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Ratna Bhushan

Is creative hotter than strategy? Do hotshops work in the long run? Has global alignment killed creativity? Are celebrity endorsements really necessary? Catalyst speaks to two prominent creative minds on various advertising issues.

Prasoon Joshi

Piyush Pandey

This week, Catalyst catches up with two top-notch advertising professionals. One is Piyush Pandey, the country's most celebrated creative ad man, who's been at the forefront of Indian creative over the past decade, and the Group President and National Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather. The other is Prasoon Joshi, National Creative Director, McCann-Erickson India. Joshi moved to McCann-Erickson eight months ago to team up with friend Santosh Desai, who heads McCann-Erickson. Earlier, Joshi was with Ogilvy & Mather. Excerpts from some divergent viewpoints of the two:

On what the advertising scenario looks like

Pandey: Bad. The important thing is not to succumb to the problem.

Joshi: One can see a lot of creative resurgence in the country today. As far as McCann-Erickson is concerned, ours is a relatively new agency. We are in the process of establishing an identity for ourselves.

On the long-standing debate on whether advertising in today's times should be strategy-heavy or skewed towards creative

Pandey: Anyone who believes that strategy is more important than creative is an idiot. And you can quote me on that.

The more edgy and different the advertising is, the more it sells.

The Big Idea rules. Creativity is something that helps reduce marketing costs. People are not realising that in tough times, it is great advertising that helps and not safe advertising. In times when the industry is in a slump and budgets are low, safe advertising needs to be run several times to make an impact. That leads to increase in spends. If the advertising is edgy, it can be re-run and rotated over intervals of time without boredom setting in. The freshness of the advertising remains intact. The important thing is to execute the big idea in its most required fashion. If you do that, you will be able to run the big idea less often and for longer periods of time.

Of course, you can't delink creative from strategy. The two are not isolated from each other. But any strategy that does not lead to good work is useless. Only great strategy can lead to great work.

Creative is most remembered when done under pressure.

Joshi: The ad industry is in flux. Everyone is trying to figure out whether advertising should be strategy heavy or creative heavy.

It is very tough to create a balance between creative and strategy. I believe that agencies need a balance of both. That is what we believe in at McCann.

If agencies bank only on creative strategy, the advertising does entertain people but the entertainment value fizzles out with time. The agency is then left with the problem of re-inventing that value, and that is a tough task. On the other hand, there are examples in advertising where the strategy is very good, but it is just not localised enough, and therefore fails to click with the target audiences.

However, every agency follows its own culture, which works for it. Take the top three agencies. O&M is more skewed towards creative, Lowe has been more servicing-led, and HTA is both servicing- and strategy-led.

On global alignment

Pandey: Doesn't matter. What should rule is creativity. Remember that advertising is a mere interruption in people's lives.

Nobody ever bought a newspaper to see the ads, except when they are looking for a new job or a new wife ... (chuckles).

Joshi: Lack of creativity is sometimes a fallout of global alignment. However, that's no excuse. Agencies need to ensure that even when they are working on globally aligned clients, the approach to the advertising remains very, very, Indian and localised. Only then will it work.

On some current assignments

Pandey: The Fevicol film is a celebration of advertising. Nowhere in the world has such a thing been done before. We shot the latest film for three days, in Jaisalmer, and every face in the film is authentic.

Or take the CenterShock ad, the confectionery brand from Perfetti. I will probably work on another refreshing way of getting across the `Hila ke rakh de' theme.

For Cadbury, we have reverted to the `Kuch khaas hai' theme. The Cyrus `Khane walon ko khane ka bahana chahiye...' film was done to throw the brand's net wider. That campaign showed adults making stupid bahanas (excuses) to reach out for a chocolate bar. The campaign was done to connect with smaller metros. Now that the purpose has been achieved, we have come back to the `Kuch khaas hai' relationships campaign.

Also, in my book, you don't need celebrities to endorse your products (even though the cola companies think otherwise). You can make better use of your money. Creating hype alone does not help.

Joshi: In the new Coca-Cola thanda matlab film which features a very rustic Aamir shot against a Punjab village backdrop, we have borrowed the phrase yaaron da tashan from people's lives.

The line Aamir is made to say is a small-town Punjabi thing. We believe the film creates an image that is very deep-rooted. It is grounded in insightful, solid strategy. Long ago, I had observed that people in villages cooled fruits such as mangoes in the cold well water in scorching summers. The idea stayed in my mind. Also, we wanted to break the myth that village folk don't consume soft drinks so much.

Interestingly, the film was shot in Pollachi, - a town down South, in Tamil Nadu.

Then there's an interesting AIDS campaign we have just done along with BBC.

On creative hotshops

Pandey: What are hotshops? They don't work.

Joshi: Creative hotshops do not work. Very often, the hotshops end up creating advertising that is good looking but does not sell. So these hotshops end up fizzling out.

On awards

Pandey: Awards are important. The Indian advertising industry is at the threshold of winning international recognition. So far, there have not been any award-winning campaigns this year. Someone needs to create some heavy-duty work now. Kuch karna hai.

Joshi: The challenge for the future lies in creating advertising that wins awards and sells. That is the key.

On advertising budgets

Pandey: Size and scale of the advertising is not important. What's in the mind is important.

The big bucks are not being spent on production, they are being spent on broadcasting.

Again, one can go back to the Fevicol example. It is an expensive film, but there's no furniture, no elaborate application shown in the brand's advertising.

Joshi: Ad budgets have come down in recent times, there's no denying that. The trend of shooting ad films in exotic locales has come down. But on no account should that affect creativity in advertising.

Favourite ads that I've worked on

Pandey: So many. Kelvinator, Onida, Pfizer, Cadbury, CenterShock, Asian Paints, Sprite.

Joshi: So many. Cadbury's Dairy Milk, Asian Paints, Kelvinator, Goli ke hamjolee, to name a few.

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