Worldgroup to the creative independence of Forsman & Bodenfors. We dive into: 📺 How to build a timeless brand identity in a world of 24 hour trend cycles and algorithmic fragmentation 📺 The shift from influencers to makers and what it means for agency P&Ls 📺 How to justify strategic investment in unmeasurable communities like Reddit, WhatsApp & Discord 📺 Identifying the un-houseable value proposition that prevents clients from doing it all themselves 📺 Why the “Plus Company” partnership model is leaving traditional holding company baggage behind This is a wide-ranging, no-filler conversation that covers the structural future of social agencies. The Indian AdGeek streams on all major podcast apps. Vishal Mehra -…

Episode 22 What happens when you stop trying to fix a broken agency model and just build a new one from scratch? This week on The Indian AdGeek, we are joined by Lucy Jameson, the strategist and founder behind the globally celebrated Uncommon Creative Studio. Lucy pulls back the curtain on how Uncommon became the most awarded creative shop in the UK by leaning into "noisy thinking" and "disproportionate fame." We dive deep into: 📺 The Hard No: The clients Uncommon turned down to protect their creative DNA. 📺 The Purpose Trap: Why every brand needs a business objective, but not necessarily a higher social purpose. 📺 The AI Slop Era: How physical experiences, high-end design, and PR will save us from a sea of algorithmic sameness. 📺 The Hollywood Model: Why bespoke, fluid strategy teams beat the rigid structures of legacy networks. 📺 Equity over Fees: How Uncommon’s "Unrest" accelerator is changing the agency-client dynamic from service provider to co-owner. The Indian AvGeek streams on all major podcast apps.…

Episode 21 | Adam Ferrier (Founder, Thinkerbell) “If you want to change behaviour, stop asking people what they want.” In this episode of The Indian AdGeek, we dive deep into the mind of Adam Ferrier, the founder of Thinkerbell (Campaign’s Global Agency of the Year), author of Stop Listening to the Customer and perhaps the only ad man who started his career as a forensic psychologist in a maximum-security prison. Adam joins us to dismantle some of advertising's most prevalent myths. We discuss why hyper-personalisation might be a trap, and why "frictionless" isn't always the goal. We also covered: 📺 Thinkerbell model: Why they fired account managers and replaced them with Thinkers and Tinkers. 📺 The Vegemite pitch: How they won a brand that hadn't changed agencies in 70 years. 📺 System 3 thinking: Moving beyond rational vs. emotional to understand how we actually make choices. 📺 Procurement battles: How to sell magic to a line-item world. 📺 Pratfall effect: Can brands get more lovable by owning their flaws —…

Episode 20 What if the future of advertising isn't a great campaign — but a great system? Rakesh Hinduja left one of the world's most storied agency networks to build something India had never seen: a platform-first martech network that owns its own IP, runs its own tech, and doesn't just rent reach on Meta or Google — it helps brands own their audience relationships. In this episode of The Indian AdGeek, Rakesh breaks down: 📺 Why "platform-first" is more than a buzzword — and what it looks like on day one of a client brief 📺 The logic behind 7+ acquisitions and global expansion via Poland, and the impending IPO. 📺 How Wondrlab’s Hector is powering Rs 3,500 crore in ad investments and why CMOs are now paying attention to an Indian-built SaaS platform 📺 The real reason brands like Dove don't need Facebook — and what most Indian marketers haven't figured out yet 📺 Why he took his HR colleague to a marketing pitch (yes, really) 📺 What the agency of 2027 actually looks like — and why Rakesh is more bullish on…

In Episode 19 of The Indian AdGeek, we are joined by the man who is literally rewriting the repair manual for the advertising brain: Orlando Wood, Chief Innovation Officer at System1 and author of the seminal works Lemon and Look Out. Western advertising is in a "crisis of effectiveness"—becoming flat, literal, and devitalised. But is India, with its love for music, dance, and high-context storytelling, the last standing fortress of "showmanship"? We discussed: The Roman Empire to Reels: Why 15th-century art is the secret key to understanding why your IG Reels aren't working. The WWE Analogy: Why great advertising needs a "slow-burn" storyline. The India Advantage: Why the Indian film industry and cultural "masala" might be saving us from the creative "flatness" of the West. Boardroom Battles: How to convince a sceptical CFO that "emotion" isn't a soft metric—it’s the engine of market share gain. The AI Frontier: Why AI might struggle with "betweenness" and the implicit human communication that makes an ad a…

Episode 18: How does a digital-first agency transform into a global integrated brand partner with footprints in London and Dubai? In this episode, Vishal Mehra sits down with Shradha Agarwal, co-founder and Global CEO of Grapes, to deconstruct the blueprint of a modern independent agency. Shradha pulls back the curtain on why she’s betting on a "modular" agency structure—launching specialised units like IMAGINE (AI Studio) and the Vernac Room rather than folding them into the core. We dive deep into the math of profitability, where Shradha reveals her "salaries + seat cost" rule for retainers and the proprietary SPIC framework (Suspect, Prospect, Intent, Content) that drives their strategy. Key highlights in this episode: The Power of No: Why Grapes teaches its BD teams to walk away from the wrong pitches. The GTM Mandate: Why you should never enter a pitch room without a go-to-market strategy, even if the client didn’t ask for it. 2026 Outlook: The rise of retail media networks and whether the agency's…

Episode 17: In a world obsessed with 15-second micro-trends and "zero-click" conversions, Anant Sharma (CEO of Matter Of Form) is making a radical case for slowing down. In this episode of The Indian AdGeek, host Vishal Mehra sits down with Anant to deconstruct why the term "luxury" has become a marketing crutch and why "timelessness" is the only metric that matters in 2026. We dive deep into: The Anti-Luxury Stance: Why calling a brand 'luxury' is a sign of creative laziness. Positive Friction: Why making your customers work a little harder can actually increase brand loyalty. The AI Paradox: As "perfect" AI content becomes cheap, why is "human imperfection" the new premium? The Pitch Secret: Why Matter Of Form records private podcasts with clients (under Chatham House rules) to win the deepest insights. Value vs. Time: How to move away from hourly rate cards and capture the true value of strategy. The Indian AvGeek streams on all major podcast apps. What The Luxe Podcast Vishal Mehra -…

Episode 16 kicks off The Indian AdGeek in 2026 with a powerhouse guest: Tarun Rai, Co-Chairman of Start Design Group UK and former Group CEO South Asia at Wunderman Thompson (JWT). In this wide-ranging conversation, Tarun shares: His first big break in advertising and the decisions that propelled him from Account Executive to Group CEO. Lessons from seven years in publishing before returning to the agency world. A candid take on whether the ‘Super Agency’ model has truly delivered seamless integration—or just created slower giants in the age of AI. How leaders can sell intangible brand equity to CFOs obsessed with quarterly metrics. Why agencies still struggle to own IP and build products, and what needs to change. The three elements of a winning pitch deck (and the biggest mistakes agencies make). His perspective on design vs advertising as CMOs shift budgets. The skillsets agency leaders must double down on to stay indispensable in the next decade. Leadership lessons from running both creative and media…

In our 15th episode and grand finale for 2025, The Indian AdGeek welcomes the legendary Rishad Tobaccowala. As the Omnicom-IPG merger reshapes the global landscape, Rishad joins us to dismantle the myths of "scale" and reveal what the agency of 2026 must actually look like to survive. From the rise of Agentic AI (which is scaling faster than Moore’s Law) to why the most successful brands will stop seeking "personalization" and start mastering "anticipation," this is a masterclass in business evolution. In this episode, we dive deep into: The Merger Reality: Why the Omnicom-IPG merger might be a legacy solution to a modern problem. Scale solves for size but never for relevance. The "No PowerPoint" Pitch: How to win business with perspectives and provocations instead of decks. Poetry vs. Plumbing: How agencies can defeat consultancies by reclaiming the "soul" of storytelling. The AI Explosion: Why "AI Strategy" is a mistake and why Agentic AI is the real revolution. The 100-Employee Billion-Dollar Company: How…

Is the advertising industry undergoing a mid-life crisis? We are obsessed with youth culture, viral trends, and Gen Z—yet the data shows that Gen X outspends Gen Z by a staggering 10:1 ratio. The 14th episode of The Indian AdGeek features Brent Rivard, founder of Geezer, a "purpose-built" agency hell-bent on helping clients unlock the 50+ demographic. Brent doesn’t hold back. We discuss the "brain drain" of senior talent in agencies and why a 27-year-old creative—no matter how talented—often lacks the lived experience to connect with a 52-year-old consumer. We also dive into the current health of the agency model, the massive Omnicom-IPG shifts, and why "mentorship has left the building." Key topics discussed: The Origin of Geezer: Why the industry needs an agency staffed by senior practitioners. The 10:1 Reality: Disproving myths about older consumers and where the real ROI lives. The Mentorship Vacuum: How shedding expensive senior talent has impacted creative quality. Reaction vs. Revenue: Why older…

Episode 13 of The Indian AdGeek, Vishal Mehra sits down with Manisha Kapoor, CEO of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) and Vice President on the Executive Committee of ICAS, for a wide-ranging conversation on the evolving role of advertising standards in India and beyond. From her early love affair with advertising and formative years at Hindustan Unilever and Johnson & Johnson, to over a decade at ASCI leading India’s self-regulation journey, Manisha reflects on the transformative career moments that shaped her philosophy. As someone who has been both a brand strategist and the industry’s watchdog, she offers candid insights into the complex balance between commercial imperatives and consumer protection. Together, we explore: 🌍 Global leadership: India’s unique perspective at ICAS, hosting the first ICAS Global Summit outside Europe/US, and winning two global awards. ⚖️ Mandatory accountability: The Supreme Court’s self-declaration mandate and how it shifted the landscape from voluntary…

What does it take to build not just great campaigns, but great businesses? In this episode of The Indian AdGeek, I sat down with Ivan Fernandes — leading marketing management consultant — to unpack the urgent shifts reshaping the advertising world. Ivan shares how he first found his way into advertising and how his current roles give him a unique vantage point on agency health. From the industry’s fixation on awards over business impact to the need for agencies to move beyond vendor relationships and truly partner with clients, he argues for a fundamental reset in how agencies create value. • The Turning Point: The single most urgent change agencies must make in the next 12 months to stay relevant. • Founders’ Dilemma: Why some agency founders achieve 60–70% margins while others struggle, and the practical advice he gives to leaders looking to grow, exit, or rebuild. • Campaigns vs. Businesses: The critical metric beyond creative output that defines sustainable enterprise value. • Platform + Product +…

On Friday, October 25, 2025, the advertising industry woke up to devastating news—Piyush Pandey, the Godfather of Indian Advertising, had passed away. The man who gave Indian advertising its own voice, who believed that “no campaign is worth its salt unless the people on the street love it,” was gone. This episode is dedicated to his memory. The Indian AdGeek episode 11 features Gopa Menon. Longtime digital leader and cofounder of Theblurr, Gopa Menon, walks us through two decades of transformation—from JWT and GroupM to a 12-year run at Isobar and leadership at Mindshare—before explaining why he launched an AI-native agency. We talk about people-first leadership, HumAIne (Theblurr’s human+AI framework), outcome-linked business models, hiring for an AI-native future, and the evolving role of agencies as growth partners. In This Episode, We Explore: The Journey: From JWT to GroupM to Isobar to Mindshare—which chapters taught Gopa the most about modern marketing’s real needs? The Golden Years: What made…

A wide-ranging conversation with Lulu Raghavan on brand building, pitching, and design-led business transformation across APAC, from San Francisco and London to Mumbai and the Delhi airport that changed her work forever. Lulu unpacks the craft of winning clients, the anatomy of a memorable pitch, and how global thinking meets Indian opportunity. What we cover: 📺 How Lulu's lifelong love for brands began. 📺 A defining career moment that reshaped how she thinks about brands. 📺 Building Landor India from scratch: challenges, trade-offs, and the playbook that worked. 📺 A deep dive on a standout project — Delhi Airport Terminal 3 — from brief to launch and why it still matters. 📺 The Air India brand refresh pitch post-mortem and the precise gap that cost Landor the brief. 📺 Measuring ROI for design-led work in business terms and a pragmatic process to make stakeholders listen. 📺 How Lulu landed $15M+ in APAC new business last year and the One APAC model that makes it repeatable. 📺 The three business outcomes she…

In this episode of The Indian AdGeek, we sit down with Anita Kotwani, Chief Client Officer at Dentsu South Asia, to unpack over two decades of industry evolution. From swapping a law degree for manual media formulas to leading digital-first transformation across Creative, Media, CXM, BX, Retail, and Commerce, Anita shares the pivotal moments that reshaped her career and the broader ad landscape. Join us as we explore: 📺 The career pivot from law to advertising and the dramatic shifts Anita has witnessed 📺 Why traditional reach and frequency metrics are giving way to more nuanced KPIs 📺 How leadership experiences at Mindshare, Carat, and now Dentsu inform Anita’s client-first philosophy 📺 The art and science of orchestrating an integrated approach across Creative, Media, CXM, and Business Transformation 📺 The debate between generalists versus specialists in today’s complex marketing ecosystem 📺 Dentsu India’s ambitious roadmap to generate 50% of its business from CX by 2026 and the capabilities powering that…

In this eighth episode of The Indian AdGeek, we have Rohan Mehta, co-founder and CEO of FCB Kinnect, to trace his personal and professional trajectory—from that serendipitous first spark with advertising to the leap into entrepreneurship back in 2011 and the origins of the name Kinnect. We chart the agency’s evolution from a bootstrapped startup to India’s largest independent digital powerhouse and unpack the strategic moments that led to the FCB Group India partnership and subsequent acquisition—valued at $36.6 million—revealing why FCB became the perfect collaborator and how global and local synergies have driven “exceptional” growth. Then we delve into FCB Kinnect’s commitment to being “the most modern marketing partner” through platform-agnostic ideas and the “3 C’s” framework—Creative campaign communication, Content production, and Creator communities—and explore Rohan’s pitch playbook that won marquee clients like SBI. Along the way, you’ll discover how the pitch timeline has compressed from weeks to…

Join us for an in-depth conversation with Kunel Gaur, Founder & Creative Director, and Sayantan Choudhury, Senior Partner & Creative Director at Animal—the independent creative agency that’s redefining Indian advertising with their fearless approach to storytelling and design. From a design studio in 2013 to one of Adweek’s 100 Fastest Growing Agencies worldwide, Animal has carved out a unique space in India’s creative landscape. This episode dives deep into their journey, creative philosophy, and the cultural insights that drive their award-winning work—including the acclaimed Hyatt “Perfectly Yours” wedding campaign that broke category conventions In this episode: • Their journey into advertising and how childhood dreams of space shaped visual obsessions • The market gap and cultural insight that fuelled Animal’s founding vision in 2013, and how it’s evolved into products like Veu and Deck • Balancing creative independence with commercial growth while nurturing curiosity in the next generation of talent •…

In this episode of The Indian AdGeek, Vishal sits down with industry legend Rohit Ohri. He is the founder of Ohriginal & Former Global Partner at FCB. We unpack a career defined by strategic turnarounds, bold acquisitions, and culture-driven growth. From his early days at JWT to reshaping FCB India into Adweek’s International Agency of the Year, Rohit shares the pivotal moments and leadership philosophies that cemented his status as an icon of Indian advertising. What We Discussed • Rohit’s “aha” moment when he knew advertising was his calling • Mentors, people management, and JWT’s pivot from “too big” to pitch powerhouse • Turning FCB India around with game-changing strategic bets • The rationale behind Rohit’s move to Dentsu after 21½ years at JWT • Crafting and integrating agency acquisitions—from Taproot & Webchutney at Dentsu to Kinnect at FCB • The looming challenge from consultancies (Accenture, McKinsey, Deloitte) and how agencies can win on true creativity • Predictions for an…

In this episode of The Indian AvGeek, Mithila Saraf, CEO of Famous Innovations, joins in as she takes us from her scrappy start in advertising to leading one of India’s most dynamic agencies. We unpack how early challenges, bold growth strategies, and a passion for true partnerships have shaped her leadership and fuelled Famous’s success. Surviving the Scrappy Phase: Hear firsthand how those early “no salary, no clients” days at Famous Innovations shaped Mithila’s leadership philosophy and business acumen. She reveals how working alongside industry great Raj Kamble during the agency’s most vulnerable period taught her the fundamentals of entrepreneurial resilience. The Boardroom Moment: Mithila traces her remarkable journey to the CEO chair - managing growth across 50+ brands, including Raymond, Mahindra, Titan, Van Heusen, Budweiser, and Absolut. Leadership at Scale: With Famous Innovations now spanning three offices (Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi) and nearly 150 people. She discusses the unique challenge of…

Step into the world of advertising excellence as The Indian AdGeek welcomes Kunal Jeswani, CEO of Ogilvy ASEAN, for a truly unfiltered and insightful episode. In this engaging conversation, we embark on a journey through the heart and hustle of client servicing, creative leadership, and business evolution in today’s dynamic advertising landscape. • An Origin Story: Discover how Kunal’s love affair with advertising began and the pivotal moments that shaped his career in one of India’s most celebrated creative agencies. • The Evolving Role of a Creative CEO: Gain firsthand insights on how the job of a creative agency CEO has transformed over the years, and why adaptability, empathy, and relentless curiosity are more vital than ever. • Leading Across Borders: Explore the challenges and rewards of driving creative innovation across diverse markets like India and ASEAN. Learn how Kunal nurtures a culture of excellence and fosters cross-border collaboration within large and varied teams. • Leadership Real Talk:…

Get ready for a masterclass in modern brand building as we sit down with Samit Malkani, Head of Brand, Social & Events Marketing for Southeast Asia at Google. Samit traces his journey from crafting iconic TV ads to pioneering digital-first campaigns, sharing the pivotal moments—including the viral sensation “Kolaveri Di”—that shaped his approach to storytelling. He unpacks the principles behind building brand love and trust across diverse markets, reveals how he blends human insight, data, and technology to drive creativity, and offers candid advice for marketers balancing short-term wins with long-term brand value. From the future of social media and AI in marketing to hiring creative talent and outcome-based pricing, this episode is packed with actionable insights and fresh perspectives from one of the industry’s most innovative leaders Samit - @Samit Vishal - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@vis⁠hal1mehra⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Gautam Reghunath, the co-founder & CEO of Talented, joins me to detail his journey in the world of advertising. We discuss how Talented is challenging industry norms and reshaping the agency experience. We dive into the company’s unique approach to talent, sharing insights on attracting and retaining top creative minds, what he looks for when hiring, and the importance of fostering an environment where designers and strategists actively participate in the thinking process. We also speak about Talented's business model, unpacking how performance-based pricing sets it apart and why clients appreciate the agency’s approach. Looking ahead, we explore the future of agency models, AI’s impact on creativity, and whether social media will continue to dominate brand strategies five years from now. Gautam also shares his leadership style, advice for young creatives, and the most important lessons he’s learned as an agency leader. Whether you’re an advertising professional, a brand strategist, or simply fascinated by…

Welcome to the very first episode of The Indian AdGeek—a podcast for anyone who’s ever rewound a VCR just to catch that one jingle, doodled imaginary brands in their school notebooks, or wondered why a catchy headline makes the cash register ring. Hosted by Vishal Mehra (lifelong advertising geek, and also The Indian AvGeek), this intro episode is a peek into the gloriously messy, endlessly fascinating world where creativity meets commerce. Get your ad geek on. The circus is just getting started!