Sean Colaco leaves Saatchi India for Mudra

Sean Colaco, who was till recently the creative head of Saatchi & Saatchi India's Mumbai office, has quit the agency and is joining Mudra Communications, Mumbai, as creative director. Confirming the news of his move to Mudra, Colaco told agencyfaqs! that he put in his papers at Saatchi last week, and is set to assume responsibilities at Mudra from early August.

Colaco's departure from Saatchi India comes roughly four-and-a-half months after Ramesh Ramanathan (then national creative director of Saatchi India) and Ryan Menezes (then senior creative director at Saatchi, Bangalore) quit the agency. Even more significant is Colaco's move to Mudra - which comes some three months after Ramanathan and Menezes joined the Ambani-owned agency as chief creative officer and national creative director, respectively. It goes without saying that at Mudra, Colaco would report to Ramanathan and Menezes.

Speaking about his decision to join Mudra, Colaco says, "It's just that got a great offer from Ramesh. While the nature of my responsibility would remain more or less the same as it was at Saatchi, I would be doing things on a bigger scale. The playing field is much bigger, and so are the challenges." In the same breath, he admits that he is aware that a bigger playing field could result in "a running around in circles", but he says he will watch out for such pitfalls. "It helps that Ramesh and Ryan are there, and I'm sure they would iron things out," he says.

Colaco agrees that Ramanathan's presence at Mudra made the decision to move a lot easier. "I have worked with Ramesh for six years, on-and-off, both at Grey and Saatchi. We know each other very well, and we also know how our minds work, so the comfort levels are strong." Colaco's association with Ramanathan goes back to the time they were at Grey Worldwide, where they worked together on accounts such as Ambuja Cement and Kinetic motorcycles. And as the creative head of Saatchi, Mumbai, Colaco used to report to Ramanathan during the latter's tenure at Saatchi. "I have also worked briefly with Ryan, so there was a big incentive to work with both of them once again," Colaco adds.

Having started his career in advertising as a junior writer at Karishma Advertising in 1994, Colaco moved to Grey (then Trikaya Grey) in 1997. After putting in five-and-a-half years at Grey, he quit as associate creative director and joined Saatchi India in 2002. At Saatchi, Colaco worked on a variety of brands - "from Ariel to Zandu", as he puts it. Speaking about the agency he's just left, Colaco says, "Saatchi has some wonderful tools and systems, and their approach to the business of advertising is something that I have never seen before. It was two good years I spent there."

Incidentally, at Saatchi, Mumbai, Colaco led the creative team that won a silver Clio in 2003 for the ‘clips/clothesline' hoarding for Ariel (the same year, the ad also claimed a bronze award at the AP AdFest, as well as an Abby gold). And this year, he led the team that won a bronze Clio for a campaign for The Lions Club of Babulnath. "To be honest, my greatest joy at Saatchi was my team," he says. "I had the good fortune of working with some young and extremely talented creative people, and that was my biggest trip there. I wish my team the very best."

© 2004 agencyfaqs!