Hasta La Creative!

Sachin Karle. Terrace gardener. Alternative therapy practitioner. ?Avid traveller. Food enthusiast. Tech geek. Shoe-o-phile.

Why are you into Advertising?
Because I was very clear that I never wanted to be a doctor, an engineer, a banker or a professor.?I wanted to do something new every day. I honestly don’t know what I would have done if not advertising.

Did you attend school for fine art or design or Communications??
Yes. I did my GD Art (Commercial Art) from L.S. Raheja School of Art, Bandra, Mumbai in 1995.

Tell us about your most recent  campaign?
Advertising: Courtyard Marriott Mumbai – We recently won this account. Some interesting work is in the pipeline. Martini Festival to start with. Then there is outdoor campaign for Binani Cement and Sony Pix.??Non Advertising: The Sketchbook Project 2012, Limited Edition for Brooklyn Art Library, NY.? If you’re in Brooklyn check out the physical copy of the book or else check it here and here.

Were there any particular role models for you when you grew up?
Honestly in school life I had no role model. I am talking about 90s. There was no internet then, no 24×7 tv like today. Just DD metro. Sounds like stone age. But that’s why there was not much exposure to the outer world.  After getting into Art college, I got exposed to various creative books.  Then I started following work of agencies like Trikaya Grey, Advertising Avenues, Lintas, Rediffusion, Ulka (Draft FCB), O&M, Contract. So there was no particular role model as such at that time but the agencies I wanted to get into.
Today if you ask me I would say my role models are David Droga, Scott Goodson. To be able to create and execute a project like Tap Water or build a brand by sparking a cultural movements like Uprising, SparkTheRise.com, Kony2012, that I believe is the future.

Who was the most influential personality on your career in Advertising???
Actually there are more than one. Ravi Madkaikar (FCB Ulka), Suresh Babu (O&M), Robby Mathew (Interface) and Ramki (Cartwheel). All these people were my bosses at some point of time. I learnt a lot from them.

Where do you get your inspiration from???
Listening to conversations and observing people in local trains, Books, Nature, Watching desi and Hollywood movies, and various generic blogs that showcase creativity of all kinds.

Do you have any kind of a program to nurture and train young talent?
Learning is an ongoing process. I believe structured training programmes are useful, but only work when what is taught in those workshops is integrated into the agency’s process. I tend to do these sessions on a ‘one on one’ basis rather than a group. Practical knowledge is something that you will not forget and will often get used on a regular basis. Today’s younger lot is very sharp and everyone has a different style of thinking but really need to focus on getting their fundamentals right first. So that their communication has as much depth as does their aesthetics.? ?I prefer seeing them as creative people with whom one just needs to share experiences with and help build a strong foundation. In this process I get to learn from them too. In a world that’s going the blogging, facebook, twitter way, it keeps you with the times. It’s fun.

Tell us something about the MSLGROUP CREATIVE+ (part of Publicis Groupe) environment.
As an organisation, we have always believed in being trusted advisors to our clients. And now, in an age where the paradigms of communication are undergoing radical transformations, clients count on us to help them leverage their brands in this ‘always-on conversation economy’.  The work environment reflects this openness and collaborative spirit. Also, being a global network, various workshops are conducted so that all employees are aware and can benefit from all the best practices happening internationally. People are our core assets, and the group ensures that they get the best inputs that in turn enable them to provide our clients with the best solutions.

Tell us about your biggest challenge as the Creative Director of MSLGROUP CREATIVE+
Having been a hardcore adman all my life, becoming part of a truly integrated communications firm has in itself been quite a novel experience. Our approach here is to leverage Creative, PR, Social Media and Events to create a unified communication solution unlike agencies that just ‘have’ each of those divisions. There’s something new to learn every day. And I mean new i.e. today I’m working on creating a brand experience centre for a transnational corporation that will get replicated globally. There’s also the sharing of learnings from around the globe and opportunities to work on various international projects that make every single day quite challenging.

Tell us about your 1st work as a Creative Director in advertising.
It was at Quadrant when I became a Creative Director. We got a brief for Mahindra’s Used car business known as automartindia.com then. The mandate was to rebrand and launch the brand.
We started right from thinking of the brand name and then brand identity, press, TV and Radio campaign.  It was a great teamwork. The campaign was a big success. It was a good case study for Effectiveness.
Pick and tell us about one of all your past campaigns, your personal favourite…

There are two that are very close to my heart.
1) Launching ‘Mahindra Scorpio’ : It was a turning point in my career. It was a very prestigious project for Mahindra as well as the agency (Interface).? We froze on an Australian photographer, Lou D’Angelo and shot for the same in Australia. It was an exhausting but memorable experience. To make it even more memorable, it was the first time any brand had launched with a centrespread in the Times Of India. The rest is history. Scorpio was a huge success. It won us AdClub Bombay’s 2003 – Silver Effie and Adclub Bombay 2005 – EMVIES Gold Award for Best Media Innovation in Print. It was the first ever talking ad in print media with a microchip fitted into the magazine.

2) Reliance Mobile ‘Pied Piper’ Simply Reliance Plan. : Milestone in my career. The brief to us was to create a launch campaign for the Simply Reliance Plan – with a never before offer. Everything for 50p – STD, Roaming, SMS, Local calls and no conditions. My copy partner and I came up with the concept of a modern day pied piper who makes all the hurdles (roaming, sms charges, conditions) disappear. This role perfectly suited Hrithik Roshan who was then the brand ambassador. It was decided that Prabhu Deva would choreograph the entire sequence, what more you could one ask for? We got the best of Bollywood to do this film. It was a real treat to watch Prabhu Deva choreograph the fantastic Hrithik Roshan with the well-known cinematographer Anil Mehta capturing all that star power. The print shoot simultaneously happened on the same set. Needless to say, the campaign hit the mark straight from the word go.

Do you think brands whose advertising wins awards, do well in the market?
Not necessarily so. If the communication is targeted at award jury only and not to the consumer, it may win you an award but may not work in the market. I am a staunch ‘effectiveness of the idea’ believer. With due respect to the winning ideas, to me, if a certain idea gets talked about among the TG and it results in good business or a great brand recall; that’s a real award for the real work. And it can win metals too. There are many examples i.e. Vodafone, Tata Docomo, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk – Shubharambh, Tata Tea – Jaago re, Times of India – Lead India, Rustomjee Builders to name a few.

What advice do you have for aspiring creative professionals??
Freshers come with lot of energy and vibrant ideas. Be like that even if you grow old in advertising.?If you are an art person, develop copy sense and vice versa. Keep going through lot of books, creative blogs, sites. See every creative piece in detail. Try and understand the art/copy person’s view in that. This is a best way of self-development. Evaluate your work often with your senior’s help. Keep your eyes and ears open 24X7. Keep absorbing things around you. Stick to the basics, but first get your basics right.

Would you like to tell us something about your upcoming campaigns?
There is some interesting work coming in the non-conventional space.?Will keep you posted when that happens.

Who would you like to take out for dinner?
Dr. APJ Kalam

What’s on your iPod?
Bollywood hits, Marathi and Instrumental Lounge Music.

Mac or PC??
Mac of course