Karthik Srinivasan

Independent · Bengaluru

Independent communications strategy consultant who dissects how Indian brands actually message, launch and apologise

Why they're worth your time

He takes a live Indian brand campaign, launch or PR misstep and works backwards to the message decision that caused it, which is the fastest way to learn positioning and narrative from real Indian examples rather than US case studies. His writing is unusually specific about what the brand should have said instead.

Background

Karthik Srinivasan has been a self-employed communications strategy consultant since leaving Ogilvy in 2018. Before that he was national lead for social at Ogilvy India, AVP of corporate communications at Flipkart, and head of digital strategy at Edelman India. He has written the blog Beast of Traal on Indian corporates and brands since 2008 and runs a LinkedIn newsletter of the same name.

Known for

Where they're public

Their own channels. Read the work first.

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