Siddhartha Singh, Managing Partner & Chief Operating Officer at Infectious Advertising, has over 26 years of experience across multinational networks, independent agencies, and client-side roles. An INSEAD alumnus, he blends business thinking with creative understanding. In this interview, he shares his views on building agency culture, balancing creativity with outcomes, and leading in a fast-changing advertising world.
Having worked across global networks, independent agencies, and client-side roles—how have these experiences shaped your leadership style and your approach to building agency culture today?
Each stint taught me something different. Global networks taught scale and process, indie agencies taught agility and hustle, and being on the client side taught me what truly matters: outcomes. So today, my leadership style is a bit of a cocktail—structured, yet informal; ambitious, yet grounded. I believe culture isn’t built in offsites or WhatsApp groups—it’s built in how we handle a brief, a late-night pitch, or an unsold idea. At Infectious, we call it the “no eye-roll culture.” No egos, no silos, just sleeves rolled up and a shared belief that great ideas can come from anywhere and on any business.
All said, we wish to inculcate the idea of ‘Virality’ where every piece of work is worth sharing. With the average age of the organization under 30, and exposed to different mediums of communication, bring in the right energy to keep us all young!
With your INSEAD training and entrepreneurial mindset, how do you approach building a culture of innovation within a growing independent agency like Infectious?
INSEAD sharpened my curiosity and made me comfortable with chaos, which, let’s admit, is the crux for innovation. At Infectious, innovation doesn’t mean a tech lab with beanbags. It means encouraging teams to ask “what if” more than “what’s safe.” We mix strategic discipline with creative mischief. We also deliberately hire people who challenge groupthink and have side hustles – they bring fresh energy. Processes are loose enough to allow play, but firm enough to avoid flaws. Most importantly, we treat failure as tuition, not a crime. Innovation isn’t a workshop. It’s a mindset. And it’s infectious, if you’ll pardon the pun.
What kind of capabilities, talent, and mindset does an agency need today to deliver both digital fluency and strong brand thinking—without compromising either?
The better agencies today are bilingual – fluent in both timeless human truths and fast-moving tech/ media/ platform trends. You need thinkers who understand narrative arcs and know how they play out across Meta for instance, not just TV. In our agency, we look for T-shaped people – deep in one skill but wide in curiosity. Strategists who can have a point of view on art, designers who understand business models, and creatives who think in ecosystems, not just 30-second spots. Mindset-wise, it’s about curiosity without arrogance. And yes, humility helps – especially when your idea gets beaten by a WhatsApp forward your Client’s Boss sent them.
Can you walk us through the systems and processes you’ve put in place to ensure consistent solution delivery at scale – especially within the nimble structure of an independent agency?
The trick is to build systems that don’t kill spontaneity. We run on a “thorough back-end, agile front-end” model. Planning and project management are structured with the right ‘military’ intelligence. But creative development is intentionally fluid – more jazz than orchestra. We use shared tools, live dashboards, and brutal daily stand-ups to keep things moving. Knowledge sharing is baked in – no idea lives in a silo. We have proprietary tools that makes us think as a collective and spew out ideas a dozen a dime, making curating the best idea excruciating but very interesting!
How are client expectations evolving in terms of partnerships, outcomes, and collaboration – and how do you see Infectious uniquely positioned to deliver on them?
Clients today want fewer PowerPoints, more progress. They’re looking for partners, not vendors; outcomes, not outputs. They expect agencies to understand their business like a category insider and behave like a startup co-founder. Infectious fits this ask well. We’re nimble, senior-led, and allergic to fluff. Our independence lets us act fast and speak straight. We also work well with other partners – tech, media, data – without territorial drama. Collaboration isn’t a buzzword for us; it’s how we breathe. And our size means clients never get the B-team.
There’s often a tension between creative excellence and business impact. How do you define Infectious’s core philosophy when it comes to delivering both, and how does that influence how you position the agency with clients?
We don’t see creativity and impact as opposing forces – they’re partners in crime. At Infectious, we define creative excellence as “work that works hard – it needs to tick on Virality.” An award that doesn’t move the needle is just paperweight. And a 20% sales spike from wallpaper ads isn’t a brand, it’s a fluke. So we chase the sweet spot – ideas that people remember and respond to. We position ourselves to clients as outcome-driven creatives. The kind who’ll obsess over the idea and the analytics. It’s not about being right-brained or left-brained anymore – it’s about having the full damn brain switched on.
