Superheroes Amsterdam’s motto is ‘saving the world from boring advertising’ and Creative Director Anirudh Shiva appears to have taken that personally. Born in India and shaped by formative years across the Middle East and New Zealand, Shiva has built a career powered by curiosity, discomfort (the good kind), and a slightly allergic reaction to predictable adland thinking. 

In this exclusive Getting to Know interview, he talks craft, fresh perspective and the not-so-glamorous reality of finishing his timesheets, while arguing that in a moment when brands are tempted to choose safe over surprise, the real winners will be the outliers willing to go deeper, get weirder, and commit to original work with an actual point of view. Also: he has strong feelings about the word “authentic” and he’s not wrong.

Tell us a bit about your role! Is there a “typical” day?

As Creative Director at SuperHeroes Amsterdam, I oversee creative outputs with a focus on craft and fresh thinking. The agency’s motto is ‘saving the world from boring advertising’ and I can assure you there’s never a dull moment.  

Apart from navigating through the latest tech, guiding the team towards over-ambitious ideas and leading clients across a rapidly changing media landscape I’m also responsible for finishing my own timesheets (wince).

What excites me most about my role is the chance to build a department that’s high on energy, optimism and self-expression at a time when everything else looks so bleak. I’d like to believe my role here is part creative, part cheerleader, part advisor and part oracle. 

What is your personal background and what role did it play in your career?

I’m originally from India, but as a kid I was lucky to experience some formative years in the Middle East and New Zealand.

This led to the dream of living on all seven continents. There was greater meaning to be found in exploring unknown cultures than being grounded in a familiar one. As the OG influencer Socrates said, ‘The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.’

But all philosophy aside I think it’s important to be in a state of discomfort often. Keep trying new things, keep getting your hands dirty, keep laughing in the face of failure. And if things don’t work out, just blame it on the wi-fi.

What is your biggest career-related win? What is your biggest loss?

There are so many campaigns I’m proud of over the years. But my biggest career-related win was landing my dream creative job in Amsterdam. A weak passport, long distance applications and work visas are the kryptonite of ambition. It was an agonising wait, but the eventual move from Dubai completely changed my life.   

As for the biggest loss, I’d have to say all the ideas that never got made for various reasons. There are some I still think about, most often the one with a puppet ninja turkey.

Which individuals and/or agencies do you gain inspiration from? Do you have any heroes in the industry?

Truthfully, I’m a bit bored of typical advertising ideas these days. They feel too predictable or self-serving. As a result, I love diving into other creative industries for inspiration. I was recently introduced to works by Suzanne Treister and blown away by how ahead of her time she was. In ‘93 she painted imaginary software packages on floppy disks that already recognized themes like the cloud and AI hallucinations.

On the music front, Rosalia’s latest album throws marketing questions like ‘How will we localise this?’ or ‘Will this resonate with a broader audience?’ out the window. Meanwhile the book ‘Following Fish’ by Samanth Subramanium is such a delightful exploration into less known sub-cultures of fishing in India - it’s writing done right.

All these expressions of creativity are fundamentally fresh, brave and emotionally resonating - words the industry loves to tout without the substance to usually back it.

But gun to the head if I had to speak of inspiration from the industry, I’ll always say agencies from Australia and New Zealand. Their self-deprecating humour and general lack of concern for what the rest of the world thinks of them always result in total gems. They make me go ‘I wish I had done that’ way more than I’d like to.

If you weren’t in your current industry, what would you be doing?

Call it the Ron Swanson in me, but I’ve always fantasized about being a forest ranger. My obsession towards nature and the outdoors is unmatched, so snagging a job like this would be out of this world.

Of course I’m completely ignoring the paperwork, forest fires or public littering aspects of it, but gosh that would be a surreal gig... if the scope were entirely up to me.

What industry trends do you foresee taking hold in the coming months? 

There’s an obvious identity crisis and structural changes the industry is facing at the moment. As a result, the majority of brands will buckle down and opt for safe over surprise. I think we will continue to see a lot of surface-level creativity that doesn’t have a strong POV for fear of being cancelled.

However, this will leave room for a few outliers to take the opposite direction (fully experimental, test and learn). The brands committing to original bits that dig deeper or go down a rabbit hole will be the real winners. Also, there will be a flood of work that claims to successfully ‘hack’ the World Cup without being an official sponsor, which the audience will truthfully have no clue about.   

What are your top tips for aspiring creative professionals?

Here are 3.5 tips I hope will help:

1) It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the speed of change these days. But if you try stuff once, you’re already a step ahead of almost everyone else.

2) Build your stamina for new ideas. Creative careers are an ultramarathon, not a sprint. 

3) Have a strong point of view even if it’s alienating to others. Makes you more interesting.

3.5) Stop using the word authentic. Here are some alternatives - veritable, the cheese, certified crack, Adam Sandler.