Hasta La Creative!

Sameer has been in advertising for 11 years now. From taking up a job without a contract to creating original work across 6 countries, he has come a long way. He is currently, as he likes to put it, ‘fabulously jobless’ since his last company Commonwealth, APAC went houdini on him. He keeps busy sauntering from one beach town to the next while waiting for a challenging, integrated role and dreaming of a multimillion dollar contract. He has worked in Mumbai, New Delhi and Kuala Lumpur.

Why are you into advertising?
I wasn’t smart enough to do anything else. With my modest performance through school, my mom knew it was best not to leave me to a more conventional future. Which back then used to be some form of medicine or engineering.
She took me to meet some of her friends working in advertising. The prospect of escaping math forever appealed to me. As soon as I enrolled in college, I fell in love with advertising. My mom had seen something in me I hadn’t. Thank god for making moms! And giving me an especially gifted one.

Tell us about your recent ad campaigns.
The last major project I worked on was for Chevrolet, South Korea. We shot in Seoul in -15 degrees. I swear, on the sets you had to repeatedly call for silence, cos you could hear the entire team’s bones clattering.
The clients involved were based in Shanghai, Seoul and Canada. So we used to have the craziest meetings trying to match time zones. 7am and 11:30pm video-cons were everyday to us. That’s what makes working in a regional hub exciting. It’s a crash course in global culture, it puts you out of your comfort zone and forces you to think of ideas that don’t need a passport to travel.

Were there any particular role models for you when you grew up?
Dave Droga. I call him Dave cos I wish to be on a first name basis with the man. What a powerhouse of talent.
There are many great philosophies, scientists, filmmakers, writers and books that continue to provide an ideal worth pursuing. However, there is danger in trying to be ‘like’ somebody.
Your ideals ultimately have to make you more of you. There is great merit in standing on the shoulders of giants, but stand on your own feet you must.
There is no joy in being the second Sachin, or the second Piyush. You must be the first you.
I think I have slipped into a meditative mode here. Which reminds me, why hasn’t my halo been delivered yet?

Who was the most influential personality on your career in Advertising?
I have been very lucky to work with some of the legends of our industry. Piyush Pandey, Sonal Dabral, Prathap Suthan, Rajeev Raja, Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, Bhupal Ramnathkar from the home turf.
And some South East Asia heavy weights like Adrian Miller, Edwin Leong, and Steve Hough who have won precious metal by the truck loads!
They have all inspired me and I have learnt much from them.
Some of my lesser known colleagues have even taught me a thing or two of what not to do in advertising. I must say, even that was precious learning.

Where do you get your inspiration from?
As with beauty, inspiration has got everything to do with the seer. It’s everywhere. You don’t need a TED talk, a speech by a tech genius or a thorough dressing down by your boss to feel motivated. Although, all of them work too.
Find a new adventure, a new experience everyday and you will never lack for inspiration. Or smiles.
Do you have any kind of a program to nurture and train young talent? 
Absolutely! Advertising has a great training program for people of all ages and experience levels. It’s called a ‘job’. Find yourself one and feel free to experiment all you want. Create something fascinating.
It’s your boss’s responsibility to make sure you don’t mess up big time and your responsibility to make sure your ideas shine. Give it your soul.

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. Are agencies ignoring released print?
You can’t bore someone into loving you. The problem with print is it has become exceptionally dull. In advertising, irrespective of the medium, you have to be interesting.
Sure, the game has changed. The focus is on integrated today. Print still has a part to play, but unfortunately it is overshadowed by other more exciting mediums. And it’s happening all over the world, not just India.
We certainly need to show some love to print. At the end of the day, it’s such a fun medium. That said, great print ads are being made even today. Pity they can’t be seen anywhere but award show blogs.

Pick and tell us about one of all your past campaigns, your personal favourite…
As with children, it is impossible to pick favourites.

Do you think brands that win advertising awards, do well in the market?
Certainly not if no one but the jury sees the advertising. My definition of great advertising is stuff that sells and brings home serious metal.

What advice do you have for aspiring creative professionals?
Your ideas and craft will get better with time. Till then let nothing stop you from outworking the best brain in your agency.
What is your dream project?
I want to build a car unlike any made before.

Mac or PC?
Really?

What’s on your iPod?
Dust and something that looks like a dead spider. My phone plays great music, don’t use my iPod anymore. Let that be a lesson for the pro new media evangelists out there. Technology comes and goes. Content still rules. Don’t make the mistake of putting technology before content. Tech used smartly is great.

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