The hardest part of advertising is to get cultural conversations going: Tor Myhren

Interview with Chief creative officer, Grey

Tor Myhren, worldwide chief creative officer of WPP agency group Grey, is on his first trip to India since taking over as the agency's global creative head from veteran Tim Mellors in October 2013. Among the youngest global creative heads in the advertising world (he is in his early 40s), Myhren says he ranks India as one of Grey's top five agency operations, the others being the US, UK, Brazil and China. In this interview with Viveat Susan Pinto, Myhren explains what he expects from the Indian creative team, led by Malvika Mehra, one of the few women national creative directors in Indian advertising. Edited excerpts:

It took you almost a year and a half to make your first trip to India since your appointment as worldwide creative head. Why the delay?

I've always wanted to come to India. I'm glad I did. I've been here almost two weeks and my trip has been truly inspiring; soaking in the sights, sounds, culture, people. Yes, I couldn't make it earlier. My schedule didn't permit me. But I intend to compensate for this by trying to come here once every year. Specifically, what brought me to India was our global creative council, which was held here in Neemrana, Rajasthan. This is only the second time that Grey's global creative council has been held in India. The first one was a few years ago. A total of 16 creative heads, including me, were here. We brainstormed and evaluated work from our various offices.

What were the takeaways from the global creative council?

With the media environment being as busy as it is, you have to have some level of fame attached to your work. This is in order for it to be super effective in the marketplace. That is how we judge our work, not by the Cannes Lions it wins, but whether it is famous in culture. Are people talking about it? Has it managed to engage consumers in some way? If that happens the awards will come. But the hardest part is to get people talking about your work. To get cultural conversations going.

Is this your brief to Malvika, who heads creative operations here?

That's my brief to not just Malvika, but to every single creative head in our 130 offices across the world. If you do work in popular culture, which finds its way into conversations, awards will follow. This is a pretty high bar I've set, but that's what I am pushing my creative people to do, including Malvika and the team here. The only way to crack the code is to find inspiration outside advertising. The old way has been to look for inspiration within advertising, but I am saying that you have to find inspiration outside it. And secondly, you have to be provocative. This doesn't mean you have to be controversial, though sometimes it will follow if you are provocative. All I am saying is ensure there is some level of fame or recognition to your work. That is what will get you noticed.

Has anything from India met your standards?

There was some work here for Gillette which I liked. The Clean India (Swachh Bharat) campaign that the office here is working on. That work is good. So is the work for female foeticide. But I expect more from India since it ranks among the top five operations for us globally. The others include the US, UK, Brazil and China.

Given India's importance, will you promote some of the people here to regional or global roles?

Malvika is already part of the global creative council. We don't have a regional creative director in Asia-Pacific. We are looking for an individual to fill that slot. Much depends on his or her personality, work, ability to handle pressure.... If there is a worthy candidate from here, why not.