Surf Excel, Idea Cellular, ICICI’s Jeete Raho... R. Balakrishnan aka Balki, the boss at Lowe Lintas, shares his vision with 4Ps B&M
Here’s one marketing genius who has always
believed in pushing the envelope. Small surprise then that the last month of this year saw R. Balakrishnan, the unassuming National Creative Director of Lowe being elevated to Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of the agency. Somehow it is difficult to see the title sit smugly on the T-shirt donned shoulders of this creative powerhouse, but then in an industry where the creative product’s centrality to the biz is becoming all-encompassing, Balki’s creative fireworks are set to create a trend.
You’ve created waves with Idea Cellular, Tata Tea and ICICI campaigns. Which are your personal favourites?
All the three communication campaigns that you mentioned were immensely satisfying. We believed that Indian customers are open to anything that is fresh, new, exciting and interesting, embracing the attractions of surprise and delight. We also thought it might be a good idea to go beyond the conventional route of product promise and enter the area of social messaging. I believe that today’s clients are way ahead of their ad agencies in terms of ideas and have no problem connecting with engaging concepts. They are an educated, enlightened and empowered lot, make no mistake!
But why the unconventional route?
My agenda was very clear: rock the boat, disturb status quo, make waves. I like to create and generate work that is uncomfortable and unconventional (remember Hoodi Baba?) and makes people sit up and take notice. Boredom and political correctness are the biggest enemies of advertising. The other thing is that contrary to one school of thought, ideas need not necessarily be clever, gimmicky or humorous to catch attention. They just need to be interesting by exploring different facets of human emotion.
What does 2008 look like?
I think we have taken advertising to the next level which means fresh challenges and opportunities. Clients will increasingly put pressure on us to raise the bar so, as an industry, we need to constantly push ourselves to do better. We need to explore within ourselves and come up with stuff that engages. And before I forget, 200% of this year was devoted to my first directional venture Cheeni Kum. It was an amazing experience because both creatively and box office wise, the movie struck target. I am in the process of writing my second film, starring Amitabh & Abhishek.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
Here’s one marketing genius who has always
believed in pushing the envelope. Small surprise then that the last month of this year saw R. Balakrishnan, the unassuming National Creative Director of Lowe being elevated to Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of the agency. Somehow it is difficult to see the title sit smugly on the T-shirt donned shoulders of this creative powerhouse, but then in an industry where the creative product’s centrality to the biz is becoming all-encompassing, Balki’s creative fireworks are set to create a trend.You’ve created waves with Idea Cellular, Tata Tea and ICICI campaigns. Which are your personal favourites?
All the three communication campaigns that you mentioned were immensely satisfying. We believed that Indian customers are open to anything that is fresh, new, exciting and interesting, embracing the attractions of surprise and delight. We also thought it might be a good idea to go beyond the conventional route of product promise and enter the area of social messaging. I believe that today’s clients are way ahead of their ad agencies in terms of ideas and have no problem connecting with engaging concepts. They are an educated, enlightened and empowered lot, make no mistake!
But why the unconventional route?
My agenda was very clear: rock the boat, disturb status quo, make waves. I like to create and generate work that is uncomfortable and unconventional (remember Hoodi Baba?) and makes people sit up and take notice. Boredom and political correctness are the biggest enemies of advertising. The other thing is that contrary to one school of thought, ideas need not necessarily be clever, gimmicky or humorous to catch attention. They just need to be interesting by exploring different facets of human emotion.
What does 2008 look like?
I think we have taken advertising to the next level which means fresh challenges and opportunities. Clients will increasingly put pressure on us to raise the bar so, as an industry, we need to constantly push ourselves to do better. We need to explore within ourselves and come up with stuff that engages. And before I forget, 200% of this year was devoted to my first directional venture Cheeni Kum. It was an amazing experience because both creatively and box office wise, the movie struck target. I am in the process of writing my second film, starring Amitabh & Abhishek.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist)
No comments:
Post a Comment