Paddy is not new to founding an agency. He co-founded Taproot back in 2009 with Agnello Dias, which was later sold to the Dentsu Group. Into Creative is his brainchild to fill the current vacuum in the industry. “I would have easily retired on an island, but the calling from adland is loud and clear. This industry has given me everything, and it is time for me to give back,” says Paddy.
While the glory days of creativity seem to be in the past, the Into Creative team intends to produce big, brave, and fearless creative work, irrespective of the medium or platform.
Yogesh Rijhwani will lead creative, Tania Dey will head strategy and digital, Namrata Gosavi will oversee design and digital, while Gargi Vegiraju will be the business lead. Paddy holds the majority stake in the company, while the others hold stakes as well.
Paddy believes that while Indian brands and platforms have grown in number, creativity hasn’t. Into Creative aims to help brands find a big directional idea—not a line that lives in communication, but a bang of an idea that can penetrate deep into the brand universe. “In a world where anything is now creatively possible, we are here to fill this vacuum,” he adds.
The team, with their deliberately conflicting perspectives and complementary strengths, has a shared history of debating approaches, strategies, and ideas. They have worked on some of the biggest brands and have powerful work to their credit, such as Jio 5G, Hero Vida EV, Hero Cycles, Jindal Steel, Jockey, and Zoya, to name a few. The six also worked together at Wieden+Kennedy India, which closed its advertising service in India in December 2024. Rijhwani, Vegiraju, Paddy, and Ghosh have previously worked together at Taproot.
Into Creative will officially launch in Mumbai on March 30, 2025, the day of Gudi Padwa or Ugadi festival, which is celebrated as a new beginning in most parts of India. They have been in discussions to finalise agreements with a few clients.
Ghosh believes that Into Creative will take an experimental approach. “Experiments often fail, but every now and then, they give birth to a gloriously unexpected, triumphant discovery. We’re here for that,” she signs off.
