Creating culturally relevant content and getting your voice heard | Perspectives with Ravi Amaratunga (Soursop)
Perspectives with Ravi Amaratunga Hitchcock
Content expert & Co-Founder of Soursop (ex-Vice Media, Dazed, Channel 4)
As an award-winning Creative Director and Executive Producer with international experience across television, filmmaking, advertising and editorial, Ravi Amaratunga Hitchcock has a unique gift for diving into culture and coming out with pearls. His personal and professional story is that of purpose, fuelled by profound ambitions to create artistic work that matters.
“Hustling was trying to start the conversation by any means necessary. And that meant annoying some people.”
A history graduate of Cambridge University, with experience working at Channel 4, VICE and Dazed, Ravi moved to Amsterdam to become the Creator and Head of Pi Studios. After working on a vast array of projects he decided to embark on a new creative journey, launching his own next-gen creative agency Soursop, with his wife and business partner Lucy Hitchock.
Since its founding in 2019, Soursop has been connecting brands such as Nike, Gucci, Maserati and Samsung to premium Gen Z and Millennial audiences, changing the media landscape through all forms of creative content. One of the company’s stand-out projects, the documentary film Kids of The Bims, shines a spotlight on the lives of young people living in Amsterdam’s De Bijlmer and is a significant contribution to Ravi’s legacy of commitment to issues of diversity, identity and representation.
“‘If you’re serious about this diversity and inclusion thing that is trending at the moment - what impact can you make within your team, within your environment and within the stories and projects that you work on?”
Through our conversation we learn about how Ravi’s passion for history and storytelling, as well as his own international background, inform his perception of global cultural movements. We also discuss how brands can navigate activism and position themselves to realise and enact the changes that are necessary to keep them relevant, while also remaining authentic.
“We’re all responsible for this, but it’s the little steps that we all make that can make a huge difference in individual people’s lives.”
Ravi’s inimitable drive and role as a cultural catalyst drew us to uncover his full story.