Medianews4u caught up with Piyush Pandey – Chairman Global Creative & Executive Chairman India – Ogilvy at the launch of his book ‘Open House’.
What made you write ‘Open House’? Does it have a connection with Pandeymonium?
This idea was totally Anant Rangaswmi’s, he has been part of many events where I have spoken, and a lot of youngsters keep asking questions, not only there, but people who meet me at airports or other public places. That is when Anant & Kunal Jaswani started a twitter handle – ‘Ask Piyush’. Lots of questions came in; we sorted them out, put them in different buckets and answered them chapter wise and not individually. I give full credit to Anant Rangaswami for ‘Open House’.
The book has a lot to learn from. Especially for those entering the industry. You are an inspiration for creative talent. What is the message you’d like to give them through ‘Open House’?
All the answers are there in our day to day life, answers like keeping your eyes and ears open, don’t think that anyone is too small to talk to, believing that it is always a team game. How to get along with people, lead people and how to be led by people. It’s not just for people coming into the advertising industry but it is a lesson for people starting their own business. The big time start-ups for example, they need to understand the basic values, they are very good at what they do and if you get the human side of it involved the journey would be far happier and they would be able to retain people much longer. It applies to all employers be it a Chaiwala, a small hotel owner, students, marketing people and large organisations. It is not about formulas or power point presentations but my own learning’s which I think it is my duty to share with others.
The analogy between cricket and advertising is common across the book. We know of your connect with cricket. India too has a special connect with cricket. But we see IPL viewership falling. What could explain this in your view? Fatigue?
As per me what compares with IPL, nothing. Cricket has got nothing to do with what media is selling or what people are watching. Cricket has got everything to do with team work, cricket has got everything which tells you that you cannot win alone, it is all about putting a team together, how to take wins and defeats and to stand up after falling down and go out and play the next match. My cricket analogies are my lifetime cricket knowledge and experiences. It has got nothing to do with what is happening in the market place. Those cricket analogies which have been used work the same for people who play football or any other team game.
Advertising is a people’s game, if you think you are the rock star and you will do it alone, you cannot, as the whole process involves a lot of people, this analogy is most applicable to businesses which are about people. Every business one way or the other is people centric. For example if you are a manufacturer then the impact you create in the factory has an impact on your productivity.
Some of your marquee clients like Pidilite, Asian Paints, and Cadbury’s are in the book. What explains the longetivity of some of these relationships?
I think it is a two way relationship; from generation to generation people have built it. I have played my part and now the others are playing their part. God willing we will see another 50 years of these relationships.
With Pidilite, we respected each other and every relationship is built on mutual respect, we looked at making this happen together. I never sold an ad to the client, it was all about agreeing on something which in the end did something nice for both of us. As they say it takes two hands to clap.
The ‘Khuch Khas hai’ campaign for Cadbury’s; it happened under difficult circumstances, it was a very big challenge of not losing the young child bit on Cadbury’s and yet including the seniors. By themselves they were a large market and the idea was that there is a child in each one of us. There was a perception that grown-ups did not eat chocolates then and we were breaking the perception with this ad. It was a challenge and it worked. The recent ad is a fresh take in keeping with the changes in the society and it worked as well as the earlier one.
With certain brands like Titan or even Cadbury’s we have not touched the original score, we have just added a few chord here and there, used different instruments when needed.
From Dove to Brooke Bond to many others, gender equality and portraying the LGBTQ community is now mainstream. Do you think the issue can be tackled more sensitively? And two, are there too many brands riding the wave?
You can ride it but some brands own it by doing it for 30 years continuously. By branding something about gender equality is not good enough, what do you do about it. By saying something and riding the wave is not the answer, but creating a wave is; and that is what the likes of Dove have done. Red label is now doing it. The purpose is not something to be misused but the purpose has to be believed in, practiced and demonstrated.
You mentioned at Goafest this year that the brand should take responsibility and be held liable for claims made in ads and not celebrity endorsers. Can you elaborate? Have you received any feedback or criticism on this viewpoint?
My take is that the celebrity is not an idea, first there has to be an idea, then we figure out as to who will deliver the idea best. It does not start with we have a celebrity and now let’s look for an idea or maybe we don’t have an idea but we have a celebrity. That is lazy work and that is what I mentioned. Who doesn’t want a good actor, but is that actor required to enhance the idea? Or is it the actor’s job to make up for the lack of idea.
When we used Amitabh Bachchan for the Cadbury’s ad the reason was very simple, we had done a lot and he was the voice of credibility. He visited the factory, checked everything and then he said, the words I had written for him ‘Ab mein chain ki neend so paunga’. The idea to say these words, we needed to have a voice which was credible that is why Mr. Bachchan.
I have been writing about it for years, in my last book six years back there is a chapter – Do you want to be a flea in the tail of a winning race horse or you want to be the race horse?
I have never said that celebrities are useless but I have always said, do your homework, get an idea otherwise a celebrity will not be able to save your life or the brand.
We see technology all around and AI is more than a buzzword. Has the role of the human creative changed? Can it get replaced by machines?
Who creates technology? If there are no human beings to create technology how will technology help him?
The greatest example is the Sharukh Khan Diwali Campaign for Cadbury’s. It used technology but it was an idea, there were small retail business men who had suffered due to the pandemic and they had no way of advertising, how about we gave him a celebrity endorsement, who will call out his name. How do we do it? Let’s get the technology. So it was an idea which suited the brand, enhanced the brand and technology which helped us to do it. So it is always an intersection.
I have always said this if you have an idea; technology can help you, media is not an idea, technology is not an idea, big screens are not an idea but they are vehicles on which ideas can sail. Start with an idea or go home. Any technology which enables your idea to reach or to become larger and to make it possible.
