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    Cannes Lion: How BBDO India won big by doing advertising that went beyond the usual

    Synopsis

    The win has catapulted BBDO into the upper echelons of Indian creativity, busting the myth of the creative indie versus the protocol bound network company.

    ET Bureau
    In 2010, 18 months after it began operations, BBDO India won its first Cannes Lion, a silver in PR for Gillette. The news had barely sunk in when chairman and creative chief Josy Paul received a text from a creative leader at a rival shop. The message was decidedly snarky: Paul's competitor claimed he wanted to hire BBDO to do some PR for him. It was the sort of careless dismissal and mockery that would accompany a lot of the agency's work over the next few years. Paul's peers would frequently, and in tones laced with irony and sarcasm, refer to him, as "India ka David Droga" (alluding to advertising wunderkid and founder of independent Droga5). Paul's mantra of "acts not ads" — creating communication that encouraged consumer participation instead of passive, old media driven TV commercials or print ads — came in for a fair share of ribbing, not all of it good natured.

    It's unlikely, but a Grand Prix at Cannes may just silence some of BBDO's critics. In many ways, it's a perfect win: the topmost trophy in its category (the Glass Lions, introduced this year to award communication that addresses issues of gender inequality and prejudice), for highly visible work on an established brand (Whisper sanitary napkins). To say nothing of a Gold for Ariel in the same category, a Bronze trophy in Media for Whisper and at the time of going to print, a shortlist in Film for a tongue-in-cheek about socially minded campaigns for iCONGO.

    For Paul and CEO Ajai Jhala it's a vindication of an approach that's powered a lot of BBDO's work. When they set up the agency in 2008, they had a lot in common as alumni of Mumbai's St Xavier's college followed by long stints at Lowe. The two were clear they didn't want BBDO to be business as usual. Jhala says, "People wanted to participate and be heard. There was a conscious decision that we had to find a narrative which was how the acts came in." Paul's inspiration stems back to his first day at college when the sky over the quadrangle at St Xavier's was darkened by flying sheets of paper cascading down from a few floors above. He picked a page up to find a political screed of some sort by some of the senior students. The lesson he was left with was about the power of action and its ability to draw in volunteers, even unwitting ones.

    Chance and encouraging clients had a role too. Before a meeting with Aviva, one of the agency's first clients, Paul and Jhala realised the world didn't need yet another insurance brand but certainly required education since as Paul puts it: "education is insurance." The result: a campaign that aimed at giving an education to underprivileged children.

    In a presentation to Gillette, what swung the marketer was not an image of a woman shaving a man. This was the starting point for the five year long Women Against Lazy Stubble campaign. Says Paul, "I know it sounds weird given how people talk about process, but honestly both of these ideas were a spontaneous reaction to the world." Jhala adds, "The brief when you do a regular campaign is "who's my target?" But when you create a movement, you treat human beings as social people with a circle of influence rather than targets for the brand to attack. It leads to more meaningful conversation."

    The ambitions were lofty: to not compete with other ad agencies but with news channels, harnessing the buzz value inherent in a brand. Paul claims "We'd start on social media on purpose since it stops people from thinking in a conventional box; instead it's like a river driven by how the conversation can flow."

    More than consumer conversations, many campaigns sparked off industry discussions principally of the off-the-record variety. At least till the Grand Prix (and probably even after), many segments of the industry are not sure if Paul and BBDO are pioneers at the cusp of a brave new way or creative charlatans doing an excellent job of publicising freakish and gimmicky promotions. While the work on Gillette and Visa may not make the favourites list of local ad folk, one undeniable metric of success is marketers coming back for more. Addressing his critics Paul says their jibes have been fuel: "We can't be stupidly numb about it. We've heard it from our clients who tell us this is what people say about you. People don't understand and maybe if they worked with us for a month, they'll change their minds." He also believes that his competition has missed a trick or two: "There have been better ideas than what we've had but they probably stopped short and lived in a pure film world."

    However, it's not like every piece of work from the agency has been a genre defying masterpiece, drawing masses to swear allegiance to causes and the brands backing them. BBDO has a fair amount of conventional work especially on 7Up. So is there a sense of having to settle when Paul and Jhala have their hearts clearly set on movements? Not quite, say the duo. It finally comes down to the client. Some like P&G have an infrastructure to handle an integrated approach; others don't. Paul says about a recent film for Visa, "The joy you feel the first time you make an online purchase is a fantastic area for discussion and sharing. So what if it happened to be a 30 second spot? Sometimes we may not go the whole hog, but it's there; a living breathing organism waiting to be tapped."

    The win has at least for the moment catapulted BBDO into the upper echelons of Indian creativity, busting the myth of the creative indie versus the protocol bound network company. Strangely enough, none of India's most creatively celebrated agencies Lowe Lintas, McCann Erickson and O&M have bagged a Grand Prix at Cannes yet: and it's not been for the lack of trying on part of the latter two. All these agencies happen to be much older and larger than BBDO. BBDO's next movement ought to be a little self-serving: getting more business or projects from large clients who'd like their ads served up with a heavy side of acts.

    Image article boday



    The Cannes Journey: BBDO

    It's been an interesting slog for BBDO. The agency has done its share of — to put it politely — obscure work, but the bulk of its big wins have been for authentic campaigns and brands. Josy Paul and Ajai Jhala hold forth on their most consistent winner so far, Gillette's Women Against Lazy Stubble (WALS):

    Josy Paul: We felt there was a buzz for the two months we first ran WALS for Gillette, in which we got women to persuade men to shave more frequently. There was even a counter group called MAWALIs which was men against women against lazy stubble! They believed we were intruding on their fundamental rights and even attacked one of our events.

    The first year, we sent it to the Abby where it won a bronze. I was pissed off since people were talking the same old language. Everyone had grown on an appetite of good work but it was time for another language. We entered Cannes since we needed to see what the world thought and the silver was a sign that okay, a larger jury understands. Ajai Jhala: A lot of the Indian jury was working with a glossy view of the world. WALS had authenticity and couldn't be glossy. Personally I believe when cultural archaeologists try to understand Indian communication there are thee milestones. The first was Liril; the second the Indian emotion of Cadbury and the humour of Fevicol and the third is WALS. After that, the way you did integrated communications in India changed.

    Whose Brand Is It Anyway?

    If it hadn't been for a fairly significant shift in the ways agencies and marketers behave, BBDO wouldn't have had a shot at working on Ariel and Whisper.

    It's an indication that some of India's biggest marketers don't feel bound by traditional agency alignments and are unafraid to look further afield for solutions and partners, even if it means engaging other agencies on a "project" basis.

    In 2007, when this dubious P of advertising had yet to enter the lexicon, there were a lot of puzzled faces wondering how Saatchi & Saatchi New York managed to win the Press Grand Prix on Tide, a brand handled by Leo Burnett.

    But none of this applied when BBDO was called in by P&G. For the record, Leo Burnett is supposed to handle Whisper in India and Ariel was with L&K Saatchi & Saatchi when we last checked. According to Josy Paul, BBDO landed these projects purely because P&G was impressed with its work on Gillette (which shifted to Grey last year following global realignment): "There was a good feeling about our ability to do movements and our understanding of their structure and processes."

    He also believes the agency's focus on movements gave it a chance on businesses that were otherwise out of reach: "When people have a movement discussion, the transactional nature of the brief changes. People start talking about what can be done to increase particular parameters of equity."

    It also helped BBDO that Sharat Verma who used to be its client on Gillette moved as associate marketing director – fabric and home care at P&G, thus making it easy for the agency to work on Ariel.

    If nothing else, this is a wakeup call for incumbents everywhere. Anybody who the client believes has a better idea is a threat; not just traditional foes like rival agencies who are aligned to the brand in other markets or ex-CEOs and creatives with an axe to grind.
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