THE PEOPLE
SAJAN RAJ KURUP, Founder and Creative Chairman, Creativeland Group
VIKRAM GAIKWAD, partner and executive creative director, creativeland asia
ANU JOSEPH, executive creative director, creativeland asia
HARSHAD LAD, head creative operations, creativeland asia
SATYA SHETTY, chief implementation officer (digital), creativeland asia
RRUTA NAIK, design director, creativeland asia
SAJIV KURUP, coo, creativeland pictures
CHETAN DESAI, ceo, creativeland ventures
THE STORY
Creativeland Asia was founded by Sajan RaJ Kurup with four people and four Macs at his dining table. Today, it is a belief shared by 90 people across two full-fledged offices in India and nine strategic offices in Asia.
Since Day One, the agency’s focus has been on fostering strong, trusting relationships with client partners, collaborating with them on ideas that build strong brands in the marketplace. Creativeland’s ‘Good Creative Upbringing’ philosophy believes in inspiring creativity in everyone who crosses paths with it, and emphasizes on old-fashioned words like culture, faith, belief and respect.
In 2008, RaJ diversified the company into Creativeland Ventures, the brand incubation division based on research driven market needs. Since then, Creativeland Ventures has made inroads into the healthcare segment by forming its first brand IP ‘Fearless Healthcare’, which is set to roll out across India by end 2013.
In 2009, Creativeland Pictures was established to generate youthled entertainment content for music, television and feature films. Creativeland Pictures completed its first feature production, ‘Karmayogi’ (a Malayalam film), an Indian adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Today, Creativeland is one of the most recognized independent creative organizations in the world.
THE PRACTICES
Headquartered in Mumbai, Creativeland’s businesses include Advertising, Brand Management, Design, Packaging, Digital, Brand Incubation, Licensing and Film Production.
THE NAME
The name Creativeland Asia was born out of the philosophy of the place. RaJ wanted to set up a country for creative people. A platform where creative people from various walks of life could come together, collaborate and help each other realize their creative dreams. The suffix ‘Asia’ was added to underline Creativeland’s belief that this is Asia’s time under the sun and therefore, the company’s focus on the continent, and also because Asia, historically, has been the cradle of creativity.
THE BUZZ
Over the last five years, Creativeland Asia has won many awards including:
• ‘Independent Agency of the Year 2011’ at Spikes
• Grand Prix for ‘Audi A8 L’s integrated 3D campaign’ at Spikes 2011
• Two Grand Prix for ‘ Hippo Plan-T’ at FAB Awards 2012
• Grand Prix for ‘Audi A8L Integrated 3D campaign’ at Goa Fest 2012
• Apart from this, the agency has won multiple metals, been in-books and finalists at the One Show, D&Ad, Cannes, Spikes Asia, Adfest, FAB and Abbys. Creativeland is also the only creative company to be featured twice in the Top Independent Agencies of the World list.
THE CLIENTS
Appy, Appy Fizz, Audi portfolio, Bailley, Café Coffee Day, Café Coffee Day The Lounge, Café Coffee Day Square, Cinthol, Cuticura, Godrej Aer, Godrej Expert Hair Colour, Hippo, Medimix and Frooti.
RECENT BIG CAMPAIGNS
Creativeland Asia’s most recent work includes the Frooti campaign with Shah Rukh Khan, the Appy Fizz campaign with Saif Ali Khan, the ‘Alive is Awesome’ campaign for Cinthol, the ‘Flavours Without Borders’ campaign for Hippo Baked Munchies and the ‘Sit Down’ campaign for Café Coffee Day.
In digital and social media, Creativeland has in the past few weeks created properties that have constantly trended on Twitter. #InViratsHead, #MakesmeAlive, #SRKlovesFrooti, #Magicof, #SaifandFizzhangout and #HangoutwithFizz have all been successful Twitter trends, creating interesting content and conversations around these brands.