Kaushik is a Creative Director with Leo Burnett Mumbai, and has numerous great campaigns to his credit, including being voted as one of Asia’s Hottest Creatives!

 Why are you in Advertising?

As a boy, I was always inquisitive and would read a lot of newspapers and magazines in addition to the regular detective fiction. I was also becoming a keen quizzer, regularly winning at the school level, and sometimes qualifying for regional and city finals. As a result, I think, I started enjoying the interconnectedness of everything we learn and do, and writing essays was a great way to explore all this and get subjective. The objective nature of the natural sciences and maths would be a little claustrophobic for me. Soon, my love for writing essays started converting into A+ scores in English Composition and my other scores started suffering a bit and I became officially unfit for a career in Engineering, Medicine or Accountancy – the three main career options available to kids in the early ‘90s. So you could say that I’m in advertising by elimination also.


Did you always want to get into advertising?

Actually, yes. You see, in the late 1980s when I grew up, the regular ads in the mainline newspapers were quite good. They had interesting headlines and copy ideas. I would almost always read the ads and admire the writing styles, starting from the clever headline to the long body copy and then down to some interesting baselines. Soon, I figured from a friend in school that the companies advertising their products were not actually writing the ads, and there were designated “advertising agencies” – whose names appeared in fine print at the bottom-right of the ad. Wow! And my friend’s family owned a small “ad agency” – so he should know. This was when I was in Class VIII.

Later on, after my class XII exams, one of my elder brother’s friends who had earlier introduced me to quizzing, introduced me to a lady friend of his who worked in the legendary Clarion Advertising in Calcutta. I went to Clarion, met her and figured that I just needed writing skills and imagination to be able to become what they call a copywriter. Of course, I still had to have a graduation degree so she send me away and asked me to come back after three years in college.

My passive probing into advertising as a career option continued silently for a few more months. In public, I would always defend my choice of studying Economics in college as a step towards taking my CAT and becoming an MBA. But secretly, I was almost sold on advertising as a career. The only question I had was, will advertising pay me as well as a banking job does?

This was answered by Mr Nirvik Singh (then Manager of Trikaya Grey Calcutta) at a Career Fair meeting. I still remember him saying “The good agencies pay you as well as a multinational bank!”

The final decision to come into advertising I think came with my going back to Clarion (after my college third year exams) and writing out a copytest. I enjoyed writing out the test and soon the Creative Directors there, Radharani Mitra and Raja Biswas offered me a job at a princely salary of Rs 2400 per month.

The work was hard and long, but I never once thought I made a mistake by joining a business, the exact nature of which I could never even explain to my mother. But I think it was people like Radharani and Raja at work, and my mother at home, who really helped me try whatever I wanted in life that made advertising so enjoyable in my formative years.


Were there any particular role models for you when you grew up?

One of the most important clients for Clarion was ITC Ltd, and they were a company that was still headquartered in Calcutta. This also meant, my National Creative Director, Kiran Khalap, would often visit Calcutta from Mumbai and spend time with the rest of the team. Now I was tremendously inspired by meeting and interacting with Kiran who I thought was the whackiest human being I knew. Surprisingly enough, he was also one of the clearest and most logical thinkers around. Spending two minutes with Kiran was like having a lifetime of conversation with a normal big sounding name in the business.

But apart from Kiran, I think I was also influenced a lot by Alok Nanda, who I have never met but who I knew by his work. Then there was Pervez Shaikh. And of course, Piyush, whose films I have always enjoyed, starting with the ‘Fevicol Anda’. But just when you think you have seen it all and done it all, you meet someone who still manages to clear all the cobwebs in your head. That happenend with me this year, when I met and spend some time with the great Marcello Serpa in Cannes. Oh, the clarity of thought that man has is simply amazing. It just brings you right back on track, and you’re once again reminded what you are supposed to do as creative people.

But to answer your question, I don’t think I had any one role model, but there were different qualities in different creative people that I have tremendously admired. I think half my life’s work will be attained if I’m able to develop even a fraction of the skills some of these gentlemen who I have named possess.


Who was the most influential personality on your career in advertising?

At work, Kiran Khalap.

Outside, my mother, who never questioned me once what I do and why I spend so many late nights in office or at the bar.


How has advertising changed over the course of your career? Is execution/art direction more important than it used to be? Do you think advertising has become more clever and less intelligent?

The problem with advertising is that nobody really likes to be told what to buy. Besides it’s intrusive and interruptive, and therefore the challenge has always been how not to make your ad look like an ad. I think, as practitioners of the art, it’s up to us to find newer and newer ways of slipping into our potential customer’s life, without anybody really minding our presence.

But of course, advertising is not all about entertaining, it’s also about leaving a ‘reason to buy’ Now depending on how the product (or service) fits in to our customer’s life, and the changing profile of the customers and their purchase behaviours, we have to change communication techniques periodically. I think the truth is that most customers across categories are getting younger, and therefore, a lot of communication these days is just pure fun, and not very deep and evocative. But, of course, this depends from category to category. Most clients have still not started doing ‘fun ads’ to sell an insurance.

The other important thing to take not of is that people have lesser and lesser time. There’s an excess of TV channels, newspapers, radio stations and now there’s also the internet. It’s true that people now read more, but people also have more choices so they pick what they want to read. In a scenario like this, each ad has to look radically different and fresh to leap out and be noticed, forget remembered. So, yes, art direction is very important. But the trouble is, with the new economy, execution time is also lesser and we have quite a challenge staring at us collectively as an industry.


What do you think of the current state of Print Advertising versus TV in India?I think print as a medium evolved earlier in India than TV. But right now, the average TV spot is better than the average print ad. To my mind, there are a couple of reasons for print falling behind.

Firstly, most clients in India agree that it’s television which can bring out the beauty of a product demonstration best. They also understand that for their commercial to stick out in the clutter, the message has to be single minded and without bodycopy. Therefore, a lot of them have started using TV to create brand salience and memorability while print is given the step motherly treatment and expected to become a dumping ground of information and work as a support medium.

The second reason I feel, is a clear lack of effort from the agencies themselves. I suspect many ad agencies are just taking the easy way out and agreeing too easily with clients and not trying to be more engaging and original in print. It’s a bit like, ‘you let us do what we want in films, we’ll do what you want in print’. At a day-to-day level, print has become the domain best left to art directors whereas the best copywriters are devoting more and more time to the lead medium, TV, rather than try to come up with an edgy integrated campaign thought. The only good print that happens is for the awards, and that’s because print is relatively cheaper and easier to take out.

You see, to my mind, it’s not the medium. It’s the idea that counts, and we should extend the idea by doing justice to each medium as we go along. And for this, agencies are as much to blame as the shallow clients with deep pockets who only immerse themselves with TV budgets. As a community, I think we have to impress upon clients that the lesser baggage you have the greater will be the creative leap. And that applies to all media.


Where do you get your inspiration from? 

Earlier on, it used to be from seeing anything else that’s creative. Like a One Show or any other similar ad annual. But nowadays, I think my mind is too well trained and advertising ideas have become almost like a spontaneous reaction to a problem. It’s much like an arrow that releases itself when in contact with the taut string of a problem. So to repeat a cliché, I think it’s original problems that inspire me to find original solutions. But when I’m not chopping wood, I like to sharpen my axe these days by seeing movies of Zhang Yimou, the famous Chinese director. Or by having a conversation over a drink with my close friends.


Do you think brands whose advertising wins awards, do well in the market?

That depends on how much of a chance the ad has been given in the marketplace. Let me explain.

While most award shows take a lot of pride in recognizing ideas rather than results, most of the ideas entered from the region are what we call ‘scams’.  Ads done and released not because they are a solution to a legitimate problem, but because somebody just came up them.

So to my mind, great ideas, if they are allowed to be seen and appreciated by the public will work if they are delightful and fresh. But some of the ideas I see get a little esoteric, and are at best clever when solved. But I’m clearly not referring to these as great ideas.
I think from an Indian perspective, brands like Fevicol, Titan and Asian Pints have always done great ideas and they seem to have worked for them. Internationally, Nike and now Adidas, has been doing some fantastic advertising, and that seems to have worked too.

But, of course, we need to understand that advertising only plays a small part in selling a product consistently well. Advertising, though powerful, cannot substitute a poor product, or an after-sales experience that wasn’t so happy. I think we need to understand that ad agency creatives are not geniuses, though they wish to be seen as that when they win at award shows. We can only hope to ensure that the outer clothing of a brand is made visible and likeable. After that, it’s the product that has to live up to the expectation.


Was there any time when you wanted to quit advertisng?

I have been tempted to quit my job several times, though I have actually managed to quit only once in the last 13 years; when I was shifting from Calcutta to Mumbai, and quit Bates to join Leo Burnett. But never advertising as a profession. Remember, I took up this career out of love and not any compulsion?


What makes a good Creative Director?

Oh, how I wish I knew the answer to that! But generally I think a Creative Director’s job is to not just create good ads, but also create creators of good ads. Which often means, creating an environment where ideas are discussed and encouraged. It also means providing clarity from time to time, when single minded propositions seem to be getting muddled up in confusion. It also means standing up for ideas before clients or client servicing sometimes. But I think, any position of responsibility means most of all having integrity.

As a country, I think sometimes we forget that it’s about India winning in cricket and not how much Sachin has scored. We tend to watch a movie because of the star cast and not the story. Similarly in advertising too, sometimes we let individuals become more important than the ad. I think the biggest challenge we have as Creative Directors is to let a better ad win irrespective of who it may have come from.

A good idea or the start of a good idea can emerge from anywhere. It can come from servicing, or it can come from the youngest member of the group, it can even come from the client. But to my mind a good Creative Director should be able to add to the idea and make it into a powerful one rather than just say a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’; and substitute it with one of his own, even if it’s mediocre. I think India has a tremendously high infant mortality rate of ideas, and it’s up to us Creative Directors to reverse that.


What are your views on Scam Advertising?

Scam advertising, as I understand it, is all about doing an ad when it’s not necessary. Therefore, it doesn’t get paid for by the client, it doesn’t get aired by the client; it doesn’t get appreciated by the client; in fact, it’s not even for the client or his product. By doing scams like this, I think we are making award shows more and more irrelevant and award winners trivial. It’s only logical that intelligent clients and client servicing will soon lose respect for us award winning creative rather than look up to us.


You have been voted one of Asia’s Hottest Creatives by a leading Advertising magazine. Have you seen that affect your career?

I have been included by Campaign Brief Asia in its survey of the top creative talent in Asia for some time now, but I think what really catapulted me was the campaign I thought of for Maneland Jungle Lodge. You see, this resort is as close as you can get to the Gir lions and come back alive. So I conceived this campaign where we show wounded staff going about their daily routines. So you have a receptionist who has lost an arm, a janitor who has lost a leg and so on and so forth. The idea went on to win a nomination at the One Show, another finalist at the recently instituted World Press Awards and a lion at Cannes. I think it was also accepted by ‘The Work’ magazine. Now all of these achievements carry points, and my tally went high enough for me to be ranked # 25 in India and # 287 in Asia, out of the 1000 odd creative talents surveyed by the magazine. Has it changed life for me? Not really. But I will be lying if I tell you that it doesn’t feel good to know that I’m officially among Asia’s hottest creative talents.


Any current work in Indian Advertising that you find exciting? Especially Print?

I like the new campaign Ogilvy has done for the UTI Bank name change to Axis. I think it’s well integrated, simple and refreshing. But like I have said before, if you want to see good print, you’ll have to wait for the award shows. That’s when we’ll see all the good scam print.

We hardly get to see Illustration based Art Direction. What do you think is the reason? Is it that we don’t have any inspiring illustrators or is it the Client?

You see, this business is rapidly becoming a race against time. Deadlines are getting shorter and shorter, clients are getting hierarchical as they expand their business, business decisions are getting more centralized… now all this is leaving creative people with even lesser time to come up with ideas, leave alone well executed ads. Ads are becoming more ‘hit and run affairs’, and there’s hardly any space left for careful crafting or painstaking illustration. The few that are happening are happening with an eye kept on the award shows. It’s funny because at one level clients are wanting us to do really good work, but they are unwilling to give us the physical time it requires. And award shows remain the only forum where atleast great craft is getting appreciated!


Who would you want to spend a dinner with?
My wife.

Whats on your iPod?
I don’t have an iPod. 
Mac or PC?
White A3 fullscape. Otherwise Mac.