Josy Paul, Chief Creative Officer, BBDO India, said: “Discovery is beautiful and accidental, but it only happens when you are open to it. Be aware of the forces around you. Seize it, process it, synthesise it. Find a new sound for yourself,” to the second year students of MICA, Ahmedabad.
In a session ‘Creating Acts and not just Ads,’ part of the MICA Leadership Series, Paul spoke of creativity, identifying the forces around, importance of emotional data, and what went behind the path breaking ad campaign 'Share the Load' by Ariel. Reminiscing his days in Ahmedabad, he said, “I remember sitting in Sabarmati Ashram and having an epiphany. Suddenly, it gave me new energy to look at advertising with a whole new point of view. Be aware of the forces around you. Beautiful things are always happening. Every new day is a magical day.”
In pursuit of a creative life
Breaking down his creative process, he said, “The definitions of creativity and the nuances of it have evolved through many stages. As your surroundings change all the time, one needs to keenly observe those changes and surrender to the forces around. This intense awareness is like the opening of the third eye and this form of creativity allows you to create new things and make the mundane interesting.”
Further urging students to understand emotional data, Mr. Paul said, "At BBDO India, we look at emotional data as regularly as important big data. Through the process of creative therapy, we bring divergent people in a room and let them talk about any subject. We do a soul-storming session and from there, we get the emotional data. Thoughts and insights come from lived experiences of people, and we give them a platform.”
Behind the scenes of Ariel’s Share the Load campaign
Sharing insights on changing dynamics of content, he said, “Content is king, but context is King Kong. Content is constantly taking new shapes as it comes and goes, but context becomes a part of our lives.”
Speaking of Ariel’s Share the Load campaign, he said, “It was difficult to outshine an already successfully running and path-breaking campaign of Surf Excel — 'Daag Acche Hai.' Hence, we decided to set a new context and address the elephant in the room. One of the biggest confessions that came from the research is that men only do 19 minutes of household work while women labour for nearly 5 hours. This was the genesis of the campaign. The new context became — Ariel cleans the toughest of stains and anyone can do it.”
“Change will only happen we give a voice to the vulnerable,” he concluded.