Kreativ Street focuses on building brands that last. Through its Slow Marketing approach, the agency prioritises meaningful connections, thoughtful storytelling, and sustainable growth over short-term trends, helping brands create lasting impact, trust, and long-term relevance.
Medianews4u.com caught up with Neeraj Sancheti, Founder & CEO of Kreativ Street, an integrated marketing and advertising agency.
The interview revolves around among other things:
· Kreativ Street’s “Slow Marketing” philosophy which help them to build an intentionality, credibility, and human oversight in an AI-driven world for their clients.
· The shift from chasing vanity metrics and short-term clicks to earning long-term trust and building proprietary brand assets that compound in value.
· Approaches that delivers sustainable results by prioritising a brand’s foundation over quick spikes.
Q. The agency business is seeing consolidation. How do you see this impacting the ecosystem in 2026?
Consolidation is inevitable with margins getting squeezed and the AI-effect coming into play. We are already seeing clear signals of that. Over the last few years, we have seen Publicis’ acquisitions in data and commerce, WPP’s continued restructuring and consolidation of agencies under fewer brands, and Omnicom’s push to integrate creative, media, and technology more tightly are all signs of where the industry is headed.
In 2026, this will likely result in fewer but much larger agency networks on one end, and a strong rise of highly specialised, opinion-led independent agencies on the other. The middle layer of “everything-for-everyone” agencies will find it increasingly hard to survive.
While consolidation brings scale and efficiency, it often comes at the cost of agility, depth, and long-term thinking. That creates real opportunity for independent agencies, like us, with a clear point of view, deep expertise, and the ability to build trust. In many ways, consolidation will sharpen the ecosystem, forcing agencies to make a clear choice: compete on scale, or compete on meaning.
Q. What does consolidation imply for independent agencies like Kreativ street?
For independent agencies, consolidation is less a threat and more a filter. As large networks get bigger and more standardised, they naturally optimise for scale. That often leaves a gap for agencies like Kreativ Street that operate with clarity, speed of thought, and a strong point of view.
Consolidation forces independents to be very clear about what they stand for. You can’t be everything to everyone. At Kreativ Street, our focus on Slow Marketing, inbound-led growth, and AI-assisted yet human-led work gives us that edge. Clients who value depth, trust, and long-term impact actively seek out independents because they want partners, not vendors.
In many ways, consolidation sharpens the opportunity for agencies like ours. It rewards conviction, specialisation, and the ability to build relationships that compound over time.
Q. Is Kreativ Street’s remuneration increasingly being tied to driving business outcomes for clients?
Yes, very much so, especially in our inbound marketing mandates. For services like SEO and GEO, we actively push for commercial alignment where our remuneration is tied to business outcomes, not just activity metrics. That means leads, pipeline contribution, and quality of inbound demand, not just rankings or impressions.
We do this very deliberately because it puts real skin in the game. It creates a higher risk to reward equation for us, but it also ensures complete alignment with the client’s business goals. In fact, we’re among the few agencies in the country that are comfortable projecting inbound lead outcomes, while most agencies still stop at promises around traffic or visibility.
For us, marketing only matters when it moves the business forward. Anything else is just noise.
Q. Kreativ Street champions ‘slow marketing.’ Could you elaborate on your understanding of slow marketing principles, and how you envision these principles translating into effective strategies for our clients?
At Kreativ Street, we created Slow Marketing because brands were burning out chasing clicks, producing endless content, and still failing to build trust. The result? Shallow engagement, fatigued customers, and marketing that doesn’t last.
Slow Marketing is our answer, built on four principles. The first is optimising for intention, focusing on real customer needs instead of vanity metrics. The second is putting credibility before conversion, earning trust before asking for a sale.
The third, and most relevant in today’s era, is embracing AI with human oversight, using AI for efficiency while humans bring empathy and judgment. And the fourth is building proprietary brand IPs: content, communities, and platforms that compound in value over time.
Together, these principles solve the biggest challenge of modern marketing: trust. They shift the focus from short-term noise to long-term value. In an AI era where automation is everywhere, Slow Marketing gives brands the edge by making them intentional, credible, and sustainable.
Q. Given the often fast-paced nature of the digital landscape, how do you balance the need for strategic, long-term thinking inherent in slow marketing with the demands for timely campaign execution and measurable results?
That’s the misconception. Slow Marketing doesn’t mean being slow or being against short-term tactical campaigns. It just advocates being intentional and conscious about every marketing initiative. Think of it like being conscious about your body before deciding what to eat or how to move.
Slow Marketing balances long-term brand building with short-term execution by separating speed from haste. Campaigns still go live on time and results are measured, but through a different lens.
Every campaign is mapped to customer intent, so even fast activations ladder up to a bigger strategy. AI is used for speed and scale, but always with human judgment to ensure relevance and empathy.
In short, we execute with the urgency the market demands, but anchor it in principles that compound over time. That’s how we deliver results today while building brands that last.
Q. Describe a past project or campaign where your approach prioritised depth, quality, and sustainable engagement over rapid, short-term gains. What were the key challenges, and what was the ultimate impact?
One of the best examples of Slow Marketing in action is our work with Revfin, a B2B2C EV financing brand. Their biggest challenge wasn’t leads, it was trust. Drivers could pick financing from multiple options, and dealers needed a strong reason to recommend Revfin. In finance, credibility is the real differentiator.
Instead of chasing quick conversions, we focused on depth and education. We built credibility-first communication distributed across social and WhatsApp communities. We launched newsletters and intent-led content that didn’t just sell financing but educated customers on EV ownership. Revfin launched IPs like Jagriti Yatra, an on-ground activation to connect with dealers and understand their pain points, and #EVPoweringIndia, a podcast hosted by Revfin’s founder featuring policymakers, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders.
We also optimised for SEO and AI SEO, ensuring Revfin showed up not only for high-volume keywords but also for high-intent searches and even in AI overviews and LLM searches.
The results speak: a 2x increase in Google SERP visibility, 35% YoY growth in inbound leads, and stronger social engagement. More importantly, Revfin is now seen as a credible voice in the EV ecosystem, even launching India’s first commercial EV report in collaboration with CII.
This is what Slow Marketing does. It builds sustainable brands by prioritising trust, intent, and credibility. I strongly believe that the foundation that has been laid for Revfin will outlast campaigns and carry the brand through new products and services for years to come.
Q. Collaboration is central to a successful agency environment. How do you approach working cross-functionally with creative, analytics, and client servicing teams to ensure a cohesive and impactful slow marketing strategy?
The biggest bottleneck in implementing Slow Marketing was getting our internal team to embrace it. The advertising industry in the era of digital has been conditioned to celebrate vanity metrics that look great on PPTs but don’t move the needle.
Moment marketing campaigns are celebrated for their creativity not for the impact. So the first step was educating our own teams on what success looks like with slow marketing. We had to run old-school team workshops, one-to-one sessions with senior folks, and constant conversations to shift the mindset from chasing spikes to building compounding value.
On the operational side, we backed this philosophy with process. We built SOPs and frameworks that guide creative, analytics, and servicing teams to look at intent-first strategies, credibility-first messaging, and long-term impact metrics. This ensures collaboration isn’t just about coordination, it’s about shared belief.
Once the mindset and process aligned, cross-functional work became seamless. Creative focused on depth, analytics tracked trust signals, servicing aligned business goals with brand sustainability. That’s how Slow Marketing works, not as a siloed idea, but as a culture across the agency.
Q. How do you cultivate trust and transparency with clients, particularly when advocating for strategies that may require a longer gestation period for results?
Trust starts with honesty. We’re upfront with our prospects and clients that Slow Marketing is not about overnight spikes, it’s about building foundations that last. The easiest trap is to promise quick wins just to get buy-in, but that only breaks trust later.
Instead, we set clear expectations, show the difference between vanity metrics and meaningful ones, and back it with a roadmap of compounding returns. At times this has even cost us deals, but we’re okay with that.
When your prospects or clients know you’re not hiding behind jargon or vanity slides, and that you’re as invested in their brand’s credibility as they are, patience becomes easier.
Q. In an era of declining attention spans, what tactics would work in 2026 especially when targeting Gen Z and Gen Alpha so that the message lands?
The biggest myth about Gen Z and Gen Alpha is that they lack attention. They don’t. They simply don’t tolerate content that feels disposable or inauthentic. What they reward is relevance, consistency, and depth.
For us at Kreativ Street, 2026 is less about producing more content and more about building content IPs that audiences recognise and return to. One-off posts or singular campaigns may get fleeting attention, but they don’t build memory. Recall is built when brands show up with a clear point of view, a consistent format, and a narrative that compounds over time.
This is also why we see 2026 as the era of social TV. Platforms like YouTube are no longer just social channels; they’re becoming the new television for Gen Z and Gen Alpha. It’s where they spend time, follow creators, learn, and form opinions. Over 70% of Gen Z use YouTube as a primary platform for discovery and learning, and Gen Alpha increasingly treats it as their default content and search layer.
YouTube allows brands to move beyond interruption and into programming. Episodic formats, creator-led shows, and long-running series help brands build trust, familiarity, and cultural relevance. Shorts can drive discovery, but it’s sustained formats that build connection.
In 2026, brands won’t win by being louder or faster. They’ll win by thinking like content creators and broadcasters, and by building social-first IPs that audiences choose to spend time with.
Q. Looking ahead, what emerging trends or innovations do you believe will significantly impact the practice of slow marketing, and how would you propose Kreativ Street adapt to leverage these effectively?
Two big shifts will shape the future of Slow Marketing. First, the rise of AI-driven discovery. Search is fragmenting, people are finding brands not just on Google, but through AI overviews and answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. This means the battle won’t be for attention alone, but for credibility in how these systems surface information.
At Kreativ Street, we’re already adapting through AI SEO, optimising not just for search engines but for AI-led ecosystems so that our clients are discoverable where it matters next.
Second, the growing demand for brand trust. In a world flooded with automated content, audiences will seek brands that feel human, transparent, and intentional. That’s where Slow Marketing has its edge. We’ll double down on credibility-first communication, building proprietary IPs like podcasts, reports, and communities that outlast campaigns and create compounding value.
The future isn’t faster marketing, it’s more mindful marketing. Our role is to harness new tools without losing the human touch, ensuring brands don’t just get noticed, but get remembered.
