Looking to acquire AI and analytics businesses for next phase of growth: Creativeland Asia's Sajan Raj Kurup

Creativeland Asia, one of the leading independent creative agencies in India, is now planning to move beyond its core offerings and expand into artificial intelligence, technology and analytics.

In a conversation with BestMediaInfo.com, the agency’s Founder and Creative Chairman Sajan Raj Kurup said he was already in talks with a few cutting-edge technology companies.

“Among many other things that we are doing to strengthen our play in digital, we are looking for strategic partnerships and acquisitions, especially in the analytics and AI space. We are already in final conversations with a few cutting-edge technology companies to keep ourselves 2020-ready and exciting,” he said.

“As a business, we are prepared to excel in more areas beyond communication,” he added.

Recently, the agency carved a separate division called Creativeland Pictures and Brand Studios. CLP will handle content development for clients whereas Brand studio is an integrated model to handle advertising client business. 

“Our newest venture, Creativeland Pictures, is poised to begin its content development initiatives in a big way. We look and adapt strategies with the evolving world and so we have developed our properties and services,” Kurup said.

Talking about the growth plans for next year, Kurup said, “Our growth will only be as ambitious as the sum of our clients’ growth targets.”

In terms of business and revenue, 2019 has been a profitable year for the agency, “We were too fortunate to not see and feel signs of the economy slowdown both in terms of new and existing business, rather it's been an interesting year so far,” said Kurup.

According to Kurup, the passing year has also been profitable for the agency in terms of talent acquisition, which has helped CLA diversify its skill sets. “A really interesting bunch of people from diverse backgrounds have gotten added to our great talent pool,” he said.

Kurup said growth of the digital division is on top of the agency’s agenda.

“We’ll keep upping the bar again in terms of work. And we’ll keep coming up with ideas that are beyond the line. Our digital division now has its own set of clients and our technology division is busy offering technology solutions to clients in India and abroad,” he added.

According to Kurup, two things define CLA’s growth. “The first one is to stay relevant and exciting for its existing businesses every single day. The second one is the agency’s ability to get new businesses. This helps the agency to stay sharp and agile, and awake,” he said.

The agency, which has brought several brands back to public memory through its path-breaking creative work, is now also being called the ‘Brand-Refresh’ agency.

Talking about this industry tag, Kurup said, “Considering the number of brands the agency helped to connect back with their chosen audience, old and new, we now realise that we inherently know what a particular brand requires at a particular point in its lifecycle.”

The recent brand-refresh done by CLA is of Pizza Hut. The agency focused on highlighting a price point and its variety of pizza offerings to hit its competition and fetch customers for the brand.

By breaking the stereotype in the consumer's mind about costly offerings by the brand, the campaign showed that everyone can afford to have pizzas at Pizza Hut.

‘Pizza Hut Javenge 99 Mein Khaavenge’ with Bhuvan Bam was a very surprising take that was designed to keep both the price point and the brand top of mind.

The agency is also documenting its thinkings for the benefit of new talent coming into its fold.

“At CLA, the focus is and has always been on creativity and people, it will always be about better talent and better ideas,” Kurup said.

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