There are no plans to shelve the Envies: Piyush Pandey

Interview with Executive chairman and creative director (south Asia) at Ogilvy & Mather

Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and creative director (south Asia) at Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), is one of India's best-known advertising professionals, whose agency is regarded as a creative powerhouse. O&M walked away with top honours at the inaugural edition of the Kyoorius D&AD Awards last week. This came at a time when it chose to give the popular Abby Awards a miss. Pandey spoke to Viveat Susan Pinto on what clicked for O&M as well as the upcoming Cannes Ad Fest. Excerpts:

Eleven blue elephants and three black elephants in D&AD is not easy to get. What do you think worked for O&M?

I will put it down to talent and heritage. We have been grooming talent for the last 20 years and we would not have been what we are (today) without the young people on board. Our philosophy is to have younger people on our rolls every year and we give them the space to evolve and grow. The result is the work we produce.

Was there any piece of work that you particularly admired out of the award-winning entries? Was it gratifying to see so many young O&M team members bagging awards?

Our youngsters are the future of Indian advertising and I congratulate them for this victory. Our clients are also the champions who give us the opportunity to do good work. Speaking about my favourite pieces of work, I would say all of them were good. But the one that touched my heart was Google Reunion. The idea of two close friends separated on account of Partition and then reunited by their grand-children who used Google to locate each other was compelling. The highpoint was the story which touched people's hearts. I am not surprised this piece of work bagged a black elephant.

Your second agency Soho Square also opened its account at the Kyoorius D&AD Awards...

Soho Square has just come out of a historic campaign for the Bharatiya Janata Party. A win here (Kyoorius D&AD) is like the icing on the cake. That they bagged it for a popular campaign like Kiss to Drink for Bisleri makes me feel happy and proud. The idea again was interesting. Here was a campaign where you were promoting a stock keeping unit. A 500 ml bottle to be precise. It wasn't thematic advertising. The credit goes to these guys for the humorous way in which the message was delivered.

Will you continue with your internal awards show now that there is an industry awards show that has found resonance with creative people across the board? The purpose of launching the Envies last year was to reward your creative people since you weren't participating in Goafest...

Yes. We will continue with the Envies. We had an internal awards show called Heroes earlier. We relaunched it last year as the Envies and the response to it was phenomenal. This has convinced us that we should continue with it. There are no plans to shelve the Envies.

Do you think the Goafest organising committee is doing enough to address the issues you have with it? Would outsourcing Goafest to a third-party operator help?

I do not know what the solution is. That is for the organising committee to decide. I am not against Goafest. I am against the way it is conducted today. I think they need to introspect and take a call on whether the issues of the industry are being addressed. The moment they get their act together, we will be back.

What are your expectations from Cannes? Are you happy as an industry captain to see the Indian representation on Cannes juries going up through the years?

In 2004, when I was selected to be president of the film, press & outdoor juries at Cannes, I was the only Asian to be given the honour in the history of the festival. Today, Cannes has over 10 Indians on its various jury panels. That is certainly some ground we've covered as an industry.

I feel thrilled that we've gained in stature and that our creative point of view is today considered seriously at the global level, which is why our representation on international jury panels is going up. What are my expectations from Cannes? I prefer not having too many of them. The years when I've had expectations, my hopes were dashed.

The past few years have been particularly tough for the Indian advertising industry with scam ads surfacing every now and again. Aren't Indian creative people gaining a reputation that they can go to any lengths for awards?

Controversy (in advertising) is a worldwide phenomenon. It is not restricted to India. When you walk the edge, at times, you get the flak for it. All you can do is: take it in your stride and move on.