Former VML India president launches integrated communications agency

Saurabh Saksena, former president of VML India, has launched SAULV, an integrated communications agency where “imagination and AI come together to create transformative possibilities for brands and businesses”.

With SAULV, Saksena is looking to reimagine what modern marketing and strategic communications can look like in an AI-powered world. “If there’s something keeping you up at night, maybe it’s time to SAULV it,” he quipped in a recent LinkedIn post, inviting brands to reach out and explore the agency’s capabilities.

Saksena brings over three decades of experience across advertising, integrated marketing, consumer behaviour and business leadership. Before founding SAULV, he served as president of VML India, a role he exited in mid-2024 following the merger of VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson.

At SAULV, the focus is on combining strategic communication, full funnel amplification, creative and content craft, and full scale AI production to help brands move beyond storytelling and build stronger audience connections.

Reflecting on the past year and a half, Saksena says he has worked as a learner, doer and creator at once, pairing entrepreneurial rigour with a practical belief in generative AI as a driver of creative growth. He adds that the journey has made him “very comfortably adept at Gen AI” while pushing him to relearn the fundamentals of running operations.