The jester inherited earth’ (in a meta-p h o r ic a l s e n s e ) . When we wrote that line earlier this year, little did we know

we’d ventured into Nostradamus territory! The world has fallen, for now, at the feet of a band of digital-era comedians. Stand-up comedians, most of them, who’ve become national brands. They’ve come a long way from drab corpo-rate shows populated with bod-ies in suits more keen on the free Jack than japes to become online stars who exercise a seemingly irrational degree of influence on digital natives.

Naturally, marketers noticed people gravitating to these famous funnybodies and their YouTube videos about Bollywood geniuses, newsroom shenanigans and every-thing in between. And diligently the marketer followed. Today, they leverage the comedy stars’ reach, for their own brands, either through endorsements or creative collaborations because comedians have a finger on the crowd’s pulse.

Comedy is social currency and, when done well, is a surefire way to embed your brand in social conversation. So, it’s clear why consumer brands are clamour-ing for laughs, praying for one viral video, sidesplitting sketch or the crooning cat kind, that bryngeth in somer or maketh a brand. What’s not crystal, how-ever, is what’s in it for the co-median? Apart from, of course, money. Seth Herzog, a writer on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,said in an Adweek article from 2011: “To make money in comedy before this, you had to develop a

Ogilvy:

THE STARTUP FACTORY

British author George Monbiot branded Bono and Bob Geldof “the bards of the powerful” for their cosy ties with leaders like George W Bush and Tony Blair. Have some of India’s finest comedic minds become the court jesters of corporate India? By Delshad Irani and Ravi Balakrishnan

Ad-veteran Piyush Pandey’s recently released book ‘Pandeymonium’ has an afterword titled ‘Why I never started my own agency’ in which he

explains why he stuck around at Ogilvy for all the 33 years of his advertising career.

While his reasons for not leaving the agency have been well-elucidated, another interest-ing fact emerges. Under his charge, the Indian outpost has launched possibly the largest number of independent setups. (And we are talking of only those outfits that have been started by people who moved from Ogilvy and

went independent.) Agrees and adds Miles Young, worldwide chairman and CEO,

Ogilvy & Mather, “Some agencies have been described in the past as ‘universi-

ties of advertising’. In India we are the maternity-ward of advertising.” Pandey has succeeded because he has built a great

team, which has renewed itself over time, improving and adapting,

adds Young.In an era of scepticism surround-ing the ad business, what makes Ogilvy among the few that con-tinues to inspire many to stay and others to branch out on their own? According to Abhijit Avasthi, former-national cre-

ative director, O&M lets people run their projects independently which gives them the confidence and prepares them to run a busi-

ness. (Read Conscious Uncoupling on page 4) This entrepreneur-ial streak has been

backed by the belief that creative work has to translate into improving the client’s business. Says Pandey, “I have always told my people that we

are not artistes, we are commercial artistes. We have been commis-sioned by somebody to improve his

commerce.” Pandey gives a lot of the credit for

fostering the entrepreneurial streak at Ogilvy to the leadership of Ranjan Kapur. Kapur took

charge of the agency’s Indian operations as the MD

in the mid-90s, and “he helped cre-ate a culture where I and (S N) Rane

operated as a trio with him as the boss, though he never behaved like a boss.”

Continued on Page 4 >>

Hilarity, disguised as existential hysterics, ensued in the ad world

after one of the country’s most popu-lar, and controversial, comedy troupe, All India Bakchod (AIB)launched an advertising division — Vigyapanti. Its maiden video not only flooded AIB’s inbox with emails from 130 startups but also threw up some valid questions like who’s working

for whom? Is it an AIB video for TrulyMadly or a Truly-Madly video by AIB? And worried some industry folk who wonder if the videos should carry qualifiers like ‘Sponsored’. But, the news has also sounded the death knell for advertising as we know it, according to most twitterers. However, let’s put this de-

velopment’s implications for ad agencies in perspective. Because, surely, the likes of Vir Das’ Weirdass Comedy, The Viral Fever’s Qtiyapa and AIB’s Vigyapanti with a raison dêtre to “make small brands (start-ups) massive” can’t be a $600 billion global industry’s biggest threat. Un-less P&G, PepsiCo and other MNCs park their entire portfolio with this lot. Instead of fretting about a grow-ing number of established comedians entering the branded content fray, which might improve creative stand-ards which have hit Mariana Trench-lows in recent years; create compel-ling and, more importantly, effective work. In the US, agencies are suc-cessfully co-habiting advertising with comedic content creators like dumbdumb founded by Will Arnett and Jason Bateman for years. Thinkmodo, the agency known for shockvertising hits

‘Devil Baby’ and the telekinetic cof-fee shop prank, is co-founded by Saturday Night Live’s James Perce-lay. Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s Funny Or Die has deployed its army of comedians led by Zach Galifiana-kis to work with brands like Pepsi, Under Armour and the Obama ad-ministration, often in tandem with agencies. Says Snapdeal’s Idi Srini-vas Murthy, “Larger agencies have to deal with optimising for a large audience. Content creators on the other hand are born in one space or style of humour and get more popu-lar. I don’t think it means traditional agencies will go away but I think definitely there will be a lot of growth in this space of specialised audience based, genre based, con-tent makers.” Content creators, for lack of a better

term, know their fans and are the ex-perts on funny, but not necessarily on the business of marketing. As Publicis South Asia’s Bobby Pawar, the agency that created perhaps this year’s best, and funniest, commercial for Ambuja Cement featuring WWE World Champion, Khali, puts it: “The question is did my brand become fa-mous or did the content? That’s the difference between entertainers and guys who understand brands and

know how to entertain. Let’s be blunt here. The same

clients who give them all the freedom tie us up in chains.” Where’s the bolt-cutter, then?

Who Killed the Agency?

The Shill-ing Joke

Piyush Pandey-led Ogilvy has birthed not only some of the coun-

try’s finest work but also the most number

of ad startups. What’s its secret?

By Amit Bapna

NIT

IN S

ON

AW

AN

E

ANIRBAN BORA

A comedianis supposed to be anti-mainstream

or establishment. It could be political or

corporate...Varun Grover

Aisi Taisi Democracy

There is no artist in this country that makes money without brands getting involved Tanmay BhatAIB

sitcom, or you toured on the road. Now, all of a sudden . . . it’s like we found a pool of money in the middle of the desert.”

Let ’s face it , one can’t live on just giggles and pennies. Nonetheless, is this new genera-tion of comedians not afraid of chipping away at their credibil-ity or being branded a shill? The purists have always stayed away from endorsements and market-ing. Bill Hicks, the demi-god of comedy, once said, “If you do an advert then you are off the artistic register forever.” A damning in-dictment only topped by his delightful moniker for advertising and mar-keting professionals. He called them “Satan’s little helpers”.

A title that could reason-ably extend to Hick’s ilk and, quite frankly, most artistic kind, at least the successful ones. The likes of Jerry Seinfeld who said “I love advertising because I love lying” during an ad award acceptance speech. Seinfeld lies for brands like Acura all the time, a company that sponsors his web series ‘Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee’ which features a stellar line-up of America’s funniest. And Ricky Gervais, among others.

But, somehow, Seinfeld & Co. have retained the license to mock. Often by ridiculing the very act of “selling out” while shilling for a brand. “I will not bow to any spon-sor,” said Mike Myers in ‘Wayne’s World’ as he took a slice of pie from a Pizza Hut box that occu-pied as much of the frame as the Canadian’s face.

Continued on Page 4 >>

The Joker did with a candlestick in the library

One can’t

live on just

giggles and

pennies

All India Bakchod

The ‘O’ ConnectionSome men and women who broke out and launched on their own

Abhijit Avasthi & Sonali Sehgal co-founders, Sideways(Avasthi is the former-national creative director while Sehgal was senior vice-president, client servicing at Ogilvy)

V Sunil executive creative director, Wieden+Kennedy India (Former - executive creative director, Ogilvy Delhi)

Joono Simonco-founder, Brave New World(Former - executive creative director, Ogilvy Bengaluru)

Prateek Srivastava co-founder, ChapterFive Brand Solutions(Former – head, Ogilvy South & North)

Neeraj Bassi founder - CoffeeandChocolate(Former - president planning, Ogilvy Delhi)

Heeral Akhaury founder - Ullu Ke Pathe(Former - creative director, Ogilvy Mumbai)

Srikanth V S, Manmohan Anchan & Vidur Vohraco-founders, Temple which got acquired by Bates CHI in 2014(Both Srikanth and Anchan have worked at Ogilvy)

Nabendu Bhattacharyya founded Milestone Brandcom that got acquired by Dentsu Aegis Network in 2014(Former president, OgilvyAction)

Kartik Iyer & Praveen Dascofounders, Happy(Former associate creative directors at Ogilvy Bengaluru)

Vivek Kakkar founder-director, Curious(Former - senior creative director, Ogilvy Mumbai)

Kawal Shoor & Navin Talrejasoon to launch outfit(Shoor was the national planning director and Talreja, president, Mumbai and Kolkata, Ogilvy till April 2015)

THE ECONOMIC TIMES OCTOBER 21-27, 2015

Product: ETNEWMumbaiBS PubDate: 21-10-2015 Zone: BrandEquity Edition: 1 Page: BEFP User: sandeepd0203 Time: 10-16-2015 00:28 Color: CMYK

editor’schoice

Lois Jacobs, CEO, Landor smiles a tad ruefully as she recalls an answer that American millennials had to the question which brand ought to represent the USA

at the Milan World Expo. The firm was expecting an answer like McDonalds but what they got surprised them enough to relook at the research — Chick-fil-A, a fast food chain that makes no bones about being driven by the Southern Baptist outlook of its owners. Which means it is closed on Sunday and has been a vocal critic of same sex marriage. Jacobs explains, “The key reason mil-lennials break up with brands is that they are not authentic or true. With Chick-fil-A, they felt the brand was open and honest about what it stands for. It might be unpopular but they stick to it. The millennialls also like the taste of the product which is quite yummy.”

Want to build or even maintain a brand in 2015? Jacobs believes the time hon-oured template of defining a brand to a rigorous construct will only take you so far. She explains, “We are seeing a parad-wox within branding. Brands need a clear definition of what they stand for and yet need to adapt, evolve, be proac-tive and nimble to risk. How do you man-age the brand where you have to stand for something but can’t stand still?Landor’s attempting to address this

via a new model of brand building. Here’s what marketers need to be:

Adaptive: This involves embracing risk and looking for opportunity. Once employees have understood what the

brand stands for they need to be allowed leeway to be more entrepreneurial.

Resonsible: Jacobs points to the in-creasing number of examples where brands publicise the times when they are giving back to employees or to the planet at large. Gratuitous but empty gestures will be easily seen through even if the end justifies the means. Instead she recommends looking for things that

speak to the core brand purpose. A good example is Google’s Impact Challenge: a worldwide, hackathon that focuses on a single problem – making the world a bet-ter place for differently abed people, forinstance.

Multi-channel: While it’s in danger or becoming a much abused buzzword (along with omni channel), Jacobs be-lieves a brand need not necessarily be in every channel. Agile brands instead focus on intent and only then consider which channel is most appropriate. For instance, perhaps brands could look at reaching out to people if consumers are not coming to them. Jacobs cites SBI asa good Indian example: a legacy brand which is at the same time nimble enoughto have a large ATM network and which has its digital banking programme in order, acting agile and youthful.

Global: Even a local brand needs to keep an eye open for learning that’s appropri-ate to its situation. It’s never been easier than now with technology.

Openness: It’s one of the toughest as-pects of being a nimble brand. But as Jacobs points out, the days of saying ‘this is who we are, buy us!’ are over. Brands need to embrace co-creation and collaboration.

Brands that used to talk merely about logos or identity are realising theiridentities are dependent on how the brand feels, how it acts, how it sounds and how it dreams – its ultimate goals and aspirations.

ravi.balakrishnan@timesgroup.com

The days of saying ‘this is who we are, buy it!’ are over. Brands need to embrace co-creation and collaboration.

Lois Jacob CEO, Landor

If your brand is incapable of the marketing equivalent of stretches and squats, it could be in serious trouble. By Ravi Balakrishnan

bestbekaar THE TWO TECHNOLOGY BRANDS MAKE THE CUT AND GET A THUMBS UP FROM THE PANEL FOR THEIR ENGAGING STORY-TELLING WHILE A DIAMOND BRAND AND AN ONLINE MEDICAL PORTAL BRAND GET KNOCKED DOWN FOR WHAT ELSE – BEING TEDIOUS BEYOND HOPE

AFTER GIVING US THE FIZZ-LESS ‘OH YES ABHI’, PEPSI IS BACK WITH A WINNER, THIS TIME

HP (Best)Ride on the angst the corporate executives have against the funding-led startup guys and you’ve got yourself an ad that’ll reso-nate. A bunch of suits in a coffee shop are taking a dig at a scrappily dressed guy who seems like he belongs to the startup generation. They grudge the fact that while they vegetate in their cubicles, these termsheet-hogs put their laptop and tablet’s configuration in place of office address on their b-cards. Of course the guy turns out to be an investor they have to impress in their boardroom, and our panel gives a thumbs up to this ‘kahaani mein twist’ laden ad .

Forevermark (Bekaar)How would you like to watch an arbitrary melange of The Dark Knight Rises and Blood Diamond? The ad begins with an escape from prison scene that makes an ad for diamonds look more ‘Mad Max’ than ‘Mary and Max’. We could for once attempt to appreciate the monologue of a diamond while it narrates the hardships it underwent to get to its worthy owner. But our panel seems to be unfriending diamonds forever after watching the ad. The Hindi translation of the original English copy just makes it worse.

Snapdeal (Best)We live in a world where Kamaal R Khan’s limericks on Bollywood’s latest flicks get more traction than Ghalib and Gulzar’s poetry. So, bilingual shayari where chaste Urdu is coupled with rhyming words - certain and curtain - is bound to be a hit. Get Aamir Khan to recite and you’ve got a blockbuster ad urging you to click to buy all things household-y this festive season. Much like Aamir’s audience of four in the backdrop raring to go ‘wah wah’ at the drop of an ‘irshad’, the panel seems quite pleased with this tukbandhi (rhyming).

Zigy (Bekaar)We might orbit around Mars, propose to make cities fully wi-fi enabled, unban a couple of things hours after banning them, but it’s early days to accept a few things to change in our country. That should explain why an ad propagating amicable relationship between ex daughter-in-law and mother-in-law didn’t go down that well with our panel. After all, you’re catering to an audience that helped crazy TRPs for series like ‘Tu Tu Main Main’ and ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’. An idea is not always enough, Sirjee!

Youth Power

SnappingThe ‘Sher’

Dark Shining

HelloMaaji

The Best Bekaar survey is conducted by IPSOS, with ads sourced from TV Ad Indx. The survey is conducted every week across 6 cities in India covering 200 respondents

The email Jack Dorsey sent to announce Twitter LayoffsOn October 13, 2015, Twitter’s board approved a plan to restructure the company. It’s laying off 8% of its work-force, or 336 people.Here’s the letter Jack Dorsey, the com-pany’s co-founder and new permanent CEO, sent to employees this morning.

From: Jack Dorsey

To: All Employees

Date: October 13, 2015

Subject: A more focused Twitter

Team,

We are moving forward with a restructuring of our work-force so we can put our company on a stronger path to grow. Emails like this are usually riddled with corpo-rate speak so I’m going to give it to you straight.

The team has been working around the clock to produce streamlined roadmap for Twitter, Vine, and Periscope and they are shaping up to be strong. The

roadmap is focused on the experiences which will have the greatest impact. We launched the first of these experiences last week with Moments, a great begin-ning, and a bold peek into the future of how people will see what’s going on in the world.

The roadmap is also a plan to change how we work, and what we need to do that work. Product and Engineering are going to make the most significant structural changes

to reflect our plan ahead. We feel strongly that

Engineering will move much faster with a smaller and nimbler team, while remaining the big-gest percentage of our workforce. And the rest of the organization will be streamlined in parallel.

So we have made an extreme-ly tough decision: we plan to

part ways with up to 336 people from across

the company. We are doing this with the utmost respect for each and every person. Twitter will go to great lengths to take care of each individual by pro-viding generous exit packages and help finding a new job.

Let’s take this time to express our grati-tude to all of those who are leaving us. We will honor them by doing our best to serve all the people that use Twitter. We do so with a more purpose-built team, which we’ll con-tinue to build strength into over time, as we are now enabled to reinvest in our most impactful priorities.

Thank you all for your trust and understanding here.

This isn’t easy. But it is right. The world needs a strong Twitter, and this is an-other step to get there. As always, please reach out to me directly with any ideas or questions.

Jack

(Source: businessinsider.in)

We have made an extremely tough deci-sion, we plan to part ways with up to 336 people from across the company

One swallow does not a summer make but the new Pepsi ad is something of a return to form. The last few ads have been more miss than hit, especially the laboured and embarrassing attempt at creating a multi-celebrity mashup starring Anoushka Sharma, Ranbir Kapoor and Virat Kohli(without any of the celebrities present at the same place or the same frame at the same time), which received a well-deserved Editor’s Choice Bekaar. Letting the fans pitch in via crowdsourcing during the IPL was a

brave move but ad wags quipped that it was Pepsi admitting defeat — acknowledging that just about anyone could bash out a better film than the cola or its agency. The latest commercial brings with it the sweet taste of vindication. A hunger strike has been announced led by a firebrand student leader right out of central casting for a 70s art film (or the FTII in 2015 — the overlap between the two is another story for another time). Except one

of his lieutenants spies a Pepsi, resulting in a rather abrupt end to what promised to

be a long drawn out protest. Pepsi Thi, Pi Gaya admits the hapless bloke, spawning a line that’s a lot more immediate and spontaneous than the rather random Oh Yes Abhi.Most importantly, this ad brings back a sense of fun to

the category that was either MIA or being worked to death.

This ad brings back a sense of fun to the category

Pepsi (Best)

How Flexible Is Your Brand

A Creative Strike

THE ECONOMIC TIMES OCTOBER 21-27, 2015 2

Product: ETNEWMumbaiBS PubDate: 21-10-2015 Zone: BrandEquity Edition: 1 Page: BEPER1 User: sandeepd0203 Time: 10-16-2015 00:28 Color: CMYK

THE ECONOMIC TIMES OCTOBER 21-27, 2015 3

Product: ETNEWMumbaiBS PubDate: 21-10-2015 Zone: BrandEquity Edition: 1 Page: BEPER2 User: sandeepd0203 Time: 10-16-2015 00:25 Color: CMYK

“I don’t think Indian come-dians are getting into the ad business. The ad business is going to them,” says Ogilvy adman and standup come-dian, Neville Shah who is a part of the Schitzengiggles group. “For me, it’s two differ-ent careers. And two different motivations. Comedy is what lets me say the things advertising won’t let me. I can make a clear boundary between comedy and adver-tising. And I’ve been successful, so far.” Indian comedians are drawing their own lines between staying true their art, and fans, and lending their comedic chops to corporations who’ve developed a sense hu-mour, suddenly. “There is no artist in this country that makes money without brands getting involved,” says popu-lar comedy troupe All India Bakchod’s co-founder Tanmay Bhat, “brands sponsor live shows, video content, online activity - everything.”

The sweet spot lies in the quality of your comedy. “In my experience, if the content you make, even if it’s for a brand, is engaging enough -

people don’t care,” says Bhat. Atul Khatri’s approach is to

exercise common sense. He is a member of East India Comedy and has collaborated with ad agency Infectious for a series of commercials for Religare, last year. Recently he featured in an Amazon campaign. So, we ask him what if Amazon has an epic fail on a big sale day, would that be material for his next tweet? “My commitment is to my followers,” he tells us. Even

though AIB’s asso-ciation with Snapdeal ended months ago, “we still get tagged in tweets where people received soaps in-stead of phones, so this is a part and parcel of

working with brands,” says Bhat. “Smarter folks know that the people who endorse the brand aren’t necessar-ily responsible for their screw ups.” Irrespective of their as-sociations past, present or future, he says AIB doesn’t censor its material based on brand affiliations, “that’s just our style. What that means is we’ll only be working with brands who have a sense of humor, naturally.” That, it seems, is pretty much most brands across diverse cat-egories, nowadays. One of the country’s most prolific brand endorsers is the prime time

comedian Kapil Sharma, who appears in commercials for Olx, PolicyBazaar, Honda and Micromax. His show ‘Comedy Nights with Kapil’ is a must vis-it destination for a Bollywood star on a promotional tour.

There are some, however, who abide by the Hicks Rule still. Varun Grover of Aisi Taisi Democracy believes “a comedian is supposed to be anti-mainstream or anti-estab-lishment. It could be political or corporate. By doing this (ie forming ad agencies, etc), they are diluting their own brand equity or moral stand; what-ever you want to call it. I think most of them are doing it con-sciously and have made that choice. I also have made my choice.” And Grover doesn’t want in on the shill-ing joke.

delshad.irani@timesgroup.com

I have always found inspira-tion in a very old saying, which I have been sharing with as many people as possible. It has proved itself to be real and true. I believe it’s the Holy Grail that we lost in the journey of time. It goes as follows: “Life is not about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself”.

If you can spare a moment on that thought and give it some wing, you will see some truth to it. The science that encompass-es the space and time continu-um of the Universe that we live in, in reality, is centred around a seemingly singular purpose of “creation”.

And creation is nothing but a result of something or some-one that set out to create. Every-thing around us is indeed a crea-tion. From the Universe created by a perceived Divine, to the material world that mankind created around its own self.

Creation is the source of life and evolution. It al-ways was and it always will be. Creating lends its self to Creation. From creating small groups of people and tribes for safety in the harsh world thousands of years ago, to the creation of kingdoms to em-pires, creation has always marked the progress of hu-mankind, however much we complain of its imperfections. It created an opportunity of ex-pression for life and living.

The industrial revolution and history thereon further cata-pulted the human race towards progress, to the world we are in today: where I’m putting my thoughts together for this note on an iPhone 35,000 km in the sky, which I will email midair so as to reach my office 10,000 miles away. And all along, my mind keeps getting interrupted

thinking about how a company that was created less than a 1000 days ago, built itself into a valu-ation of $16 billion, and anoth-er got valued at $2 billion in un-der 18 months. That’s Didi Kuaidi and Slack. It’s creation that made all this possible. Someone chose to create. Some-one just like you and me.

And how would it feel to know that you can indeed cre-ate? It doesn’t have to be a bil-lion dollar app, but start with some things as simple as your own life. The same principle applies. With good intent come real good results.It’s in creation that the world keeps moving. It’s creation that helps mankind with growth,

progress, jobs, solutions, pos-sibilities, and better quality of living in eve-ry area of life.

Enterprise and entrepreneurs have always been and will continue to be creators. And each of us are born with the code to be one. How would it be when we create our own life and make people around us cre-ate their own? Would it help

stop the never ceasing depend-ence on an external adminis-tration or government or a new leader to hopefully solve the world’s problems? Isn’t it that much more empowering and enabling when we take owner-ship of our life: to create it rath-er than be dictated by it?

How would the world be if we all start focusing on “creat-ing” our life, rather than “finding” it?

In truth we are in the Golden age of creators. So be a magi-cian, start up. What are you waiting for? #StartCreating

The author is co-owner and chairman, L&K

Saatchi & Saatchi

START CREATINGTHERE HAS NEVER BEEN A BETTER

TIME TO START UP

My mind keeps getting interrupted

thinking about how a company

that was created less than a 1000

days ago, built itself into a valua-tion of $16 billion

PRAVEEN KENNETH

Continued from Page 1 >>

Continued from Page 1 >>

Ogilvy:The Startup...

The Shill-ing Joke

The fact that Pandey played cricket from school onwards which contin-ued while he was graduating from St Stephen’s in Delhi has also been of great help. “Cricket has taught me a lot on how to lead and how to be led and both are equally important.” Lesson learnt: When you don’t respect a leader, the team goes for a toss and when you can’t carry your people along with you, it is a case of bad leadership.

Not all independent start-ups have been born out of pure entrepreneurial ambi-tions. Often people leave because they are unhappy. Corporate life sucks in so much that the need for a balance creeps in. He agrees and says, “You decide to be small and be happy, something that is happening increasingly in the advertis-ing industry.” People also leave so that any decision they make professionally will be their decision and not because of (say) Japan’s economy getting jacked and its impact on the Indian office. They also move on because of a changing world order that often needs different solu-tions, something bigger ships find tougher to adjust to. Says Joono Simon, former- ECD, Ogilvy Bengaluru, “The tools of the trade must evolve to keep up, regardless of how comfortable they may feel, and that is an exciting challenge.”

Just as the start-ups have recali-brated the economy in all other categories so also in adver-tising. Lean, nimble setups are being launched that offer specialised services and not necessarily the whole hog lead-ing up to the 30 second TVCs. When asked how are they doing, Pandey grins and says, “I see all these people driving fancy cars so I guess they must be doing well.” On a more serious note, he adds whoever is sincere about his business will do well since there is lots of opportu-nity. V Sunil, former ECD, Ogilvy Delhi, however feels that the new independent

bunch have to stand for some-thing and produce the next global brands out of India, and that is the real challenge.

amit.bapna@timesgroup.com

Conscious UncouplingHere’s what some of the Ogilvy-preneurs share about Ogilvy and Piyush Pandey’s role in their entrepreneurial journey with Amit Bapna

It’s Different: For now Avasthi is busy with projects that range from solving an ecommerce brand’s HR problems, to developing a product design for an appliance company and mentoring a business in the food space. And yes, also doing some occasional advertising. “70% of our current work is non-adver-

tising” and he is fine with it.

Ogilvy (and Pandey)’s Recipe: “Much of setting up one’s own busi-ness is about dealing with clients and in Ogilvy there is so much of client facing experience that it pre-pares people rather well for entre-preneurship.” The stint also helps

in understanding the client’s prob-lems and coming up with solutions, rather than throwing ‘cool’ ideas, he adds. Family-connections with-standing (he is Pandey’s nephew); Avasthi feels that Piyush has been the driving force behind this culture at Ogilvy. “He lets people make mis-takes and lets them learn.”

The Fertile Hot-bed: “Ogilvy was and is a great place for creativity. The only difference is that given the rise in overall entrepreneurial culture in India, perhaps there are more breakaways today.”

The Ogilvy Kit: The task, at his current setup, is to get brand handlers to sit back and reflect

at the big picture backed by the belief, that only when they take a break from the proximity with the problem that they’ll be able to see why that problem happened in the first place! The core phi-losophy of Ogilvy, “we don’t work for clients, we work for brands”, which Pandey has himself cham-pioned from the front, is really

helping in this job, he says.

Look Out: An organisation the size of Ogilvy requires sig-nificant investment in human-resources and he feels that has been a weak point. “In an organ-isation whose key resource is people, HR should have been a strong support function.”

Bat From The Front: “One thing that I learnt from Piyush is to play on your front foot. Don’t worry about who, why, what people say but go by your gut. When I decided to call my company ‘Ullu Ke Pathe’, many were hesitant about the name. But I decided to go with my gut, and come to think of it maybe ‘Ullu Ke Pathe’ was subconsciously inspired by the

many Ullus I have interacted with over the years,” she says with a poker-face.

No Barriers:The constant flow of creativ-

ity in everything that happens at Ogilvy, right from dealing with a client brief to making a presenta-tion, “one is always challenged with finding innovative ways to

stand out,” she says. Age is no barrier to start some-

thing new and different and re-ally it’s never too late, she adds. Piyush himself started his adver-tising career much later in life and that too in client servicing.

One thing I dislike about Piyush: “His smoking and I wish he would give that up.”

Life at Ogilvy and beyond: Ogilvy has set some industry bench-marks and, in many ways, it represents the summit for many creative people. So when a senior professional considers life after Ogilvy, the choices often seem limited or hazy, and starting off on one’s own presents itself as a logical conclusion, he says.

Times Were Changing: “As much as I respect the Ogilvy model, it was equally important for me to break new ground. One of the key things that takes the industry forward is its ability to non-conform. So it was important for me to look at a parallel engagement model.”

Lessons from Pandey: “The key

thing Piyush has got right was keeping his eyes glued on the men and women of this country, as opposed to following inter-national norms. Maybe it’s that famous cricketing intuition - when your eyes are fixed on the ball, the rest of the body automati-cally adjusts to face it. And that has helped.”

Ogilvy Lessons: “The importance given to the client relationships. It not only leads to great output but also stands you in good stead when breaking out independently. The other big difference at Ogilvy is that people across departments

are encouraged to be creative.”

Breaking Out: “At a personal level, I was disappointed about adver-tising going down the value chain, and that created a bit of personal vacuum.” And so the decision to

be part of the business and mar-keting decision-making process. In many cases, ChapterFive does just the strategy bit and then steps out, and doesn’t get into making the creatives. “We don’t pitch,” he adds.

Abhijit Avasthi, ex-national creative director, Ogilvy & Mather launched his own setup Sideways along with Sonali Sehgal with an idea to use creativity across the problem-solving realm and not just for advertising

V Sunil, the celebrated creative maverick left Ogilvy in 2004 to start his own agency ‘A’ which eventually became a part of Wieden+Kennedy India

Neeraj Bassi, president planning at Ogilvy Delhi left a few months ago to launch a consultancy CoffeeandChocolate, with the endeavour to help brands define their integrated communication briefs for agencies

Heeral Akhaury has chosen to opt out of advertising totally, after having worked in Ogilvy for nearly 12 years. Her creative outfit is called ‘Ullu ke Pathhe’ and she makes money out of making owls on things

Joono Simon, the executive creative director at Ogilvy Bengaluru quit earlier this year to launch his own digital shop, Brave New World

Prateek Srivastava co-founded ChapterFive Brand Solutions along with Sunita Murthi after being in Ogilvy for nearly 13 years. He was last heading the Ogilvy South and North offices before he moved out in 2013

“I have always told my people that we are not artistes, we are com-mercial artistes. We have been commis-sioned by somebody to improve his commerce”PiyushPandey

Lessons Learnt: Ogilvy under Piyush was always a bit entrepre-neurial. Any strong creative person could drive a project without fear and good ideas were supported and protected. “The confidence to start (for me) came from two things: firstly, running the Delhi of-fice with the level of independence that Piyush gave and secondly,

the realisation that to run a good idea or a brand, one does not need a large army but just a few good men/women.”

Counter-point: “The sad truth is that the so called ‘creative independence’ and the many new design companies, agencies and digital shops have not really

produced any great brands, or provided a fresh perspective.” Most of them were doing far more superior work at Ogilvy, he feels. It’s important for them to stand for something and produce the next global brands out of India. “Where is the next Cadbury’s? Fevicol? Vodafone etc.?”

What do you ma ke of co -medic content creators like AIB, The Viral Fever and Vir Das branching into creating advertising?We al l have a day job. They need to make a

living from this. As long as they do what they really want to do and there’s no conflict of inter-est, there’s no problem. A lot of people like to trash advertising. But the advertising scene in the

early 90s in Bombay for instance was a very inspiring place. At its best, advertising can really have the sparkle of good pop music. It’s why they say advertising is the rock ‘n’ roll of business. The problem in advertising is the people not the profession or na-ture of the work. I saw a film re-cently and I was inspired by its slant: that people are trying to express themselves and if they do it through the platform of adver-tising, that’s okay. They are still trying to do something real. The standup comic ad with Nescafe, I thought it was very good. If more people do things like that, it will make advertising a little better. You have cycles in advertising and we are not in an exciting one at the moment. Maybe it can be made more exciting if these guys (the comedic content creators) come in and do some real work.

When you were creating ‘I Am Offended’ was any of this on the horizon? Was branching into advertising something the comedians were discussing? No. In the two years since I made it, there’s been so much prog-ress and development. At that

time, they were talking about surviving and making a living. It’s happened spectacularly for some people. Which is fine but I understand your concern. A lot of people will fall by the wayside who make this aspect more dom-inant than their real self. They will not be among the most com-pelling comics, but that’s good. In a way it’s an obstacle in an ob-stacle course.

What sort of an impact do you see this having on comedy and comedians in India? Do you think they will still have as much of a license to be as acerbic and edgy (as some of them currently are), if they are representing the interests of corporate India which is notoriously conservative and unwilling to offend?They won’t. But it’s like doing cor-porate shows. There are different spaces. You can do edgy stuff in your own performances…but you can also be another version of yourself. Everything about you cannot be edgy: you’d be a psycho in a jail if it was.

It may help a lot of the comics find their voice in a more com-

plete way, since many of them seem to believe that obscenity and insulting people is the way to go. If they are pushed to exercise the humour muscle a little more, it may improve them as comedians.

Do you think an antagonistic attitude to advertising is the right attitude for a comic/social commentator to have? Or is a happier, symbiotic re-lationship something that is desirable?Neither! I don’t think a comic needs to have a POV on these things. The Rolling Stones are happy with their music being used in ads. Dylan has appeared in a commercial and there’s no one with more integrity than that. I don‘t think that’s an issue. It’s about how you are able to keep your integrity intact in different spaces. Indian corporate culture sucks big time. There are a lot of problems and fakery. It’s up to the individual to be vigilant. It’s pos-sible to maintain integrity — and who is to tell you what integrity is — and function as a corporate cog. It’s something all of us do or have done. I don’t see that as a problem or a compromise.

Indian comedians are draw-ing their own lines

“Everything about you cannot be edgy”Filmmaker, author and ex-ad man, Jaideep Varma has directed ‘I Am Offended’ a film on the Indian standup scene on how it is possible to be both a comedic social observer and an ad man

AN

IRB

AN

BO

RA

Regn.No.MAHENG/2002/6711 Volume 14 Issue No. 42Published for the Proprietors, Bennett Coleman & Company Ltd. by R. Krishnamurthyat The Times Of India Building, Dr. D.N.Road, Mumbai 400 001 Tel. No. (022) 6635 3535, 2273 3535, Fax- (022)-2273 1144 and printed by him at (1) The Times of India Suburban Press, AkurliRoad, Western Express Highway, Kandivili (E), Mumbai 400 101. Tel. No. (022) 28872324, 28872930, Fax- (022) 28874230 (2) The Times of India Print City, Plot No. 4, T.T.C. Industrial Area, Thane Belapur Road, Airoli, Navi Mumbai-400708 and (3) TIMES PRESS, Plot No. 5A, Road No. 1, IDA Nacharam Ranga Reddy District, Hyd-

erabad-500076. Editor: Ravi Balakrishnan(Responsible for selection of news under PRB Act). © All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of the Publisher is prohibited.

THE ECONOMIC TIMES OCTOBER 21-27, 2015 4

Product: ETNEWMumbaiBS PubDate: 21-10-2015 Zone: BrandEquity Edition: 1 Page: BEPER3 User: sandeepd0203 Time: 10-16-2015 00:37 Color: CMYK