Hasta La Creative!

When most of my family were dabbling with their left brain I was skewed towards the right. Gandhi Jayanti liberated me! On that very day I decided that becoming a CA was not my cup of tea and promptly told my mother that all I wanted to do was paint. Her answer was as conventional as I had expected, “Beta! We are middle class South Indians! We know nothing about business. Who will you sell your paintings to?”After a yearlong war she finally relented and I enrolled myself for commercial arts. (It was the commercial side of art which convinced my mother that I will at least have a job.)
Now, after almost 12 years in advertising, out of which 10.5 wonderful years at Leo Burnett, which have seen my journey from a trainee to a creative director, I love every bit of my life in advertising.
I am also very passionate about all the other forms of art apart from advertising.  It reflects in my blog ‘WindowSeat’ which is all about life and design. My home (which I decorated myself) was chosen as the top 5 studio homes in Asia by Apartment Therapy and this encouraged me to become a contributing writer to an Interior Magazine in its DIY and colour features. Editorial Photography is my other interest and this has taken shape as a face book page called ‘No Makeup story’. I am also involved in the revival of art and craft in India with the ‘Happy Hands Foundation’.
Apart from all this I also give my best shot at being a good mother to my two wonderful children, a good wife to my caring husband, learn sitar and watch movies.
I also step in to help my husband and friends as a colour and production consultant for their films, Chillar Party and few McDonald’s commercials are there just to illustrate an example.

Why are you in Advertising?
Solving client’s problems gives me a high. Understanding the human mind and its behavior intrigues me a lot. A combination of both is what keeps me glued to advertising, even after so many years. Very challenging yet very rewarding.

Did you attend school for fine art or design or Communications??
I have done Commercial Arts from Sophia Polytechnic.

Tell us about your most recent campaign?
The most recent work is for Indian Idol Season 6. It was a challenge for us since there are too many singing shows and the question was how do we differentiate ourselves from the others and most of all how would it strike a chord with the nation. The idea came from a simple human truth – parents, siblings, friends, teachers, neighbours, well-wishers have always been a guiding and supporting force behind what one wants to achieve, however small or big. Which was then captured beautifully by my writer Neeraj into ‘Har idol ke peeche hote hain na jaane kitne idol’. And then the idea was captured through various heart-warming stories written by my team and brought to life by the director Hemant Bhandari of Chrome Pictures.

Were there any particular role models for you when you grew up??
Undoubtedly, my mother for her forever positive outlook towards life and her sister (my aunt) who believes that you are never too old to learn anything new. Even at the age of sixty she wants to do a PHD.

Who was the most influential personality on your career in Advertising?
I have been blessed to learn the best from the best in my career. I learnt good design and typography skills from Vikram Gaikwad. The credit for my grooming in brand building goes to Kumuda Rao and Aggi. Paddy taught me how to be good at art direction.  Pops, for believing in me and always encouraging me to think out of the box and guiding me in my career and life. And Nitesh Tiwari, who has influenced me the most to write stories, think big ideas and he is also my biggest critic.

Where do you get inspiration from?
Life experiences and conversations.

Tell us something about ‘Talking Books’ which won bronze at Cannes.
This was an idea which was with me for a long time but I always found something missing in it. Till I discussed it with Nitesh. He gave me a direction and actually forced me to think through it because I had almost given up on the idea.
Today’s Children are so much more interested in games and technology that they hardly read books. On the other hand, you just don’t read a book, you actually live it and interact with it. The idea of ‘conversations’ started from this very insight. Children get influenced by anything they are exposed to and great books are the best conversations children can have to learn from. We created 3 radio spots for Strand Book Stall where we showed kids benefiting from their conversations with Gandhiji, Nelson Mandela and Helen Keller.

Do you have any kind of a program to nurture and train young talent??
I don’t have any set agenda or program to encourage young talent. I don’t believe in hierarchy. So everyone in my team is involved in everything including meeting clients. Of course, as a team leader I nurture and identify each individual’s talent and push him or her in that direction. I hear them out and take their suggestions and make them equal partners in the process of creating.
Tell us something about the leo Burnett environment.
It’s a fun place. A home without closed doors. We have a flat structure in LB which makes everyone work together in a perfect harmony.

Tell us about your biggest challenge as a Creative Director?
Taking tough calls and being a task master even when I don’t want to be and most importantly I am a bit scared about the fact that I shouldn’t end up missing gem of  an idea from my team by negating it. Which does not happen! Because if I negate it, my team has the freedom to discuss it with Pops and Nitesh.

Tell us about your 1st work as a Creative Director.
Launch of Wella Kolestint hair colour & launching Bigg Boss on Sony.
Pick and tell us about one of all your past campaigns, your personal favourite…
Every piece of work I have done is my favorite.

What do you think of the state of Print advertising right now. At least?here in India, the released work is most often too sad?
Print advertising is not sad at all. It’s what the brands require and where the ad spends are. All beauty, automobile, apparels, media categories have great looking print and outdoor campaign. We do a whole lot of print and outdoor for Sony. Yes! Print and outdoor for some categories have become more of a reminder medium. More of the icing on the cake than the cake itself.

Do you think brands who’s advertising wins awards, do well in the market??
Let me put it this way. Brands whose advertising doesn’t win awards need not necessarily do well in the market. Ad industry has plenty of examples with of brands whose advertising has won awards and done well in the market too. KBC and Indian Idol has done that for us.

What advice do you have for aspiring creative professionals??
As creative people we have to continuously upgrade ourselves and find our true calling in any one art of advertising. We cannot afford to lose sight of why we are in advertising. Most of the times I hear young professionals telling me that they want to do big campaigns but they are not ready to go through the rigor. Put your heart and soul in whatever you do and you will see the difference it makes. Focus on your strengths than worry about your weaknesses. Don’t fall in love with whatever you create, it will only make you biased. Lastly, don’t get in comparisons with other creative guys because everyone is different.

Mac or PC?
Mac.

Who would you like to take out for dinner?
Rabindranath Tagore & Van Gogh
…And I wonder what the conversation would be like.

What’s on your iPod?
Amit Trivedi , Dido, Jack Jhonson.

Your upcoming campaigns if any?
KBC 6.