Paul Thoppil | Sr. Creative Director | 9892248198 | thoppil.paul@gmail.

com

15+ years experience in advertising, spanning mainline

and digital, bringing a proven knowledge of creative
strategy, vision, communication, and management to
iconic brands. Winner of 20 International and 3 National
awards. Competent in mentoring young talent and
nurturing a positive relationship with the client.

Skills
Creative Strategy:

Experienced senior creative leader with extensive

expertise in delivering brand-augmenting ideas for
brands and the people who matter to them. Extension
and reach of ideas achieved across all media
platforms.

Writing:

Guiding and delivering copy solutions to client based

on strategic insights and resonating a brands tone of
voice.

Principles of Art
Direction:

Effective at guiding art directors towards visually

stimulating creatives that are effective for the brand.
Hands on with initial scribbles, referencing and final
touch-up to art works.

Digital Media:

Having created holistic solutions for brands, my

digital media expertise come to the fore in developing
Social Media and Viral Campaigns for online focussed
brands.

Awards:

Winner of 20 International Awards and 3 National

awards.

Experience
Independent Brand Consultant | October 2013 - Present

After 14 years as an employee, I struck out as an independent brand

consultant. I consult for O&M and for a client named SONARI. During this
time I have worked with a spread of clients over projects. The rooster
includes names like Bajaj Allianz, Eros Now, Godrej Properties, Godrej
Interio, MTV, Titan and United Breweries.
Projects

Successfully created a 97% opening weekend for the movie

Shamitabh, produced by Eros. A blockbuster offline event was
created. Utilizing Star Sports spot time across TV Networks, the
SHAMITABH story was weaved into it.
Shamitabh was releasing a week after the opening Indo-Pak match at
the 2015 World Cup. As a televised event a tie-up was created with
Star Sports where Amitabh Bachchan would commentary for the first
time for the World Cup opener.
A series of ads created starred Amitabh Bachchan promoting the story
of Amitabh. A strong digital plan led to make it the No. 1 trending
video on Youtube during the World Cup opener.

When I took over the Sonari account, it was a lingerie brand existing
in the Indian market for over 40 years through retail hosiery shops. It
was a Rs. 2 crore business operating out of a unit in an industrial
gala.
A small research at select outlets revealed that comfort was the prime
choice for consumers choosing the product. Based on this Sonari was
positioned as a ladys Comfort Daily Wear Bra. Based on this the
brands personality and identity was defined. The brand line Happy
Inside was an expression of this new positioning. A new collection
range targeting the youth through Sonari BLUSH and Sonari AIR was
done.
A unique post-purchase digital program kept consumers engaged and
increased brand recall and delivered repeat purchase.
Today, Sonari is a Rs. 10 crore business that has ramped up
production by moving into a 3,00,000 sq. ft. factory in Bhiwandi.

Bajaj Allaianz was looking at targeting women and expanding its

customer share demographic. It was looking at a digital campaign
that would support their on-ground sales team making calls. So the
challenge was to make women more receptive to a Bajaj Allaianz sales
person.
The key idea was a piece of research that revealed the auto complete
suggestions google recommended when one typed women should.
Bajaj Allaianz already had a long running online digital property
called #jiyobefikarwomen. As a part of this initiative the
#womenshould campaign was launched.
The execution covered many digital platforms and resulted in
significant engagement from new users on twitter.
The result was an 83% success rate in sales call engagements and a
significant share of new women customers.

The Godrej Interio Upload and Transform contest was a significant

digital engagement program Godrej Interio had invested in. To make
it a success influencers region wise were targeted through a digital
hiring program.
Through consistent communication through the influencer channel, a
large number of entries were collected for the contest. The winners of
the contest were featured in videos of them within the showcased
Godrej Interio transformed homes
This raised mindshare by 43% and walkins by 28%.

Indias first Head Bang Beer Dispenser came calling at the Kingfisher
October Fest, in Bangalore.
Kingfisher was looking at a drop in the share of its youth consumers
with the entry of new foreign labels. As a strategy to hold onto its
loyal share of young consumers and regain lost share, it was looking
for an engagement idea that would connect with them.
Bangalore has a matured rock heritage and large share of the youth
are drawn towards it. Kingfisher also owned the October Fest
property that celebrated rock music. It was decided to create an idea
that would leverage this property.

The Head Bang Beer Dispenser dispensed beer to a new currency.

Fest participants had to now earn their beer, by head banging. They
could share their experience online on any of the digital channels.
This resulted in over 1,00,000 head bangs over 3 days and 3,00,000
social impressions. Kingfisher gained a small margin of their youth
consumers that they had lost post this unique communication.

Executive Creative Director | JWT | June 2008 - September 2013 (5 years 3

months)
As Executive Creative Director at JWT I headed a group of 20 creative
talents and created work that raised brand equity and sales of the following
clients Nike, ING Bank, Diesel, Lee, Basics Life, Bentley Drugs and Bombay
Realty. Category defining and fresh work is what drove the brands growth.
Projects

Diesel was launched in India with a witty campaign thought - BE

STUPID. This clarion call was planned and sequenced into an
onground and print ATL campaign that created close to 6000 walk-ins
in the launch week at Diesel Stores across Mumbai and Bangalore.
The Fake Fashion Party, held at Palladium Mall, at which the launch
took place was a crowded affair, with 700 invited celebrities and an
equal number of gate crashers.
The campaign sustained continued consumer interest and resulted in
accomplishment of sales targets for the first quarter, along with a
definitive brand identity and presence. The stores recorded 83% sell
through on preferred merchandise.

It was the launch of the new team India jersey by Nike, but a nation
was united behind a slogan that inspired each and every fan - BLEED
BLUE. As India lifted the World Cup to the roar of its fans, BLEED
BLUE was voted as one of the most influential and successful Cricket
World Cup campaigns.
Team India jerseys recorded sales everyday with a 98% sell through at
Nike stores during the duration of the World Cup.

A digital innovation engaged users. They were able to generate their

own unique handprint through Facebook connect, either by mobile or
visiting nikecricket.in. Information from the users' facebook page,
including photos, wall posts and other sharable information was used
to generate a unique handprint that would register as the user's
support for the national team. On the site, users were offered
interactive product experiences where they were able to explore the
new Nike Cricket kit in full 360 degrees, view videos of new gear and
even brush up on their knowledge of Indian cricket history.
The campaign created new followers of the Nike page with 900
thousand followers and 9 million unique handprints generated.
Created a ground breaking viral film for Nike India - Nike Parallel
Journeys. The film showcased the journey of every Indian cricket
sportsman. The music, editing and pace of the film made it a big hit
with online viewer and it garnered over a million views on Youtube.

Fueled Nike store sales with an innovative cricket challenge

tournament - Nike Galli Challenges - held across Mumbai, Bangalore,
Pune and Delhi. This contest had unique cricket challenges that
participants had to compete in to win the Galli Champion Title.
This event also had a customer engagement program towards young
sportsman in helping find the perfect shoe, according to the sport
they are engaged in. The engagement recorded 8,344 entries. The
sales directly stemming from the engagement program was pegged at
37.3% of the number of enteries.

Created innovative target practice murals for school and college

football teams for the launch of the T90 range of shoes. The challenge
of the brief was to achieve a national level launch at 1/10th the TV
budget.
The solution provided had the maximum impact on the consumers as
it increased product enquiry scores. With a premium price tag of
8,500/- the T90 range of cleats achieved a 46% sell through in its first
business quarter.

Conceived in 2012, it was voted as one of the JWT network groups

best Engagement Campaign.

Repositioned and changed the banking culture in business banking for

ING Bank. The business banking division faced a major problem, all of
Vysya Banks traditional customer base had jumped ship to other local
banks once ING and Vysya had merged into ING. The new entity had
lost a major chunk of its business banking customers and had to now
shore up.
The business banking division did not have its own brand perception
in the market, except for reflecting within ING Banks brand glow. The
slogan of Friend Make Life Easy gave a new direction and brand
perception to the business banking division. Film, print, mailers
mainly carried the message of the program in an attempt to
communicate to Vysyas previously loyal base of customers and the
new age businessmen.
The campaign helped ING get back a 32% share of the earlier
customer base. And other new customers resulted in above 8000
account openings nationally.

Bentley Drugs was a mid-placed pharmaceutical company in the

southern market. It was looking to spread north by focusing on small
towns and cities since they didnt have the stature or the resources.
Our challenge was to create brand recall and sales for their launch
product Action Cold.
The product is a me-to product and the category isnt creative, with
communication focusing on grim stories on quick relief through
scientific demonstrations. To counteract the seriousness of the
category and to register with the customers differently the path of
humour was taken. Two TVC spots were produced and the client was
advised on a plan of buying media focusing on locally popular
channels.
The barrier was broken and humour helped register the brand
message and name with a large share of customers. The brand
registered 73% growth in the north market on debut.

Brigade Group has been a successful real estate brand in Bangalore.

But, it was looking to expand its equity over the south. Chennai and
Cochin were the new territories that it had identified and was looking
to expand its market share in the south.
Brigade Group was known for the quality of its constructions across
Bangalore. A campaign that featured this strength was created to
invite customers to the brand line of The Perfect Home.
Many different interpretations to this thought line was executed
across BTL, ATL and sales touch points to reach the consumers. It
resulted in a 30% increase in sales and a 53% rise in product
enquiries.

Bombay Realty had a luxurious realty offering, but it was lost in the
noise of many other offerings by property developers in Mumbai. It
didnt have a distinct voice, nor brand identity or recall.
A definitive campaign called The Eighth Island launched Bombay
Realtys brand presence across the western region. Targeted
communication led to effective reaching out to NRIs and PIOs with the
promise of the new brand story.
The campaign registered effectively with the consumers to deliver
77% sell through on pre-development of the project.

Voted Best Employee a record 17 times as part of JWT HRs Monthly

motivational program.

Associate Creative Director | Saatchi & Saatchi | July 2006 -March 2008 (1
year 9 months)
My tenure here was quite enriching as this was the ground where I started
gaining international exposure and worked cross-culturally with teams
across continents as I worked on the internationally renowned P&G and
Renault Mahindra accounts and handled Ariel washing powder and Logan
sedan respectively.
Projects

Renault-Mahindra Logans launch in India was engineered by my team

of creative stalwarts. The series of communications designed for this
launch resulted in heavy consumer interest and enquiries.

Ariels sales had stagnated and there was a need for a new campaign
to freshen up its presence in the consumers mind. Created an ad that
resounded with the consumers and increased sales by 38%. The TVC
scored the highest in terms of brand scores across Asia. The success
of the ad prompted P&G to re-create the ad for the Eastern Europe
markets where its sales where stagnating.

The CLICKJOBS brand was trying to break into the job creation
market among a host of competitors. It faced low brand recall scores
and had a very low base of CVs and resumes compared to its
competition. With every possible position being taken by other brands,
the brand was being lost in me-too propositions.
The account was won in a multi-agency pitch involving 5 agencies. A
new niche proposition was created to give CLICKJOBS a definitive
identity in the crowded jobs creation market place. The creative
interpretation of this proposition became the character Happy Kumar,
based on whom a TVC was created.
Over the next two months CLICKJOBS tripled the average monthly
number of visitors to its website and also exponentially grew its
database of resumes. It also attracted many new companies and
brands to post job requirements on its platform.

Created a public service commercial for the Traffic Police of Mumbai

that got featured in the Best of Shots-100, 2007.

Group Head |Percept H | June 1998 - June 2006 (8 years)

My early years of grooming took place across a clutch of brands that was
focused on appealing to the masses. During this stint of mine I picked up
many truly Indian insights that are relevant even today. This was also a time
when I also picked up the threads of digital advertising as well. Some of the
accounts that I serviced were Sahara Mutual Fund, One Television, Aamby
Valley, Novartis, German Remedies and ITNation.

Projects

Created the Sach Mein Mutual campaign for Sahara Mutual Fund.
Executed the campaign across all above-the-line media. The client
registered 99.95% growth one month after the campaigns release.
The next highest competitors growth rate stood at 13.55% for the
corresponding period.

Created an intriguing campaign for the show Kohinoor, for Sahara

One that was executed across all media and it debuted with the
highest TRP.

Created the Lifes Finest Abode re-launch campaign for Aamby

Valley City that re-positioned the brand and translated into higher
sales on-ground.

Created the Asli Dumdar Shor Nahin Machatey radio campaign for
Canon 10000.

Launched Resource GIshield(Rx) nationally for Novartis.

Was a part of re-branding and re-positioning one of Indian IT channels

most read IT Business magazine; in its new avatar, named as 360
Magazine.

Successfully launched ChannelChat, a nationally popular interactive

service for the Indian IT channel. The success of this sub-brand of
ChannelTimes.com is featured as a case study by Mr. C. K. Prahalad,
one of Indias premier marketing gurus.

Provided solutions in the online space for clients like Seagate, Kobian,
Samsung and LG.

Honors and Awards

Lee Never Wasted Bag

Gold | London International Awards | 2011
Gold | Montreux Advertising Awards | 2011
Silver | Ad Fest | 2011

Silver | New York Festival | 2011

Silver | Abby | 2011
Bronze | D&AD | 2011
Finalist | Cannes | 2011
2nd | Ad Critic Top 20 | 2011

Tena Adult Diapers

Gold | New York Festival | 2006
Gold | London International Awards | 2006
Gold | Montreux Advertising Awards | 2006
Silver | Abby | 2006
Bronze | Ad Fest | 2006
Bronze | D&AD | 2006
Finalist | One Show | 2006

Nike Bleed Blue

Gold
Gold
Gold
Gold
Gold
Gold

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Effies | 2011
Spikes Asia | 2011
Cannes | 2012
D&AD | 2012
One Show | 2012
Adfest | 2012

Shots Top 100 | December 2007

The 'Voices' Film co-directed with Future East Bureau was selected by
Shots to be part of their Top 100 yearly list for the year 2007. The film was
ranked 14th from a list of thousands of films submitted globally, every
month.

Education
KC College | Post Graduate, Advertising, 1997 - 1998 | Grade: 87

Chetana College | Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.), Commerce, 1991 - 1996 |

Grade: 64
Holy Family High School | SSLC, General 1981 1991 | Grade: 58

Languages
English, Hindi, Marathi and Malayalam