Vasanth Seshadri- The Sunny Side- Singapore

08/31/22 • 56 min

Vasanth is a polymath- he's a creative director, but he's also an author, he has an engineering background is a graduate of computer engineering and started his career as a digital consultant.
Somehow he saw the light, transitioned to copywriting, and has held numerous jobs with JWT, Wunderman, Edelman, and Sapient-Razorfish. Vasanth also spent time in the halls of one of the most respected creative departments on the planet- BBDO NY. He worked on the likes of P&G (Gillette), J&J (Splenda, Lactaid), GE, Mars, and Emirates Airlines.
For the past four years, he's been running his shop, The Sunny Side, which aims to disrupt large agencies and make the combination of quality, speed, and price work.
It seems to be paying dividends as the agency has picked up business from Sephora, Castrol, Novartis, and P&G.
In our conversation, we talk about his background, career, his work at BBDO, the similarities and differences between Asian markets, and bringing speed and skill to some of the biggest clients in the world.

Previous Episode

Neel Williams- Group Creative Director- The Martin Agency

A few weeks back I was fortunate to chat with Neel Williams - Group Creative Director at the Martin Agency.
Neel runs all things creative on the massive GEICO account.
I couldn't beat the brilliant intro Neel has on his website, so I decided it was simplest to just cut and paste it.
"I am a copywriter by trade, Group Creative Director by title and gumbo-lover by birth. I graduated from Yale University, majoring in Art History. After attending The Creative Circus and working in Atlanta & New York, my wife and I moved to Richmond, Virginia.

Since then I’ve made a lot of fun stuff at The Martin Agency, helped write two nationally published books, invented a high-five machine, grown two mediocre moustaches, fathered two outstanding children, founded a modern fairytale podcast, and sang lyrics about Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Boyz II Men."
In the episode- we discuss Neel's early motivations to be a strategist, how he shifted into the creative domain, the importance of inspiration, improvisation with boundaries, the importance and role of strategy on the GEICO account, and the challenge of finding new ideas when you've already done most of the ones that are available.

Next Episode

Kin- An Agency with Purpose- Sophie Ozoux

The Inspiring Futures podcast has been on hiatus for the past few months. In that period, a few recordings made last year never made it out into the public airwaves, which is an absolute disgrace. One such recording was an interview I did with Sophie Ozouz, the co-founder of Kin.
Kin is a purpose-focused agency with offices in NY and Los Angeles. Sophie founded the agency with a former colleague Kwame Taylor Hayford.
In the interview, I discuss Sophie's background as a strategist, her experiences working at Sid Lee, their motivations for starting her own shop, their work at Kin, and some general discussion on brands and purpose.
Kin was named Ad Age's Purpose Agency of the Year in 2022