Founder & Chief Creative
Debu
Purkaya-
stha
Creative Strategist.
Brand Firestarter.
Storyteller with Results.
A New Day  •  A New Idea
He finds what's
broken...
and fixes it.

Whether it's a Fortune 500, a startup, or a sleepy village — he delivers stories that work. Not campaigns. Systems. Behaviour change by design, with outcomes you can count.

Unstuck your brand
350+
Brands across 4 continents
30+
Years of creative strategy
95%+
Effectiveness rate
165M+
Views — Matsya Kaand, Amazon MX

Behaviour Change
by Design.

Every project is designed around one obsession: measurable behaviour change. Not just beautiful work — work that shifts attitudes, breaks habits, builds new ones, and produces outcomes you can count.

"I don't just change what people think. I change what people do."

I do not believe in campaigns. I believe in systems. Brands do not live in single moments. They live in patterns — brand strategy, visual language, content ecosystems, physical spaces, long-term narratives.

01
Diagnose
Find the real behavioural barrier, capability, opportunity, or motivation. The real problem is almost always deeper than the stated brief.
02
Design
Build the creative system that removes the barrier at scale. Internal culture first, external world second. A brand not believed internally cannot be communicated externally.
03
Measure
Track actual behaviour, not just awareness. Outcomes defined before launch, never after. 98%+ effectiveness tracked across the portfolio.
04
Target the Real Carrier
Not the obvious audience — the one who will actually carry the message. Lead India targeted doers. Road safety targeted children and women. Insight over assumption.
05
Embed in the System
Don't fight the environment — redesign it. Make the desired behaviour the default. The product becomes the primary communication channel.
Core Skills

What he brings
to every brief.

Brand Communication
Award-winning brand communicator with a track record from Times of India to ArcelorMittal. Work that lands, sticks, and converts.
Creative Strategy
Cannes Grand Prix winner. His proprietary 5-step INSIGHT model bridges strategy and execution without losing either.
Design & Visual Identity
From the Rolling Stone India cover to FOO, Jaffna Jump, AJAX Engineering, CASHe — complete brand ecologies built from the ground up.
Writing & Storytelling
Award-winning writer. Creator of Matsya Kaand (165M+ views). The only writer whose first story became the Best Thriller and Best Story of its season.
Product & Packaging
Reimagined packaging for Monsanto and Jindal Cocoa so the product itself became the behaviour-change tool. No separate campaign needed.
Digital & Tech Innovation
Built India's first touch-screen kiosk for Mercedes-Benz in 1995. Co-founded Alpha MD (National Award). Now building KEENFOX — an agentic AI marketing platform.

Every domain.
Every scale.

CASE STUDY 02
HPCL Turbojet · Public Health

Saving Lives with a Box of Condoms.

5 million truck drivers exposed to AIDS risk daily. 87% knew about AIDS. Condom usage was just 11%. The barrier wasn't awareness — it was the absence of a prompt at the point of risk. Debu redesigned the diesel promo packaging to embed condom usage instructions directly. Featured in SuperFreakonomics.

87%
Already knew. Still 11% acting.
1
Packaging redesign. Nationwide impact.
CASE STUDY 03
Nalanda Foundation / IL&FS · Road Safety

Zero Deaths Across 26 Villages.

Men don't respond to being told. Children and women do — and they are far more powerful household influencers. Debu built a full behaviour-change ecosystem: road safety games for schools, illustrated stories co-written by villages, WhatsApp films, women's empowerment workshops, and prayer ceremonies. Behaviour change embedded into daily life.

0
Deaths in program period
350%
Awareness improvement
<5 min
First responder time
CASE STUDY 04
Godrej Appliances · Consumer Engagement

Saving a Division Through Content Ecology.

The microwave division was about to be shut down. Three models weren't selling. The product was superior — the communication ecosystem was absent. A 12-year-old teaching his newly-wed neighbour. 50 recipes became 50 YouTube films. A DVD bundled in every oven box made the product the medium. 35,000+ consumers co-wrote the brand story on Facebook.

35K+
Community co-creators
Division
Saved from shutdown
CASE STUDY 05
ZICOM · Brand Ecology

Safety Redefined — Inside Out.

A rebrand without backend operational redesign is just cosmetics. ZICOM got a full Design Ecology: brand avatar and manifesto as the internal north star, UX/UI redesign of the ZIMAN app, operational flowchart overhaul, email templates, zines, and comic-book storytelling. Every layer connected.

7,000+
App downloads in month one
3
Cities with tracked growth
CASE STUDY 06
86400 Technologies · Fintech Branding

The Heartbeat for Every Financial Transaction.

86,400 seconds in a day — an implicit promise to never pause. In a world of loud fintech brands, silence became the strategic differentiator. Infinity in hot pink. Anti-hero positioning: "You might not notice us. That's okay." The ecology ran from transaction confirmation screens to CEO polo shirts to sales decks.

4
Layers of symbol meaning
Every
Touchpoint, coherent
The Framework

Building a Design
Ecology for Brands.

A Design Ecology is a living, interconnected system of brand touchpoints where every element — visual identity, communication, product, packaging, retail, digital presence, employee experience — is designed to work in harmony. Unlike a campaign, an ecology is never finished. It compounds, adapts, and grows over time.

01
Internal Before External
Every ecology starts with employee manifestos and culture docs. A brand not believed internally cannot be communicated externally.
02
The Right Audience
Not the obvious audience — the one who will actually carry the message. Insight over assumption, always.
03
Product as Medium
DVD in the oven box. Condiment chart with diesel. App as brand experience. The product becomes the primary communication channel.
04
Stories Before Specs
Technical products introduced through narrative frameworks. Story creates emotional permission for specs to land.
05
Measurability Built In
The outcome mechanism is embedded from day one, not retrofitted after launch. Results that are countable, always.

Awarded on ideas
that worked hard.

They signal that an idea worked under pressure. The Cannes Grand Prix. The Spikes Grand Prix. The Grand Effie. Not about glamour. Proof that a tough problem was cracked with thinking, not noise. Awards came as by-products of outcomes. Never the brief.

Ranked 10th among India's top creatives and 110th in Asia by Campaign Brief Asia. Most Admired Marketer, World Marketing Congress.

India's First Grand Prix at Cannes
LEAD INDIA — Times of India
Integrated Lion at Cannes
LEAD INDIA campaign
Spikes Asia Grand Prix
LEAD INDIA campaign
Multiple Grand Prix
TEACH INDIA + 2 Emvies Hong Kong
Golds at GoaFest
Asian Marketing Effectiveness and more
Cannes Finalist — Design
JWT IDEATOR Year Planner
AdFest Recognition
Smirnoff Trail packaging went global
National Award — Healthcare
Alpha MD — Innovation in Healthcare
Most Admired Marketer
World Marketing Congress
Featured in SuperFreakonomics
HPCL AIDS Behaviour Programme
Rolling Stone India Cover
First designer in India to do it
Best Thriller & Best Story
Matsya Kaand — Amazon MX Player
Client Roster

Every scale.
Every category.

ArcelorMittal
Godrej
Starbucks
McDonald's
Pepsi
Unilever
Diageo
FedEx
TCS
ITC
Ford
Wipro
Times of India
Tata Tea
Monsanto
P&G
Knorr
Horlicks
IL&FS
Motilal Oswal
Birla Sun Life
LIC
Reliance Capital
BSE
CASHe
86400
AJAX Engineering
Alpha MD
Surf Excel
Star Network
Channel V
Raintree Foundation

Want to unstuck
your brand?

Ideas that are 98%+ effective and totally measurable. He's already drawing some up for you. Whether it's a Fortune 500, a startup, or a sleepy village — he delivers stories that work.

Location
501 Hill Queen, Dr Ambedkar Road,
Khar West, Mumbai 400052, India
Studio
RUBBERSTAMP