Interview: Josy Paul, chairman & chief creative officer, BBDO India

‘Al will democratise creativity’

'Creativity has the power to create meaningful actions when it starts with deep listening'

BBDO’s advertising campaigns for Ariel have consistently ignited discussions on the imperative of gender equality at home. Josy Paul, chairman & chief creative officer of BBDO India and the creative brain behind this initiative, offers insights into the agency’s advertising philosophy in an interview with Geetika Srivastava. He offers perspectives on navigating the evolving landscape of advertising amidst the growing influence of generative AI. Edited excerpts:

You say you believe in creating “acts” not “ads”. Can you elaborate?

When we began in 2008, we used to work out of coffee shops. We did not have an office in Mumbai for nine months. Our office was the backseat of my car. We were listening to what young people were saying. “Don’t tell me, involve me”, they said. There was a clear bias for action. Around that time, my CEO partner Ajai Jhala and I visited the Sabarmati Ashram. We understood the power of symbolic acts that lead to big movements. And then something happened to us in front of the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai on the first anniversary of 26/11. These experiences led to an epiphany. That’s how the mantra of ‘Create Acts, Not Ads’ was born. It inspired us to create long-term engaging platforms for various brands like Gillette, Ariel, Whisper, Mirinda, All Out, 7 Up, GE, Aviva, and Quaker Oats. ‘Acts not Ads’ is a way of building brand love and affinity that results in transformational business growth.

How do you see generative AI impacting the industry? How ready is the agency to harness the new technology?

Al will democratise creativity. But emotional intelligence is what will make the difference. It’s like the invention of the printing press, or any tool that multiplies human capability. It’s what you do with it, and how you do it that makes the difference. In a world where AI will have all the answers, the question will be the king. Our greatest challenge will be — how to ask the right questions and give the best prompts.

That’ll come from emotional intelligence. That is our human X-factor. When it comes to building brands, it still starts with the human element — be it observation, insights, confessions.

Creativity has the power to create meaningful actions when it starts with deep listening.

In a digital world, where people’s attention spans do not last longer than 30 seconds and short video content rules the roost, what is the definition of the perfect advertisement?

It’s a world of duality. People skip 30-second ads, but people also binge-watch eight-hour episodes. For everything said the opposite is true. It all depends on how engaging and relatable the content is and how meaningful is the message. It’s not about the length of the content it’s about the depth of the context.

As technology invades the creative space, what are some of the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the advertising industry in India today?

There will be changes — talent will churn; clients will cut budgets; margins will shrink and media will get fragmented. But some things will always stay the same: Ideas will rule. Empathy will connect. Data will seek humanity. Content will be king and context will be “King Kong”. Everything is opportunity.

We have heard this ad nauseam: the industry is going through much turmoil — new technologies are changing older ways of doing things, business is running low on both talent and money and of course there is the consumer who has less and less time — what are the three skills that agency folks must learn ASAP?

First, Alexa is listening, Siri is listening, your phone is listening. Isn’t it time we started listening? Creativity is sensitivity in a world where no one is listening. So start with deep listening.

Second, make friends with AI.

And third, walk with people who are not like you. Diversity opens possibilities. On that note, try and interact with students across the country. They’ll blow your mind.

You are having a long innings with P&G. Which is easier for BBDO — nurturing relationships or attracting exciting new businesses?

We’ve been working with P&G for over nine years now. Ariel’s #ShareTheLoad campaign is in its ninth year. It’s among the longest-running campaigns in the world and been recognised as the most effective campaign in the world, twice in a row. Our work is what attracts new businesses. It’s all about the work. Some of our work that’s impacted business and society are WhatsApp’s ‘Message Privately’, Ariel’s #ShareTheLoad, Whisper’s #TouchThePickle, 7 Up’s #LemonPatallam and so on.

We have a very entrepreneurial culture in our offices. We have inspiring stories of how enterprising people are here and how we have gate crashed pitches and walked away with the clients. This culture is that of a collective and we don’t just have account management getting leads, our creative and planning teams are equally passionate about finding opportunities and converting them. Walk into our office ‘ashram’ to feel the energy of the collective.