Born in Iran, raised in Austria, and educated in France, Amir Kassaei settled in Germany in 1997, gaining experience early in his career in a variety of roles ranging from account manager to strategic planner to art director and designer at agencies such as TBWA, Barci & Partner and Springer & Jacoby. In 2003, Kassaei joined DDB as chief creative officer and associate partner of DDB Germany, where he quickly helped reshape the agency. After joining the agency, he transformed it into one of the most creative and successful agencies in Germany. Under his leadership, DDB Germany has also been ranked the most awarded German agency in the Gunn Report. In February 2011, Kassaei was appointed chief creative officer of DDB Worldwide. He has worked on behalf of an impressive range of brands, including Allianz, Apple, Adidas, Bosch, Coca-Cola, McDonald?s, Nike, Reebok and Volkswagen. In this interview with FE Brandwagon?s Anushree Chandran, Kassaei talks about how creativity is defined at DDB and the way the agency tackles problems faced by brands, and also how creative agencies need to respond to the changing worldwide economic scenario. Edited excerpts:
How did your association start with DDB?
I?ve been associated with DDB for nearly ten years now. Or maybe more.
I was asked to take over the German arm of DDB. At that point in time, DDB in Germany wasn?t just a bad agency; it was on the brink of death. The job was to turn it around and build a great agency of it. This seemed like an impossible challenge at that point in time, especially with the history of DDB in the country. It went on to be not just one of the most creative and successful agencies in Germany but also around the world. I was running the German operations for eight years and then the DDB people in the US asked me if I?d like to take on a global role. This is what I am doing now. At DDB, we have a rich tradition and heritage of creative advertising. We are the ?Apple? of the advertising industry. Everything around us changes. The technology is changing. The media landscape is changing. The world is changing. But the purpose of the company?to conceive the best work for our brands? will never change.
Could you talk about a recent marketing problem that you have solved?
I would like to talk about the McDonald?s case in Canada. The challenge was that McDonald?s doesn?t have the best reputation when it comes to being transparent about their products and ingredients. So a lot of people are questioning how McDonald?s is preparing its products; whether the products are healthy, etc. The challenge that the client had in Canada was to convince people that it was a trustworthy and honest brand. We came up with the idea of using digital infrastructure and real-time marketing and giving people the opportunity to ask McDonald?s whatever they wanted to. That?s an amazing example of how people?s mindset changed towards the brand after that exercise. This is not an ?advertising? idea. It?s a marketing solution. That?s how we define creativity at DDB. Our job is to create relevance whether it is at the product level, distribution level or consumption level.
With the economic slowdown, what are some of the changes you see happening in your immediate environment?
It?s interesting because the whole system of capitalism and its notion of growth based on quantity is being questioned. And this has happened since 2008. A lot of people are thinking whether there?s a better way of defining capitalism and how it functions. We were behaving in a certain way, because the markets were behaving in a certain way. But the markets will not work the same way anymore. It?s becoming increasingly obvious that we need to rethink the entire economic system. A lot of people are also questioning ? what are the really important things in life? Is it really consumerism and the stuff that I buy that defines me? As far as ad budgets go, Asia is growing among world markets and so is South America and USA. But because of the European crises, the clients in Europe are cautious. Europe is kind of flat. Middle East and Africa is a region that?s difficult for us historically because we were never strong in that region. We need to build that up.
Are you happy with your India operations?
Even though the official fusion between Mudra and DDB only happened last year, we have had a long and successful relationship with Mudra spanning many years. We?ve always felt connected to them. DDB India, in the last couple of years, has become one of the ten best agencies across the DDB network. Looking at the potential and the talent here, I see DDB India in the long term being among the best three or five agencies in the world. That?s how I am seeing it.