Veteran creative executive Karan Dang and UX/UI expert Shruti Dang are launching Dang, a creative consultancy that aims to guide brands to appeal to the next generation of consumers through innovative strategies and creative excellence.
Dang looks to empower brands to lead cultural conversations and drive exponential growth in digital, utilizing metaverse and AI applications, crafting viral social media strategies and instilling creative capabilities within organizations.
Dang the consultancy will leverage its expertise in youth culture, emerging platforms, and transformative experiences to help clients forge bonds with Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
“Modern creative brands must navigate at the pace of culture, anchoring their brand experience around the largest growing audience—Gen Z,” said Karan Dang in a statement. “Gen Z defies a singular mold; they are multi-dimensional. Rather than bombarding them with ads, we should strive to cultivate authentic relationships through experiences and formats that resonate with their lifestyle, found on social platforms, gaming realms, and experiential engagements.”
To reach and resonate with younger generations, Karan and Shruti have developed the user-centric process, “Next-Gen Centricity,” to unleash relevant creativity within an organization. Dang develops and optimizes brand strategy, offers innovation sprints to unlock brand’s experiential frontier, devises creative and social playbooks and develops in-house blueprints for marketers to implement.
Alternatively, Dang can build a team with its network of more than 100 Next-Gen Centricity experts spanning creative, strategy, and culture—a collective that blends diverse specialists like cutting edge creatives and Gen Z ambassadors to craft and produce campaigns.
Karan Dang has had a successful career running in-house advertising agencies at Disney and Walmart, as well as positions at notable agencies.
Shruti will serve as Dang’s COO, leveraging her experience as a project leader in UX and UI design and product development, most recently at BlackLine, a pioneering force in financial technology. Through her career, Shruti has integrated creative solutions to optimize brand experiences and interaction, connecting with younger digital natives.
“Today, brand communications live in digital formats,” said Shruti Dang in a statement. “From social, sharable video to social commerce, new formats are constantly emerging and CMOs are tasked to stay up to date to connect with younger audiences. Dang can help them assess new formats for relevance and go on to implement creative, category-leading campaigns on time, at scale.”
Shruti and Karan Dang will be supported by an advisory board of top marketing executives, including Denetrias Charlemagne, director of cultural strategy, Walmart; Sahil Saini, founder and CEO, Akos Web; Marty Muller, former svp, global creative, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products; Michelle McSorley, founder of PR consultancy, E=M² Communications; Jean Batthany, fractional CCO and a former executive at Walmart and Disney; Jay Haines, founder, Grace Blue Partnership; Stephen Larkin, svp, executive director growth and development at R/GA; and Claire Kwon, former head of product design, Blackline Inc.
“Karan has a unique skill set; he has the ability to creatively problem solve complex business strategies and distill those strategies down to compelling, breakthrough creative that grabs peoples attention and drives business results,” said Muller in a statement. “He is an exceptional culture vulture who knows what’s going, and I look forward to seeing the positive impact the Dang team will have on brands’ biggest challenges.”
Through Karan’s career, he has developed distinctive brand visions and expressed them through breakthrough creative across platforms, activations and experiential. Most recently, Karan was head of brand creative at Walmart, and his work there focused on building a young and diverse customer base.
Key programs included “Dear Dad,” a series of short films aimed at addressing the media’s flawed portrayal of Black fatherhood, through positive stories of Black dads at the center of their families.
Another campaign led by Karan, “WalmartLand” marked the global retailer’s first foray into the metaverse.
Prior to joining Walmart, Karan led Disney’s 250-person, in-house agency Yellow Shoes, where he created marketing programs for Disney Parks experiences and Consumer products.
During this year’s Super Bowl, Karan partnered with Special U.S. to lead social strategy for Uber Eats, serving as social executive creative director. Karan’s career started at traditional agencies, including 180LA, Deutsch LA and TBWA/Singapore, each role emphasizing creativity in digital spaces.