Creativeland Asia is expanding its operations. Raj Kurup founded the Creativeland Asia agency after he quit Grey Worldwide. The one year old agency has decided to venture into the South Indian market by opening an office in Kochi by the end of September. The agency has scheduled a third office, also in South India, soon after.
The Kochi office is home to the CLA Lab, India’s first creative laboratory for communication, brand and marketing ideas. It will be used by Creativeland Asia’s advertising and marketing employees, their partners and the agency’s partner agencies in Asia.
The CLA Lab will be managed by Sudheer Krishnan, who will join Creativeland Asia as head, South, in September. Krishnan comes from TBWA Kochi, where he was vice-president. He will look after the entire Southern operations, including Kochi and the soon to be started third office.
Krishnan has spent 10 years of his 21 year career in the advertising industry. Over the years, he has worked at agencies such as SSC&B Lintas (now Pickle Advertising) and TBWA. He started his career in sales at a pharmaceutical company and then moved to sell space for The Hindu.
Krishnan has worked on brands such as Malayala Manorama, IBS Software, Hindustan Lever Ltd, Harrisons Malayalam Ltd, Coats India, Tally, Acer, Birla 3M Ltd, LIC Housing Finance Ltd, Bajaj Allianz, Sapat Tea, BPL Mobile Communications Ltd, Sonata Software Ltd, Mascot Systems and BPL.
Raj Kurup, chairman and chief creative officer, Creativeland Asia, says, “We at Creativeland are in the business of ideas. The CLA Lab is the ideal place to get new ideas in advertising, scripts, events and, later, maybe even 3G.”
When asked why he chose Kochi and not a major city like Chennai or Bengaluru, Kurup says, “Nowhere in India can you find such a mixture of a Rs 1,200 crore advertising industry, an exotic and picturesque city, and an educated market with huge international exposure, especially to West Asia. It’s a city where most of the people have international exposure.”
Krishnan says, “I have known Raj since quite some time and I have always wanted to work with him. I am equally excited about Raj setting up the creative lab in Kochi as this is the only way of being in touch with future talent.” He adds, “Also, my job will enable me to travel all over South India.”