Curry Nation, an independent integrated advertising agency was established in 2011 by industry veterans – Priti Nair and Nagessh Pannaswami. With a mission to transform the communication strategy of brands with a twist of logic and imagination, Curry Nation says that it has played a role in shaping the journey of brands.
The founders of Curry Nation – Priti Nair and Nagessh Pannaswami are industry veterans and have gained industry rich experience through their association with reputed agencies and leading brands, before starting out on their entrepreneurial journey.
Championing the art of communication, Curry Nation is also known for i handling end-to-end marketing initiatives for commodity brands in sectors like steel, cement, plywood, lubricants, electricals, paints, FMCG, and retail. Acting as brand custodians, the agency has strived to push the envelope through ingenious approaches, helping commodity brands be truly recognised with memorable, engaging and relatable solutions, thereby breaking through the cluttered market. Hence, Curry Nation is also referred to as the “Commodity to Brand Transformation Experts”.
Curry Nation has been associated with clients such as 18 Again, PN Gadgil Jewellers, Pitaara, The Laughing Cow, EVA Deodorants, Good Home by TTK Healthcare, KisanKonnect, Masoom Education, BKT, JioStar, Viacom, Colors Marathi, Rasna, Sollatek, Mittal Steel, RL Steel, Bindwel, Mosil Lubricants and many more.
MediaNews4U.com caught up by Nagessh Pannaswami, Founder, Curry Nation and Priti Nair, Founder, Curry Nation
Q. There is a certain amount of consolidation going on in this space like Havas perhaps buying a part of Madison. Omnicom merging with IPG. How is this impacting independent agencies?
These moves indicate a race for scale and integration. But in that very rush, the deeply nuanced needs of mid-sized, owner-managed businesses often get ignored.
That’s where independent agencies like us thrive by offering time, thinking, and tailor made strategies for those businesses who are often lost in the system. Consolidation creates size; independence gives us speed, soul, and sharpness.
Q. Have larger agencies made overtures towards Curry Nation due to its skillsets? Would Curry Nation consider a JV or being acquired?
No, we haven’t received any acquisition or JV offers and frankly, we aren’t chasing them either. Our energy is focussed on our mission: helping owner-managed, trade-dependent commodity businesses break out of their pricing trap and become consumer-demanded brands. We believe in building value first for clients and ourselves.
Q. What are the advantages and disadvantages of being an independent agency?
The advantage? You own your belief system. No boardroom filters, no revenue-first compromises. We’re free to choose vision over volume, depth over decks.
The disadvantage? You don’t have the scale muscle, but we see that as creative liberation. It allows us to build deeply embedded partnerships with our clients. And that makes all the difference.
Q. Today clients expect marketing activities to drive ROI. Is that putting pressure on agencies to understand a client’s business objectives?
Pressure is good. It sharpens intent. At Curry Nation, we never view a brief in isolation – we chase business outcomes. Every idea must have a P&L impact.
We don’t sell advertising; we sell acceleration. That’s why our first conversation with any client isn’t about “how” – it’s an “IF call”: If we can move the needle, then let’s talk how.
Q. Sometimes a campaign helps take a startup to Unicorn status but the agency gets paid relatively peanuts. Is Curry Nation starting to tie its remuneration to business outcomes?
Absolutely. We’ve begun piloting performance-based models – particularly for emerging businesses and D2C brands.
The key is transparency on both sides. If we’re co-creating the growth, we should co-win the rewards. We call this “creative skin in the game.”
Q. What has been the strategy to bring the philosophy of ‘logic with imagination’ to life?
It’s embedded into our thinking frameworks like our UNLIMIT Workshop and COMMODITY TO BRAND™ model. We ask 101 strategic questions before one creative line is written.
But once the logic is nailed, imagination takes over. A tea brand becomes a lifestyle badge, a plywood becomes a pride-of-place statement – that’s logic with imagination in action.
Q. Could you offer examples where co-building, co-thinking and co-owning the business challenge has paid rich dividends?
Absolutely. Take Eva – we worked closely with the team to reposition a legacy deodorant brand for Gen-Z girls, transforming a functional category into a platform for everyday self-expression.
With KisanKonnect, we weren’t just designing campaigns – we helped frame the entire brand narrative around trust, traceability, and farmer-first sourcing, which became key differentiators in a highly commoditised fruits and vegetables market.
And for PNG Jewellers, a deeply rooted legacy brand, we co-crafted retail narratives that made their traditional heritage resonate with a younger, modern Maharashtrian audience. These are partnerships where strategy and storytelling moved in lockstep with business ambition.
Q. Was Curry Nation involved with creating campaigns to build awareness about the JV JioStar?
Yes. We were proud to be part of the brand creation journey in the early phase helping distill a narrative around access to advanced healthcare, democratising technology, and making stem cell therapy less alien to Indian audiences.
It was a rare category where scientific credibility needed emotional storytelling – a classic Curry Nation challenge.
Q. For commodity brands in sectors like steel, cement, plywood, lubricants, electricals, paints, FMCG, and retail to stand out in a cluttered environment, what is the big thing that they need to keep in mind in brand building?
One word: belief. The belief that even a so-called “boring” commodity has the right to be loved. If you keep selling through price or trade margins, you’ll never build consumer pull.
Branding starts when you stop selling features and start owning a cultural idea. That’s how Fevicol became an icon. That’s how even sugar or salt can command a premium.
Q. Is striking the balance between performance marketing and brand building tricky?
Yes – if you think of them as separate. No – if you design your brand to perform. For us, brand thinking and ROI thinking are two wings of the same bird.
Great storytelling should convert. Great metrics should build memory. If you pit them against each other, you’ve already lost.
Q. How has AI been integrated into Curry Nation?
AI is our new creative intern and strategy assistant. We use it across content iteration, competitor intelligence, buyer persona development, and predictive brand audits.
But the key is – AI amplifies human insight. It doesn’t replace it. Our job is still to find the soul of a brand. That’s not in a dataset. That’s in the founder’s heart.
Q. Curry Nation says that it does not have a hierarchy. Has that helped it retain talent better? Also does it focus on upskilling talent in an AI era?
Absolutely. We have teams, not tiers. Talent doesn’t need micromanagement – it needs meaning. When people feel they’re solving a real business problem, not just pushing pixels, they stay.
We also invest in upskilling our team across AI tools, storytelling tech, and strategic frameworks because creativity without relevance is vanity.
Q. Curry Nation moving forward is doing things like scaling impact, working to transform hundreds of commodity businesses into brands, conducting an awards function, a workshop. What would all this entail and what is going to be the big challenge?
The vision is audacious: Transform 500 owner-managed commodity businesses in the next three years. Launch the C2B Awards to honor those who’ve made that leap. Take the UNLIMIT Workshop to 100+ cities.
The biggest challenge? Mindset. Convincing founders that branding isn’t a luxury – it’s survival. But if we can spark that belief, we won’t just build brands. We’ll change the face of Indian business.
