Taproot Dentsu’s Santosh Padhi: When creatives are given freedom their best work comes out

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Santosh Padhi.jpgSantosh Padhi is one of India’s most famous creative leaders, and he’s been at AdFest this week as Jury President of Outdoor and Press. Better known as ‘Paddy’, Santosh (pictured) is Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder of Taproot Dentsu in Mumbai.

What made you take that leap of starting your own agency?

I think creative guys are always restless. They’re never, ever happy regardless of if they’re doing cutting edge work or not. The same applied to me and my partner. We worked together in Leo Burnett for six or seven years, after which he decided to move on. I stayed back because things were wonderful on my side.

After which we started missing each other and there were obvious options – getting back to Leo Burnett, or the other option to come together and start something of our own. We choose this option. We started in 2009 in India. It wasn’t a good six or eight months. It made us think, ‘Have we made the right decision?’ Things were fabulous after a couple of months, and we’ve been having a fabulous nine years of creativity.

How are you guys so successful? What’s your magic ingredient?

I think when creatives are given the freedom, the best of the best comes out. That’s exactly what’s happening with us. In spite of being with Dentsu network, we are given a free hand. We are allowed to do what we feel is right. There’s no pressure of awards. I think when you take that pressure out, the result shows. I think there are great people in the industry, but I think there is unnecessary pressure of winning awards, which stops them from actually performing. I think when you ease things and remove pressure, they do their best. Luckily that’s what we keep on focusing on, and thankfully, it keeps on working for us.

How does one do work that goes beyond selling a product to become part of popular culture?

It’s your conviction; it’s your belief that makes the brand stand out in the market. It’s not rocket science. It’s a very simple formula. If you handle, four-five-eight sets of clients, which you are capable of handling, the results are always on the positive side. But if you’re given more than you can bite, things start going in the wrong direction. We stay true to the brand and what we believe.