Brand film for Canva, created at OML during my time as SVP & Executive Creative Director, where I helped build MO, the agency’s in-house creative practice.

Great Rum, Greater Purpose

Santa Teresa 1796 does something most brands only talk about. It takes men who came out of gangs, men society had already written off, and gives them a way back. Work, a team, a place to belong. They don't get charity. They get a second chance, and they become part of the Santa Teresa family.

That's the film. Not a heritage reel about old barrels and older traditions. A celebration of the people who turned their lives around and the brand that bet on them.

So we didn't make it solemn or worthy. No sad music, no slow-motion redemption. These are second chances worth celebrating, loudly. People who earned the right to raise a glass and mean it.

That's the greater purpose. Great rum is the easy part. What you do with it is the story.

BrewDog is a fiercely independent company. The launch idea was not only to introduce India to the best craft beer in the world but to the punkest brand in the world!

One of my favourite things to do 

Ensured 500 crew tees were made in less than 15 days with the best quality cotton and screen print at a fraction of a cost that we would have paid had we imported these from UK.

Created a photo op wall adjoining the stall so that more and more people crowded our space, clicked fun pictures and we killed it on Insta

Ran a 15 minute introduction to craft beers, styles and our headliners - Lost Lager, Wildcard Wheat and Punk IPA

While staying true to what BrewDog does in the UK and globally, made sure BrewDog India stood out no matter what the festival.

Was part of the team that helped launch VICE in India. It needed to be simple, yet impactful. We needed to portray that VICE India is two things; non-judgemental and massy. These are a few of the creatives we came up with, taken from the video to demonstrate the fact that all opinions are respected. Hence, #RaiseYourVICE.

The Challenge

Mountain Dew, PepsiCo’s citrus flavoured carbonated drink has always saluted the spirit of pushing boundaries and encouraging people to break out of the ordinary to make a name for themselves. They created the ‘Risk Takers of India’ platform, extending the philosophy of ‘Risk Utha, Naam Bana’ to celebrate real-life heroes.

As a part of Risk Takers of India, a 1st of it’s kind platform, Mountain Dew wanted to tell the real story of 19 year old Arjun Vajpai, the youngest mountaineer in the world to have scaled five 8000+ meter peaks, as he attempted to summit Mt. Kanchanjunga, the most dangerous peak in the world. This would be his second attempt, having failed the first time.

Using the powerful insight that Mountain Dew consumers believe themselves capable of extraordinary things, we wanted to reach out to the urban and urban aspirational audience, by telling them the real story of a real person putting everything on the line to make a name for himself; a story far more powerful than regular advertising or Bollywood could ever be.

The Solution

And that’s why Mountain Dew decided to team up with the No. 1 youth media brand in the world, VICE.

To do it right we knew we had to tell both stories. The story of Arjun Vajpai the mountaineer and Arjun Vajpai the person; his multiple near-death experiences, his friends and family, his resolve, his preparations, his fears, his motivation and finally, his journey to summit Kangchenjunga, the most dangerous peak in the world. Presenting Kangchenjunga Calling, the true story of real risk taker.

VICE created an engaging 11 part series. Each part featured a different chapter of Arjun’s adventures. Through this mid length episodic series, the audience got a more detailed insight into Arjun’s story, bringing to the fore his grit, determination and sheer will to achieve the extraordinary.

VICE took Indian viewers though the deeply personal tale of Arjun’s struggle to scale his inner mountains and how he conquered them. A long form documentary is also set to have a theatrical release this year.

With distribution spread across various channels, Kanchunjunga Calling is Mountain Dew’s biggest campaign to date.

The Results

For the first time, Mountain Dew was able to go beyond the pure-play TVC model into creating highly shareable and engaging content on digital

Mountain Dew India YouTube channel became the Number 2 YouTube channel for Mountain Dew globally

We delivered 129MM total video views and impressions, almost 60% more than what was promised

Due to the high quality of the content, we were able to attract earned media with publishers keen to carry the series on their platforms

VICE Partner network led to this content reaching dark media pockets unexplored by the conventional paid media reach

New platforms like ShareIt, Hungama and Airtel carried our content free of cost to boost engagement

We pushed the content on to OTT platforms like Voot and Hungama as video series

Through FB, we reached out to a diversified audience, Urban youth through VICE FB and tier 2 & 3 through MXP and India Times (one of the largest FB communities in the world)

How we made a nostalgia-ridden 80's program relevant to the millenials.

Was part of the creative team that came up with the Game Of Thrones S7 campaign - TORRENTS MORGHULIS to drive people to the platform to watch it as opposed to illegally watching it via torrents!

2 Effies awarded

The challenge was to tell the Indian audiences, who were typically used to watching censored content, even in movie theatres that the Deadpool movie was on Hotstar and more importantly, it was uncensored. So I created a stunt to get the attention of the audiences. We removed the twitter display picture, the header, etc and made the Hotstar official Twitter handle look like it was hacked. ‘Co-incidentally’, this was around the same time that a group called 'Anonymous’ was hacking into famous Indian twitter accounts. Taking advantage of that public sentiment, I put out some seemingly gibberish tweets with subtle references to Deadpool that only fans would get.

Example: “You can’t stop me, FAT GANDALF!”

Soon, twitter was abuzz with individuals and press being equally surprised that Hotstar was hacked.

There were multiple articles on online publications about this. In fact, we even fooled Twitter. They acted swiftly and suspended the official Hotstar account.

Finally, once we regained control of our account, I put out a tweet that read:

“Dear Mr. Deadpool. Thank you for handing our account back to us. As agreed, we have now uploaded your movie on Hotstar, uncensored.”

We also put out the following press release:

"As you know, Hotstar is home to some of the most colourful characters in the world. One of our new additions, Deadpool, went rogue and had a little too much fun with our Twitter handle. Thankfully, the good folks at Twitter India noticed the same and swung into action. The account was suspended and the tweets quickly deleted. We are delighted to announce we have now regained full control of our Twitter account and Deadpool is back where he belongs. Being Irresponsible and Unspoiled on Hotstar."

Read more here

Awards -
Gold - Little Big Idea - PromaxDBA India 2017

Silver - Best Use Of Digital - PromaxDBA Asia 2017

We wanted to communicate that you could use Hotstar to cast all Premier League matches on your big screen using Chromecast or Apple TV. This ad was written by me.

Was part of the creative team that came up with the campaign. Coined the line - Life Gives You Tough Choices to highlight the fact that one can watch 14 livestreams at any given time during the Olympics broadcast!

Co-wrote 3 spots to showcase the features of the Olympics Video Player

Taking inspiration from the product itself, I rewrote Bollywood’s most beloved celebrations of chai (tea), Ek Garam Chai Ki Pyali Ho, in partnership with its original composer, Anu Malik, music producer Venky and popular comedians Abhish Mathew and Aditi Mittal. The licence for the original track was procured from its rightful owner, T-Series and the track was then remixed. Surprising music fans and media alike, the remake was produced as an instantly share-worthy music video with a simple message, inspired by Tata Tea Fusion’s tagline (“Jaise Chaho Waise Banao”). In the music video, Mathew and Mittal complain about the endless woes of work and life, until Malik delivers his infamous brand of wisdom: “While many things in life can’t be made your way, at least your tea can be.”

Creative Execution:

We started with a short video filmed with Anu Malik on the streets of Mumbai where Malik surprised strangers by going up to them and singing lines from his famous song, without context or news of the remake. This was released on his Twitter feed, with no mention of Tata Tea Fusion or the video to come, followed by behind-the-scenes photos and updates, seeded by Malik, Mittal and Mathew to their fans online. Following initial speculation, contextual meme-style ads connected lines from the new song and images from the shoot, along with copy related to trending topics with Tata Tea’s Twitter feed, making the first connection for fans.

The trailer, music video and behind-the-scenes videos were viewed more than 1.14 million times across platforms. One in eight views of the video resulted in engagement, with more than 135,700 likes, comments, tweets, shares and dubsmash remakes. One of India’s most popular music streaming sites, Saavn, streamed the song for users who played the song more than 258,000 times. More than 100 of the country’s top DJ’s played the song for club-goers, who created and shared their own videos of the crowd dancing to the song.

The music video involved one of the best known Bollywood songs about tea, which immediately stuck a chord with the audience and generated interest for Tata Tea Fusion. The music video was created with the sole purpose of moving away from the traditional approach of marketing a product. It focused on entertainment for brand build up rather than an informative approach to increase product recall.

Our target audience was the biggest driver of growth in the category, based on brand studies: Young (18-34) urban tea drinkers, with a focus on home decision makers (primarily women). To get people talking at launch, we knew we needed to find an entertaining and relatable way of introducing the product. We went straight to the primary obsession of Indian consumers: Bollywood. We searched for an iconic classic that we could completely remake for today’s generation, just as Tata Tea Fusion would allow them to customize their favorite cup of chai any way they like.

Awards -
Bronze - PRWEEK Asia 2016
Gold Sabre Asia Pacific 2016

Something VERY, VERY similar to what we at Hotstar had done to promote the first season of On Air With AIB.

Subtly, of course!

Along with a shit ton of press, all talking about the Twitter war, some taking Netflix’s side and some, Hotstar’s. For us at Hotstar, then, only a >2 year old entity, it was the most press we’d ever gotten.

With Hotstar, one of the most important objectives was to be relevant during non IPL (and non Game Of Thrones) periods. Since the hindi content on Hotstar is so big and far reaching, the idea was to create gifs from some of the most iconic hindi shows available. This does two things. It makes Hotstar an easily citable brand in pop culture because every time you use the gifs, you are advertising the brand and more importantly, it challenges the status quo of the gif using audiences which has been a lot more leaning towards the premium, non-massy, english content. Unless of course, the gifs were being used to belittle content that pleases the masses.

With almost 30 million views with just 2.5k gifs, this is only the beginning!

Co-write and creatively directed these series of web films to launch Park Avenue’s Beer Shampoos. Modelled a character based on the infamous inspector Dhoble at the time who was known to crack down on nightclubs and drinking culture.

How do we launch PUMA’s new range of FAAS running shoes while staying true to the brand’s ‘After Hours Athlete’ persona? Here’s how.