Consultant - Creative Lead in Hyderabad, भारत

Engagement Type : Consulting 
Time Commitment : Fixed hours per day, as mutually agreed 

Role Overview

As the Consultant – Creative Lead, South, your primary responsibility will be to serve as the cultural and creative quality benchmark for South India-focused campaigns. You will bring a deep understanding of regional cultures, audience behaviour, internet culture and market nuances to ensure that every creative idea and recommendation is culturally authentic, strategically relevant and aligned with the brand’s objectives.

Working closely with the Planning team and Creative Director, you will provide cultural validation, strategic inputs and creative direction at key stages of campaign development. The role is advisory in nature, with the internal Creative team owning the execution, design and packaging of creative deliverables.

Scope of Work

1. Cultural Validation & Creative Direction
- Validate campaign ideas, cultural insights and creative territories for authenticity and relevance across South Indian markets.
- Assess whether creative recommendations are likely to resonate with the intended audience and deliver against the brand’s objectives.
- Act as a cultural quality checkpoint before ideas move into client presentations and execution.
- Identify cultural inaccuracies, assumptions or potential sensitivities early in the process to minimise creative risk.
- Ensure recommendations are grounded in genuine cultural understanding rather than surface-level observations or stereotypes.

2. Strategic Collaboration
- Participate in discussions for key campaign briefs across Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada markets.
- Collaborate with the Planning team and Creative Director during the ideation stage to strengthen the strategic and cultural relevance of campaign ideas.
- Provide inputs on regional audience behaviour, emerging trends, local references, popular culture and market-specific nuances.
- Help translate cultural observations into meaningful insights and opportunities for brands.

3. Creative Advisory
- Recommend suitable writers, production partners, creators and other creative collaborators based on the brief, cultural context and campaign requirements.
- Evaluate creator relevance and cultural fit for specific markets and audiences.
- Provide guidance on the appropriate creative approach, storytelling style, references and cultural expressions for a campaign.

4. Creative Development
- Contribute original cultural insights, campaign ideas and creative recommendations wherever required.
- Develop concept notes, cultural references and supporting material to strengthen campaign thinking and client presentations.
- Work with the Creative Director to shape and refine the creative direction for South-focused campaigns.
- Provide feedback on concepts and presentations, while the internal Creative team retains ownership of execution, design, packaging and final deliverables.

5. Campaign Involvement

The engagement may involve strategic discussions and creative reviews across:

- Tactical and seasonal campaigns:Regionally relevant moments, festivals, occasions and cultural events.
- Platform and brand positioning initiatives:Brand narratives and long-term positioning relevant to South Indian audiences.
- Internet culture briefs:Regional digital trends, memes, creators, online communities and emerging cultural conversations.
- Integrated brand campaigns:Campaigns requiring strong regional insight, cultural nuance or market-specific creative adaptation.

Nature of Engagement & Ways of Working

- The engagement will operate on a fixed number of hours per day, agreed upon mutually, to ensure predictable availability for consulting responsibilities.
- Time will primarily be allocated to brief discussions, ideation, cultural validation, creative reviews and advisory inputs.
- Involvement will be prioritised based on campaign requirements, timelines and the need for South-market expertise.

The objective is to bring consistent South-market cultural expertise into Hotcult’s creative process, helping the team develop ideas that are locally resonant, culturally credible and strategically effective.