Making a Virtue Out of VICE: Building Brands Through Entertainment feat. Gautham Narayanan (Managing Director, Europe, Virtue)

Gautham Narayanan runs Virtue, VICE Brand Group's creative agency, across Europe[cite: 1]. Before that, 13 years at AMV BBDO London on brands like Guinness and BT, doubling profits at BBDO South Africa, and a run as Managing Director at Wieden+Kennedy Delhi[cite: 1]. In this episode, Gautham talks about what network agencies still do better than anyone else[cite: 1], why he pushes back on the term "anti agency"[cite: 1], and the WhatsApp message from a client that unlocked Guinness's Made of Black campaign[cite: 1]. He also unpacks how VICE convinces brand-safety-nervous Fortune 500 clients to work with it[cite: 1], why brands are now competing with MrBeast and Netflix for attention[cite: 1], and the one thing he'd bet on for advertising's next five years that has nothing to do with AI[cite: 1]. As Gautham puts it, culture isn't something you tap into. It's something you earn your way into[cite: 1]. The Indian AdGeek streams on all podcast apps[cite: 1]. The Indian AdGeek, Episode 32[cite: 1] Host: Vishal Mehra on X