Rajeev Ravindranathan back to Saatchi as CD

Rajeev Ravindranathan has rejoined Saatchi & Saatchi after quitting nine months ago. Earlier, he was with Saatchi & Saatchi for close to four years

It’s a sort of homecoming for Saatchi & Saatchi Bangalore’s creative director, Rajeev Ravindranathan. He had quit the agency nine months ago to join Fish Eye Creative Solutions as creative director. He now makes a comeback at the agency as creative director. Prior to joining Fish Eye Creative Solutions, Ravindranathan spent four years with Saatchi & Saatchi.

Ramesh Ramanathan, national creative director, Saatchi & Saatchi, says, “Rajeev always has been a Saatchi guy. It’s like he stepped out for a while and has now returned. There are times when people have to leave for some reason. Despite the fact that he left at a time when the agency was in turmoil, there is joy to have him back.”

Ravindranathan quips, “While I was away from Saatchi, I missed the big agency action, though the stint at Fish Eye Creative Solutions was equally endearing and a learning experience. In these nine months, a new Saatchi & Saatchi has emerged. It is now a completely different agency from what it was then. The entire team is young and it is just a matter of time before we churn out interesting and great work from Saatchi’s Bangalore office.”

Ravindranathan, who started out in 2000, has so far had an accelerated growth. Quite often, he has found himself in a situation when he had to lead from the front when all others at the agency had left. A BBM graduate from Christ College, Bangalore, he started his career in financial planning with the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation a decade ago. He moved to advertising in 2000 when he joined Bates Enterprise (then Enterprise Nexus) and worked closely with Robbie (Robert Anthony, founding partner and creative director, Fish Eye Solutions). He worked there for a year and a half, after which he moved on to be a part of the team that launched the agency, Fountain Head, in Chennai. He spent a year there, before working with O&M Chennai and JWT Bangalore.

Ramanathan adds, "The Bangalore team mostly comprises young people and displays an upbeat mood. The upswing has just begun for the agency. We have a slew of clients such as TVS, and Tata Tea, who have been with us for a long time. There have been a few new inclusions as well such as AOL and Zap, and soon we will have new accounts on board."