The day I stop learning is the day that I should quit: Bobby Pawar

It is a treat to interview Bobby Pawar. Every reply is a nugget and every sentence a learning. His second coming in the industry has been even more illustrious than the first. Pawar, who joined Publicis in mid-2013 was recently elevated to the post of Joint Managing Director, Publicis South Asia along with Partha Sinha. He would continue to wear his Chief Creative Officer hat as well. 

In a freewheeling conversation with Adgully of adgully.com, he discusses his journey in the industry, changes he has witnessed, continuous partial attention and his ambitions for Publicis India in his inimitable style. Read on….

Adgully: You have been a part of Indian Advertising scene for long? Can you take us through some of the changes you have witnessed?

Bobby Pawar: Well, the first bit of change that happened was just when I had joined the Industry. Initially it was a very much print and English dominant kind of industry. Over the next few years, say around 1995, it changed dramatically to being more local language like Hindi. I would say in mid 90s the process accelerated.

Another huge though gradual change almost at the same time was that TV started getting dominant over other mediums. It was the first stage of evolution.

The second evolution started when networks decided that the media would be out of mainline advertising and fragmentation happened. In the so called name of specialisation, not only the fragmentation of skills happened but also the fragmentation of brand happened, which may not have been all good.

To be at the heart of solving problems at both brand and consumer sides, one will have to experiment and figure things out.  It is not necessary what works for one set of people will work for the other as well, so let us hope to see more evolution taking place in the future.

AG: Going forward, do you see separate creative ideas being worked upon for different media?

BP: Of course! We are already doing that. If I think in terms of campaign, then I think have I solved the problem? In the context of a medium I would think what it can do best to fulfil the communication objective. For instance, I can do a TV commercial that appeals to the emotion but use digital to drive information and make it completely factual.

All mediums fulfil different objectives and each has to be successful.

AG: What is your take on predictions about death of traditional media?

BP: I know for sure that nothing truly dies so when people ask me will television die, I don’t think, so they will exist in different forms. Likewise for print, it may not exist on paper but it may exist in other mediums. Whatever religion you might believe in, if you are involved with brands, you must believe in reincarnation of things. You cannot be married to absolute and you cannot be judgemental.

AG: Is digital emerging as a key challenge for creative agencies?

BP: It is a challenge for everybody; it is a challenge for digital agencies as well! Technology enables solution; however, it keeps on changing so how will people adjust to that medium? It would always be a challenge to stay ahead of that technology and to stay ahead of consumer behaviour and find ways of marrying these things to fulfil objectives of your brands and problem that needs to be solved. 

One needs to understand that technology can be creative. It is now in the hands of technology creating people to make it simpler and helpful to provide brilliant solutions.

AG: A number of courses and institutes have come up that claim to teach creative among other things. Do you believe creativity can be taught?

BP: Of course it can be. There are certain aspects of it which are going to be difficult but if you have factuality facilitating right things, it is not going to be difficult. One needs to understand what works and such things come through learning. I also think that some people learn on the job, so every bit of learning is important.

I am not sure whether these courses can change the thinking process, but there are institutes which gives a medium to your talent.  You learn the craft of writing a dialogue, also enabling understanding of how brand works can be taught.

AG: How has the client agency relationship evolved?

BP: Earlier it used to be a marriage but now it is a one night stand. Then people used to talk about building brands for long term, now everybody wants short term gain. When the CEOs are looking at the report, they want more of sales. Other thing that has happened is today’s generation doesn’t stay in their job for very long either on client or agency side. No one today thinks long term. One of the reasons, I think is fragmentation of networks and mediums of advertising. A client may work with same idea with different partners.

AG: What is your take on continuous partial attention, and what role does creative strategy play in nullifying its effect?

BP: I welcome this sort of diminution of attention. It has been happening for a long time and one needs to accept it. Nobody can guarantee that it is not going to happen to your brand, unless it is Harley Davidson.

CPA, no doubt, is happening. Everyone is looking at a number of screens at the same time. When you are young, you don’t pay attention to anything, and when we have so many things affecting us, it is only going to get harder to concentrate. The other factor is we are all getting to consume things in small pieces and one decides on how much to consume.

In such a scenario, creativity and brilliance can come into play. How much you know, how insightful you are and how sharp your thinking is, all these factors matter here.

It is not only about creativity, it is also how much you know, how insightful you are and how sharp your thinking is. Most brands come up with different strategy and try to make something that can work for them.

AG: Talking specifically of Publicis, can you take us through its future roadmap?

BP: Honestly till we have got legs that are willing to walk, there is no map. All I am saying is, we know where we want to go. We have recently done a lot of things and collaborated with different people. Brilliance of our people and their desire to learn are things that are dear to us.

We are well aware that we can’t keep on doing things exactly the same way all the time. We will always experiment and try to change things. One thing I can say with certainty is that we are not going to be how we are now. For instance we are looking to partner for creating and reacting:
You do something that stimulates people and when they react to that you react to their reaction.

What we would like to do in a sense is to create fact learning solution. So that when we put the solution out, we sort of understand how people are reacting to it and change the solution based on that. In a sense it will be a form of self-learning. I believe it can be a big direction for the future. How far are we going for doing it? Well, as of now it is all trial and error.

AG: Publicis has made a number of acquisitions in the recent past. How difficult has it been to imbibe Publicis work culture in them?

BP: It would be really easy to imbibe the culture if we did not have much of a culture. Getting adapted to changes is hard and it takes time. Having said that, even though it took some time, work has begun to shine and is consistently being done.

AG: Are there any plans of acquisition in near future, or you believe your bouquet is complete now?

BP: We at Publicis are very clear that we are not going to acquire just for the sake of it. Acquisitions are not to add a supreme glow but for synergy and value add. It makes sense to build this company and it may be through an acquisition that is trivial at the time. More than acquisitions, the greater need and satisfaction is whom do you partner with. For me that is an open field.

AG: It has been a little more than two years since you joined Publicis. How has the journey been so far?

BP: Some days it has been not so good, some days it has been great, but each day has been an interesting day. There has been change in people, change in culture and that has been exciting. What keeps us more engaged is the leaders of the firm and there are many people in Publicis who have made a difference. We are all on the same page, and we are all pulling the same map in the same direction and that is exciting. The fact that we can have conversations about it and where we want to see ourselves in the future and other stuff like that makes it more exciting.

We try to keep that open minded culture alive. If you cannot provide a good argument and good logic than you should stand by and let something happen. That applies to me first and foremost.

If I could give a word to my journey I would call it challenging in all sorts of great meanings of that word. This is what brings me to work excited every single day because I know for a fact that what we did yesterday is not good enough today.

AG: Do you miss your days in Mudra?

BP: Obviously I do because that changed me completely. In a sense, it was the first place where I was running complete creative product and playing a pivotal role in the company. I had never done that in the past. That will always have a special place in my life, some of those people too will have a special place in my life.

AG: You have emerged a hero from a difficult situation….

BP: I am no hero and that is for sure. Only thing I know is that when you stand in a boxing ring you are going to get punched. Only thing that matter is how you take that punch and how do you fight back. For me, I am never going to be in a trial by the public opinion, it does not matter to me. I have been blessed enough to have a few very good friends and a strong family and their opinion about me is what matters.

Every difficulty is an opportunity and it just opens doors. It makes you stronger and how you move on from there is all that matters at the end of the day. I know it may sound holier than thou but I am thankful for the challenges I have faced. These made me who I am today and will continue to make me better in the future. The simple fact is that the day I stop learning is the day that I should quit.

Zeba Anwar [zeba(at)adgully.com]

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