Sajan Raj Kurup is the Founder and Creative Chairman of Creativeland Asia and has 280 national and international awards to his name. Ex-Mudra and -Leo Burnett, he started Creativeland Asia in 2007 and says that it is his own little country.

Which, according to you, are the most important milestones of your advertising career?
I think the important ones would be the little things that I have paid attention to, all the innovations that have happened. Milestones today are the little stimuli that are around, like you go on internet and you see Facebook and that inspires you to create something like that. My achievements don't inspire me. The awards are good; it's good to keep them on the shelf. But I look at things which are not there; that's more exciting. No point in looking at things that you already have.

There are so many things that are happening around, so many new ideas that motivate me. I believe in looking at things as they have never been looked at. Like everybody spoke about the Earth, but then someone thought about the Moon and that's how we got there. It's these little things that make my work creative.

How did Creativeland Asia start and what was the idea behind it?
I always wanted to create something which was going to be a ‘contemporary' of mine, a school of thought in which one can grow. My roots were always in brand communications. I wanted to create a platform where young people can come, learn and do interesting things, and excel. We already have made forays into creating content for television and film, brand communication and brand positioning; we have also gotten into designs and digital. Now we are getting into newer aspects of communication; so, all in all, it's a nice mixture of different aspects coming together.

Creativeland Asia is a celebration of creativity and branding. I consider it to be a country rather than a company. I want my employees to get a feeling of belongingness; you would never say ‘I belong to my company', but you would say ‘I belong to my country'. So it's like a transferred epithet, all those emotions that you feel about a country you get into this organisation.

What are the key learning lessons you imbibed while working in various companies before starting your own agency?
Every place has been a learning lesson; I have learnt more from life than universities. Every place that I have worked at, I have tried to absorb as much I could. Every country I've been to has taught me something new. Running Creativeland Asia hasn't been easy and it's the learning, the experience that I have gained in my previous employments and also the open-mindedness with which I have approached them that have helped me.

You've started an initiative: youngcreative.org. Tell us a little more about it.
Youngcreative.org is an organisation that promotes creativity among young people. We have 800 members, out of which 250 are interacting with each other on a social network, sharing work and ideas. We also now getting into an exchange programme where we are promoting talent and trying to get them from abroad to come here and influence the youth.

How long do you think it'll be before digital advertising (i.e. online, mobile phone advertising) gains a sizeable chunk of the Indian advertising market? What's your opinion on Indian brands embracing digital advertising?
India is ready; we have more handheld devices than most of the other countries. We are only as good as we think and the faster we learn to think and execute interesting ideas through this medium, the sooner we will adapt and it will gain momentum. It's currently treated as the step-child of advertising, but I am hopeful it will go somewhere. People like us need to push it a lot more.

Pretty much all brands are using digital advertising today. Be it a Hippo or an Audi, we are all using social media and embracing digital advertising. Indian brands that are not using digital advertising are going to feel like a carpet has been pulled from under them. The scenario is changing; and if they don't change along with it, it's going to be their loss. The other day, we were invited by Twitter to present a case study on Hippo. We are doing fewer, but more effective things [in digital advertising].

What is your opinion on crowdsourcing?
India has crowdsourced everything. We elect our own government; that's crowdsourcing. It's just been given a new definition. Today, people have this unique ability to be able to make opinions and have the medium to let their opinions be heard, that is what is going to take the world. Crowdsourcing is nothing but another name for democracy.

--- Interviewed by Prerna Arora