Terence D’Souza (born 24th Nov, 1985) is an advertising professional, creative director, filmmaker, writer, musician, and brand strategist from Mumbai, India. As the grandson of a poet, novelist and playwright from Karnataka and with parents who were into weddings and events, Terence learnt the workings of the stage and showbiz at a very early age.

Terence studied at St. Mary’s, Mumbai and went on to pursue his degree at Narsee Monjee College. He pursued Chartered Accountancy as a degree and worked with one of India’s most reputed Internal Audit firms, Mahajan & Aibara as a Jr. Analyst. During his years in finance, he was part of major audits for leading brands such as Raymond’s, JK Ansell, Parle Agro, Voltas, and Forbes Gokak. Spending years on-site at factories and plants across India, Terence understood the true workings of an organization – a trait that helped him in his campaigns down the line.

While studying for his early years in CA, Terence worked as a Copywriter for Purple Image Studios and L&K Associate Brand Harvest. He realised his true calling was in advertising and switched over in 2012 from Auditing to Copywriting, by joining hotstuff.

While at hotstuff, Terence channelled his finance acumen into transforming communication for most BFSI brands. He was instrumental in introducing off-beat jingles and genres of communicating Financial Information through his campaigns. He specialized in Investor Education Drives, working very closely with the Mutual Fund Industry. His campaigns have garnered immense traction on social media and have received acclaim from B2B partners and channels. Terence has worked closely with more than 50+ brands with hotstuff including ICICI Prudential MF, Edelweiss MF, Kotak Life Insurance, SBI Life Insurance, Axis, SUD Life, HDFC Ergo, HDFC Life, IIFL Group and UTI Mutual Fund to name a few.

Being analytic, through his academic history and musical, personally – Terence blends both his talents in his campaigns. He is the singer and songwriter for his band ‘Kehkasha’ from Mumbai and composes the OST and Jingles for most of his campaigns himself.

His landmark campaigns to date remain #AdviceZarooriHai for Edelweiss AMC, SipHop for ICICI Prudential MF and #BimaHaiZaroori for SUD Life Insurance where Terence worked with Ad Guru Prahlad Kakar in recreating 70s Bollywood over a massive storyline for Insurance Awareness.

Currently, Terence is the CCO & Associate Partner at hotstuff medialabs and directly manages the Advertising, Digital, Films and Strategic Alliances Divisions of the Company. Beyond hotstuff, Terence is about to launch his own blog, working on setting up his brand of apparel and is recording the second album with his Indie-Psychedelic band Kehkasha who released their EP titled ‘Shunya’ in 2019.