A page out of Rahul Mathew’s passion book for advertising

Rahul Mathew, Chief Creative Officer at DDB Mudra Group, entered the advertising industry by chance, moving from account management to copywriting after deciding against pursuing higher studies. He attributes his longevity in the profession to its diverse nature, where one day can involve discussions on cars, new food products, and sensitive social topics. For him, this variety and the constant opportunity to learn is what keeps the work feeling new each day.

Mathew describes his approach to creative leadership not as a playbook, but a ‘passion book,’ built on resilience and optimism. He believes in setting an exceptionally high creative bar, stating he would rather aim high and occasionally fail than settle for average results. He credits his growth in the industry to working with influential peers and mentors who helped shape his understanding of the craft.

His tenure of over a decade at DDB Mudra Group is something he connects to the freedom to build and evolve within the agency, as well as a strong partnership with CEO Aditya Kanthy. When approaching a brief, Mathew states his team focuses on the creative solution first, rather than the medium, asking what difference the work can make for the consumer. This has led to campaigns like a design-led inclusivity solution for McDonald's and work for Stayfree that addressed societal taboos.

In an interaction with Social Samosa, where he is also serving as a juror for the 30 Under 30 awards, Rahul Mathew talks about his career journey, his approach to leading creative teams, the experience of winning awards, and advice for emerging talent in the industry.

Edited Excerpts:

Can you take us back to the time when you found advertising after pursuing studies, a sports career, and a conventional business job? What was that spark in copywriting that made you stick with it for over two decades?

Advertising was something I chanced upon while trying to find some way to keep my dad from forcing me to pursue higher studies. I started off in account management and then moved on to copywriting. The interesting bit about this business is the fact that no two days are the same, and through a day you get to do diverse things around diverse topics. I can start my day talking about things like engines and cars and the positioning of Volkswagen and then have lunch with McDonald's discussing their new burger launch. I can then end my day talking about something as sensitive and emotional as a teenager's confidence and mind space when she hits puberty. In which other profession can you have such diversity in a day? And I think that's what makes this profession feel fresh each day. You know that you're learning something, or rather, you have an opportunity to learn something every day.

You mention that when someone first suggested you had a flair for copywriting, you didn't believe them. How did you go from that initial disbelief to building and leading creative teams? Was there a specific project or a mentor who was a turning point for you?

If you're honest, you never really believe that you're good at advertising. Somewhere in our heads, we're always wondering if we are good enough. For me, the person I would owe a lot to in terms of my initial transition was Neeti Palta. She's now a stand-up comedian, but she was a writer when I was in account management. She was the one who nudged me into trying my hand at writing. As a creative person, the people who you work with along the way help you a lot. And I do feel people who have built a successful career in this industry usually have one thing in common –they've worked with exceptional people who've shaped them along the way. I have been blessed with some really good teachers of the craft, and even peers who were just as influential in helping me learn the craft and be better at it. So, while Neeti nudged me in the right direction, there were lots of other people too. I had the opportunity to work with some amazing talent along the way and some amazing bosses—people like Satbir Singh, Prasoon Joshi, and Ramanuj Shastri.

You have a reputation for orchestrating creative resurgences at agencies like McCann and now DDB Mudra Group. What's the ‘Rahul Mathew playbook’? What are the first, most critical things you change or implement when you take on a challenge?

There is no playbook. There's a passion book. You have got to love what you do. And you should want to be great at it. There are two skills that are important in this business: to be resilient and to be positive. Resilient because your ideas will keep getting bombed, and you will have to keep coming back and saying, I'm going to do it once more. And the other thing is positivity, because while rejection and criticism are part of the game, maintaining a positive mindset helps you learn from every experience and come back stronger. 

I believe there are two ways to approach creative standards. You can either set the bar exceptionally high and work towards reaching it - you won't always make it, but even your misses will be pretty good because you were aiming so high to begin with. Or you can lower the bar to something you can easily reach and guarantee daily wins, which feels great but turns talent into mediocrity. I'd rather aim high and occasionally fail than settle for average. So yes, it's resilience, positivity, and a high bar, packaged with a healthy dose of passion and love for this business. That's the passion book, as I call it.

You've been with the DDB Mudra Group for over a decade now, moving from Creative Head to CCO. What is it about DDB Mudra that has made you build a long and successful run there?

I think the journey at DDB has given me multiple opportunities to keep building and evolving. That is one of the things that really kept me here. There's a lot of freedom to experiment and introduce new ideas that continuously strengthen our creative culture. Another reason that kept me here is the partnership with Aditya (Aditya Kanthy, CEO, Omnicom Advertising Group India). I think it is important to have a partner who shares your vision, someone who can be both your sounding board and your voice of reason. Aditya has played both roles without ever asking me to compromise our vision or take the easier path just because it might be more convenient.

Let's talk about awards. You've won almost everything there is to win. But can you remember the very first award you ever won for a piece of work? What was the campaign, and what did that initial recognition feel like compared to the Grands Prix and Golds you won later?

There was an award show that an A&M magazine used to organize years ago. One of the menu cards we designed for ITC won for craft. This was the first time I won an award, and I didn't even know that I was supposed to go to the award show, so I never landed up to pick up the award. My relationship with awards hasn't really changed since then. It's never been about the celebration or the trophy for me; it's about the work being recognized. Whether it's a Grand Prix or a gold, what gets me excited is knowing that the work was good enough to stand out. When I don't win, I don't take it personally. I just feel bad that the work wasn't strong enough. Every win feels like validation that we created something worthwhile. That feeling never gets old.

After so many wins, does that feeling ever get diluted, or does each major win still feel like the first time? What is it about that moment that, as you say, makes you ‘want this moment again and again’?

I've been a sportsperson for a big chunk of my growing-up years and always had a strong desire to win. That's the thing when you're in sports—no matter how many times you win, you still want to win every time you get onto the field. You never get bored of winning, and that's the way you look at it. Every time we get a brief, I want to do the best possible piece on it. The competitive spirit of can I beat whatever's been done, which was the best in this category, is high. I enjoy the journey to an award show as much as I enjoy the award show itself.

Your work often redefines what an ‘ad’ can be. For Stayfree's ‘Project Free Period,’ you took two societal taboos, periods and prostitution, to create a powerful story of empowerment. For McDonald's ‘EatQual,’ you delivered a design-led solution for inclusivity. What is your objective behind any piece of work that you approach and what do you want your work to be known for?

When we get a brief, I try not to think about the medium; I try to think about the creative solution, and that's what I urge even the teams to think of. Of course, the solution is expressed in different mediums, and sometimes the medium choice becomes the best way to reach the consumer, but it shouldn't be led by the medium. Whether you look at McDonald’s EatQual, our work with Netflix, or what we do with Flipkart, Stayfree, and others - we always start by asking: what difference are we trying to make? What do we want people to feel? That's where real solutions come from. If it does something meaningful for the consumer, your work is not bound by mediums alone.

You also have to be conscious about falling into patterns. We all do it—especially when there's pressure to be quick and agile. You start relying on what worked before, and all your solutions start to look similar. So, as long as you stay focused on using business problems to guide your solutions, your work becomes more diverse over time.

If you weren't a creative leader in advertising today, what do you think you would have eventually settled on? What alternate life or career do you think would have captured your passion?

I think it would have been something around sports, whether it's working for a sports channel or sports management. Sports has always been a huge part of my life. I don't play much anymore, but I still watch a lot of sports, and it's an integral part of my life.

Lastly, as a juror for Social Samosa’s 30 under 30, what message would you like to give to young talent of the industry? Anything that you would like to share from your experience?

Like I've said earlier, this is genuinely a great business, and you've got to embrace it. If you do, everything that feels hard about this business will teach you something special. It's quite amazing to think that what we created didn't exist a few minutes back. Some of our ideas are absolutely crazy. For instance, we put up a store for Netflix, where you could shoplift everything, and if successful, you could keep it. The other one is Hotstar, where we had superheroes with ridiculous powers doing domestic chores.

Having said that, this profession comes with heartbreaks, low points, long hours, and reworks. But any creative profession has a painful process behind it. What matters is what comes out of all that struggle—something beautiful that you made from absolutely nothing.