About

Profes-
sionally
off brief.

Strategist by title, designer by obsession and occasional tech tinkerer, usually all three in the same meeting.

The short version

I'm Suraj Nedungadi, Head of Planning and Strategy at YAAP, India's largest independent digital agency network.

I've spent the last decade on both sides of the table. I joined YAAP as a fresher, and a stint in the Founder's Office showed me how the business side really works: the targets, the trade-offs and the pressure to prove results. Strategy showed me the other half, which is what it actually takes for a brand to mean something to people. Today I lead strategy across categories and stay close to new business, so I see both every day.

Somewhere along the way I fell for design through pure, aimless experimentation, and these days I'm happiest when strategy, design and tech are solving the same problem together. I've also completed my Executive MBA at ISB.

Through all of it, I kept watching brands do things the way they've always been done while believing, quietly and then not so quietly, that a lot of it should have been done differently. Off Brief is where I document that.

Things I
actually believe

The handoff is where ideas go to die

Strategy writes the deck, design makes it pretty, tech figures out the rest, and somewhere in between the idea quietly bleeds out. The best work happens when all three are in the room from day one, arguing over the same problem.

Trends are entry points, terrible destinations

Chasing what peaked three days ago is expensive noise. Invest early in a cultural space people actually want to come back to, and stay long enough to matter.

Reach is rented, relevance is owned

Big numbers make the dashboard look great and the shelves stay still. Influence moves behaviour quietly, so pick the people and platforms that shape conversations over the ones that just amplify them.

Build ecosystems, kill one-offs

Campaigns are expensive and forgettable. Recurring formats, series and rituals compound, and give people a reason to show up again.

Taste is the moat

AI can generate a hundred options before lunch. Deciding which one is right, and why, is still a human job, and it is the one worth getting good at.

Packaging matters as much as the product

A brilliant idea presented badly is a bad idea. How you show the work decides whether anyone listens to it.

Brands I've had the pleasure (and pain) of working with

Adani ✶ NPCI ✶ Tinder ✶ National Stock Exchange ✶ MRF ✶ Del Monte ✶ Parle ✶ Narayana Health ✶ Adani ✶ NPCI ✶ Tinder ✶ Adani ✶ NPCI ✶ Tinder ✶ National Stock Exchange ✶ MRF ✶ Del Monte ✶ Parle ✶ Narayana Health ✶ Adani ✶ NPCI ✶ Tinder ✶ Adani ✶ NPCI ✶ Tinder ✶ National Stock Exchange ✶ MRF ✶ Del Monte ✶ Parle ✶ Narayana Health ✶ Adani ✶ NPCI ✶ Tinder ✶ Adani ✶ NPCI ✶ Tinder ✶ National Stock Exchange ✶ MRF ✶ Del Monte ✶ Parle ✶ Narayana Health ✶ Adani ✶ NPCI ✶ Tinder ✶ Adani ✶ NPCI ✶ Tinder ✶ National Stock Exchange ✶ MRF ✶ Del Monte ✶ Parle ✶ Narayana Health ✶ Adani ✶ NPCI ✶ Tinder ✶ Adani ✶ NPCI ✶ Tinder ✶ National Stock Exchange ✶ MRF ✶ Del Monte ✶ Parle ✶ Narayana Health ✶ Adani ✶ NPCI ✶ Tinder ✶