This Creative Pops the Hype Bubble to Make Brands Relatable

Starting an agency right before the onset of a pandemic triggered some soul-searching for Ravi Amaratunga Hitchcock. “It’s existential every day," he said. "What is an agency and what does it do? What is a client? Everything seems to be in this shifting period." Besides world events, Hitchcock’s ruminations spring from his unusual and winding path into the ad industry. Soursop, the 19-month-old business he runs with his wife, Lucy Hitchcock, bills itself as a “next-gen creative agency” and is a culmination of his experiences in TV, entertainment and branded content. After studying history at the University of Cambridge, Hitchcock dreamed of becoming a film director. But stints at film production companies revealed “the process of it was too slow,” so he applied for a diversity internship at U.K. broadcaster Channel 4. As part of the commissioning team, he helped develop programs, including the acclaimed short film series Random Acts. “Then, I hit a glass ceiling,” he said. Creative 100: Artists and Authors to Follow From there, he moved to the fast-paced world of online video, helping launch and run the video departments of Dazed Media and then Vice Media’s fashion and culture publication, i-D. It was his first time working across global markets, and the experience introduced him to brand collaborations. Those experiences set the scene for his next move. Facing Brexit and yearning for a better work-life balance, Hitchcock moved to Amsterdam and set up the entertainment division of ad agency We Are Pi. Running Pi Studios, where he created films for the likes of WeTransfer and Nike, gave him the entrepreneurial bug. Soursop was born in early 2020, with founding client Samsung, and has worked with brands including Maserati, Nike and Unicef. Hitchcock’s background in developing entertainment pushed him to rethink the boundaries of agencies, advertising and marketing: “We’re not obsessed with creating a TV ad or a poster. You can think about creating a magazine or a grassroots charity initiative. There’s no limitation to what you can think or dream up.” “A lot of people [in advertising] haven’t had experiences outside of advertising. You live in this strange bubble where brands are king,” he continued. “We are always challenging clients by saying, 'You exist in people’s lives, and they care about loads of other stuff.'” I try to take myself out of the limelight and give space to the people who deserve it. He also has different ambitions for his business that do not follow the trajectory of a traditional agency. “I don’t want to scale to become a 100-person agency. We like the fact we have a small core team and a network of people we trust,” he said. “Really, the most important part is continuing to work with brands that are helping to make some change and providing employees with an environment where they feel valued.” Big mistake One recurring misstep was “overpromising or believing I could do everything all by myself,” he said. “I wanted to claim all the credit, but when I closed off the process, there was no one who could help me.” Lesson learned “We work in a business that’s about teams. I realized it’s not about claiming credit, and now I try to take myself out of the limelight and give space to the people who deserve it.” How he got the gig An internship program introduced him to the world of broadcast TV. From there, running the video departments for two online media companies, led to setting up a new entertainment division at ad agency We Are Pi. Those varied experiences provide the inspiration and network for running his own creative agency. Pro tip “Try a lot of things out. Build a bunch of different experiences,” he said. “The cross-pollination can provide opportunities to do something new.” The Pandemic Is Just a Blip on Rebecca Allison’s Busy Radar

Leadership & Talent

This Creative Pops the Hype Bubble to Make Brands Relatable

Soursop's Ravi Amaratunga Hitchcock draws on entertainment background to shape a new kind of agency

Brittaney Kiefer

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Brittaney Kiefer