In a world where 30-second spots battle for shrinking attention spans, Viswaprasad Raju offers a quiet counterpoint: the pause between takes, the hush before a voiceover, the landscape outside the lens. His new book, Places Via Notes, isn’t just a travel memoir—it’s a rare reflection on how advertising creatives see the world, not just through storyboards but through soulboards.
As an award-winning adman and co-founder of Doo Creative, Raju’s decades in the industry have been spent crafting narratives for brands. But between the lines of his scripts and the corners of film sets, he’s been sketching a different story—one that unfolds across 21 evocative locations, from the cinematic ruins of Hampi to the crowded yet poetic chaos of Mumbai studios.
Each place in Places Via Notes holds more than just visual appeal—it holds a lesson in storytelling, branding, and the human psyche. A film set in Phuket might trigger a sun-drenched beverage campaign. A temple street in Bangkok could whisper the idea for a heritage fashion line. What Raju offers is insight into how creatives soak in the world—not just to sell, but to feel, to interpret, and to connect.
The Geography of Creativity
In advertising, geography is often relegated to a backdrop: the Swiss Alps for a car ad, the New York skyline for a finance brand. But Raju invites us to reimagine places not as props, but as protagonists. His detours—weekend escapes to National Parks or beaches in Coastal Andhra—become idea incubators. A casual chat with a tea-seller in Kerala or a missed flight in Galle turns into a character arc that may later evolve into a campaign narrative or brand film.
And in that sense, Places Via Notes serves as a masterclass in creative receptivity. It’s about recognizing that inspiration doesn’t always come from brainstorms—it often arrives unannounced in the form of a sunset over an empty jetty or a poem exchanged between strangers.
One standout chapter features a lone photographer in Antarvedi using an Epson printer to make a living—free from brand cues, yet deeply branded in spirit. It’s a subtle nod to how products integrate into life stories. For advertising professionals, this is gold: the reminder that the most powerful campaigns are those where the product becomes invisible and the human experience takes center stage.
In Raju’s narrative, every place is a brand. Galle isn’t just a coastal town—it’s a meditation on belonging. Mumbai studios aren’t just workspaces—they’re cradles of creative tension. And by writing about these places with an artist’s intimacy and a copywriter’s brevity, Raju reclaims the emotional grammar of advertising.
Advertising as Travel, Travel as Insight
There’s a poetic symmetry between Raju’s journey and the evolution of modern advertising. Just as the industry moves toward more authentic, story-driven campaigns, Raju’s book champions slow observation in a fast world. His sketches—often literal pen-on-paper visuals—mirror what creatives strive to do every day: freeze a moment, capture an emotion, tell a story that sticks.
In an era where generative AI can create visuals in seconds, Raju’s work reminds us of the irreplaceable value of human perspective. Of seeing, not just looking. Of feeling, not just targeting.
Places Via Notes isn’t just for travel lovers—it’s a must-read for advertisers, marketers, and content creators hungry for meaning in their medium. It’s a guidebook to empathy-driven storytelling, where location is insight, and every encounter is potential copy.
Viswaprasad Raju shows us that the best creatives are those who travel—not just across borders, but across moments. And in doing so, he redraws the map of modern advertising—one sketch, one story, one place at a time.
– Mehnaz Ali
