012: Sense and Sensibility: V Sunil on Experiential Design, Defining Your Ambition and Marketing the Motherland
⌛ 6 MINUTES
Starting out, there wasn’t much that ad-man V Sunil wanted out of his job — perhaps a Royal Enfield motorcycle and maybe a music system. Now known as the creative force behind iconic campaigns like ‘Incredible India’, ‘Make in India’ and IndiGo On Time, he recounts the uphill journey of his ambition — and how it grew to encompass the entire country.
Steering Off Course and Getting on Track
Despite having a knack for art growing up, Sunil knew that it wasn’t the most feasible career option at the time, vying instead to be a mechanic. This pursuit of his took him to Bangalore, where he applied for mechanical apprenticeships — none of which ever manifested. Instead, his move rerouted him to a different direction altogether: in Bangalore, V Sunil encountered a neighbour who was in the advertising industry and spent a good 3–4 months training under him. “We used to take newspaper ads or magazine ads every other day and I would do my own version of them.”
This foray into ad-design got Sunil his foot in the door, and the next two years were dotted with opportunities — a job designing Gujarati devotional cassette covers; working at a creative studio that did exhibitions and the odd campaign; a position as an artist converting scribbled ideas into complete works. Eventually, the ‘big break’ came to Sunil in the form of a job offer as art director at Contract, a leading advertising agency.
“Contract,” says Sunil, “was a great training ground.” Here, he was surrounded by smart, proficient people who had a great sense of sophistication and trained him to put things on page. His bosses believed in his potential and pushed him to aim for greater things. But growth-wise, Contract was still limiting. This compelled Sunil to ultimately switch over to Ogilvy India; then, to establish his own agency known as ‘A’ and merge it with Wieden & Kennedy; and eventually, to create Motherland with his business partner in mid- 2016.
Rebranding a Country: Incredible India and Make in India
It was at Ogilvy that Sunil did the ‘Incredible India’ campaign — a task he knew would be gargantuan. The tourism campaign was launched amidst a grim business reality: India was going through a massive recession. This, however, did not deter them — geared towards transforming the image and perception of the country altogether, the campaign had its eyes on the prize from the get-go. “There’s an India which is snake charmers galore, and there’s an India we belong to— where we all come from small towns but have global sensibilities.” And it was this India the campaign aimed to sell.
6 months from its inception, ‘Incredible India’ was launched for the world to see — and it was incredibly well-received. Sunil attributes this reception not to the actual campaign, but to the application of experiential design in various cities like New York or Berlin that allowed the world to see India through their filter.
‘Everywhere we went, we were doing more of art installations and curation than just a campaign.’ From mock Indian weddings to stylish dinners— you name it, Incredible India did it.
The monumental success of ‘Incredible India’ laid the groundwork for another massive, India-oriented project on Sunil’s future roster — the Make in India campaign, for which he was approached by ‘Incredible India’ partner Amitabh Kant. The campaign had a clear but very ambitious goal — it aspired to be the second ‘Industrial Revolution’. That was the impact it wished to leave, and not just with business moguls or IT guys. Says Sunil, “We tossed around a lot of ideas, but one thing we were absolutely sure of was we wanted to create a symbol anyone could wear on a t-shirt.”
The prevalence of experiential design in Incredible India’s approach meant that Sunil had a sound understanding of setting up experiences. Make in India had not one single ad — it had everything but. Through design interventions, art direction and the unforgettable lion logo, the campaign garnered the attention of India’s youth. Before they knew it, ‘Make in India’ had spawned into a pop culture phenomenon.
Says Sunil, ‘Our big push for social media was with Make In India, on both Instagram and Twitter.’ The Make in India campaign marked the second time that Twitter launched a custom-emoji for a brand, preceded by Coca-cola.
Sticking to the Sensibilities: Executing Projects
So how does V Sunil go about executing projects of that scale?
The first step, according to him, is to mentally set an ambition for the campaign — what you’re trying to achieve with the campaign. “You set an ambition based on your capability, your company’s capability and what your client can do.”
V Sunil outlines three things every idea needs:
Where the idea’s coming from— the culture of the city or the brand
Your business reality
What your idea stands for
“When these three things match, you’ve got a great brand campaign.”
Next is knowing all the stakeholders and partners. Your vision needs to be in alignment with the founder or stakeholder. “We own half, they own half. When there’s lack of ownership, it falls apart.”
Writing meaningless mission statements isn’t enough — you’ve got to really believe what that thing is, deep inside you. “If we’ve got a plan, we stick to it. That’s actually our real talent — very tightly controlled sensibilities.” If someone has a suggestion that adds value to their idea, they’ll definitely take it. But what Sunil and his partner don’t let anyone come and play with is the sensibility. “You’ve got to control the narrative a little bit — even if other people get upset.”
Based on all of that, you put a team together. Hiring the right director, the right stylist, the right model is important. “We bring in people we really like. Who we can hang with, who we can work with.”
In some cases the idea and end-product are the exact same. In others, the end result has evolved into something completely different altogether. But in every case — “By the time we go into the production stage, it’s all very well planned.”
So how do you define the success of a campaign? If they achieve what they set out to do in the prescribed time for it. “And you can see from the public’s reaction. When it’s successful, you know.”
On-the-go with IndiGo
Apart from government-affiliated campaigns, V Sunil is also credited with curating campaigns for big brands like Royal Enfield and IndiGo. Of the memorable IndiGo On Time campaign, Sunil recalls, “When we met with the IndiGo team, we only had a chart that talked about the experience of the passenger. Everything else happened on-the-go.”
Sunil’s team’s three alignments for the campaign were—
Setting up a distinct identity amidst the burgeoning low-cost phenomenon— “Though we are low-cost, the only thing cheap about us will be the ticket”
Observing the best airline brands in the world—Virgin America and JetBlue— “In 5 years, we either have to be at their level or better”
Demarcating duties between Sunil’s team and IndiGo— “They’d make sure everything was perfect operationally, we’d make sure everything else was fine. Every sticker, every meal— anything apart from flying, we did personally”
V Sunil’s work with IndiGo can be best described as super international, yet simultaneously very local. When the brand’s identity was teetering on ‘too North Indian’, V Sunil’s team cracked every tasteful South Indian joke in the book. They also coined witty phrases like ‘Naga-landing’ and ‘Hello 6E’. And when there wasn’t much variety in terms of entertainment on planes, Sunil’s team injected it into the food packaging and in-flight magazine. “We had the freedom to do everything. It wasn’t a typical client-agency relationship — we were friends.” And despite all the nay-sayers, IndiGo’s On Time campaign was a huge success.
The creative process behind the campaign was as feel-good as the campaign itself. “Indigo was all about India on the go — and whenever we had an idea that aligned with that, we’d say ‘That’s us!’ There was no mission statement, no brief, we just said— that feels like us. And then we went ahead and did it.”
The Big Picture — and the Smaller Frames
Through the course of his professional career, V Sunil has observed the industry’s functioning change with time. The earlier model was to have a big network to handle large businesses. But it’s different now: “You don’t need to have a big network to do big work.” He thinks that earlier those who could design couldn’t articulate their concepts well, but now that gap is being filled thanks to social media and the personal work designers put up. However, he still believes there needs to be a platform that pushes for bigger change.
Veering into slightly different territory, V Sunil and his partner have now established Motherland Joint Ventures— an initiative centred around strategic design. Far from a regular agency, Motherland dabbles in and dissects a variety of things. Says Sunil, ‘We work with different people on different projects. Motherland is all about taking one idea and going really deep.’
Having worked for so many years in the industry, Sunil has gathered more than a few pearls of advertising wisdom.
“Going into detail is important. As a creative lead, you have to keep your eye on the really big picture, and on the small details. [As for] the middle — there’s so many people to do it.”
It’s also crucial to be able to withstand the intellectual pressure — the pressure to produce good stuff that is omnipresent in the creative industry.
When it comes to campaigns, you need to have a clear plan of action. “Figure out a point of view and stick to it. Fix on certain things you will do and things you absolutely won’t.” And of course, know when to channel bad cop to get the work done.
Having no ego is of paramount importance, Sunil believes. “We don’t protect our idea. Once we’re all aligned, the execution is purely ours. But if someone says it’s not working, we don’t take it personally — we change track.” It’s also important to have people who align with your thinking and ideology, so that not just you but everyone works with no ego.
A man of ambition, Sunil stresses on how important it is to have the right aspirations. “Do you want your name in some small font in an awards book or do you want your idea sitting in Times Square and the whole world going ‘wow’?” At the end of the day, all you need is to dream the right dream and stay true to yourself:
“Be who you are. Don’t change — we just want you to be you. That’s how we add value.”
As we reach the end of the episode, we sign off with some rapid 🔥 questions. Get the popcorn and start reading!
