Life after Ogilvy: Abhijit Avasthi

Soft spoken, calm, and a keen observer, that’s what comes to your mind when you look at Abhijit Avasthi at first. After you start having a conversation with him you realise that it is all not just true but he’s also very humble.

Abhijit Avasthi, former National Creative Director with Ogilvy and Mathers, quit Ogilvy last October and has been off official work since then.

He is known as one of the most lethal creative minds in the industry. His journey in the advertising sector began 17 years ago at Enterprise Nexus (now Bates) as a trainee writer. Before joining Ogilvy in 1999 he has worked at a textile dye unit, a steel plant and sold saris and matchboxes. He had been with O&M for nearly 15 years before taking a break from work in last October.

When Adgully caught up with him in a candid conversation, he described his journey as one which is unexplainable in words and in the little time we spoke to him. He said it was one of the most honest and most beautiful journeys he has been through. The inspiration he has got for all the campaigns he has worked on, some of them won top international and national awards as well. He also threw light on the current industry scenario, about the future of the industry etc. Edited excerpts:

 

Adgully (AG): How has life been after moving from Ogilvy?

Abhijit Avasthi (AA): It’s been fabulous because i have a lot of personal time. I Got chance to do a lot of things which could not be done earlier because of the hectic nature of my job. I travel a lot, get chance to catch up with people and spend time with my family and friends. Now i have a chance to catch up on lot of readings and movies.

(AG): So, which book are you reading right now?

(AA): Currently I am reading the Book on How Google Works.

(AG): Are you working on any projects currently?

(AA): No projects right now, right now I am totally and absolutely in a chilling mode. So my only projects are friends and family and whatever interest me possibly.

(AG): So any future ventures that you are looking at?

(AA): Yes I have started to think about what to do next, finally eventually I have to get back on to the work mode. I have started putting my thinking cap on, but I am nowhere close to deciding what I want to do next.

(AG): So are there any particular verticals of clients you are looking at?

(AA): No I can’t. Because right now I am fully blue sky gazing, obviously it will draw from whatever I have learnt in the last so many years. I want to do new things I don’t want to do more of the same. In a way obviously it will have something to do with the creative field. I don’t think I have made my mind on that.

(AG): What do you have to say about so many creative hotshops?

(AA): I think it’s a good thing, everybody should follow their dreams and if they can be successful in doing so, then it’s a win-win for everybody.

(AG): There is an Industry trend where most of the clients favour only known faces to do the pitch. What do you have to say about this trend?

(AA): There are all kinds of organisations, there are some organisations who want familiar faces to present the work because they feel it sort of inspires confidence in them if they see such a senior person is presenting as his belief is also behind the work of the presentation. They are very conscious of it but some of them are unconscious of it as well. Like if their MD is sitting for the pitch presentation, why a junior presenting or why their senior creative person or the Director not presenting, so there are some organisations which ask for that. There are also some organisations which do not care who is presenting they are just interested in knowing the idea.

(AG): So what do you think about the young talented professionals in our Industry and are they at par with International level?

(AA): In certain areas we are definitely lacking behind I think when it comes to craft we are way behind international standard.  Naturally we are in the learning process of the Digital base or slightly advanced design stuff or even in the variety of writing. I put this issue in perspective because young talents are not getting the opportunity to display what they can. Many of the time the problem are clients not being open to trying out something new they want the tried formula or what could have worked for them in the past and this happens quite often. They borrow from the successor of the past and they try to take it forward which I think is very dangerous and that is also one of the reason that a lot of youngsters are not able to display the talent they have.

(AG): While looking at the current trend of advertisements being emotionally driven, do you think that the uniqueness is losing out?

(AA): I think you can’t do effective advertising if you don’t have emotional touch to it, either emotion can be something warm, soft and sentimental or whether its laugh-out-loud humour.  I mean you can’t connect with the person on the other side if your advertising is deprived of emotion which has always been there. I don’t think it’s a trend or anything I would say it’s a necessity. If you don’t have an emotional connect with the audience they won’t give you a second thought.

(AG): A number of advertisements are focusing on women issues. Do you feel it is being done to boost sales?

(AA): I believe that most of the clients are trying to make a connection with the masses out there, you take up issues that matter to them and if people believe that there is a big franchise out there (like for women issues) for audience, they will build on topics which they believe are important to women. Increasingly in our society women are playing a bigger role when it comes to decision on what to bring in the house and in so many more areas. So it’s natural that the number of advertisement targeting women will increase exponentially and I think it’s only logical.

(AG): So are our advertisements at par with International level?

(AA): Our average television standard is better than most places of the world, it is fantastic and this is not just my observation but it is a sentiment echoed by so many people who travel. People who live in the US or the UK, when they come to India and see our commercial, I think they definitely feel that our average standard is so much better than in the US entertainment, and it is not only about pure information, personality and serial or by any product also. In terms of some of the other parameters some of the other media I think we can still improve a little bit more.

(AG): What do you think about this new trend of creating communication or advertisement and putting it just on YouTube while it does not go live on television? So do you feel that the television commercial is kind of dead?

(AA): No I don’t think so, I think both are channels and both serve their own purpose and I feel both are necessary to communicate to people because there are a whole number of people who are viewers to both. While actually in terms of viewership television are way far ahead and there are areas and places where people are more attached to the television pattern than YouTube, that’s a big difference. The way people have appointment viewing with television nobody has that for YouTube this makes huge difference as well. While it also depends on which market or the audience you are catering to, you can’t go without either.

(AG): What could be some of the highlights of your life at Ogilvy?

(AA): It’s been a hugely enriching part of my life both personally and professionally. I have learned so much over there and have had the chance to be surrounded by such phenomenal talent. I mean just the chance to be part of truly one of the best creative organisation in the world is itself satisfying. No doubt about it it’s been a great journey.

I had the chance to work on some fabulous brands, worked in a great time had a chance to create work which people loved around in India. The biggest reward that any creative person can get is when you travel and meet people whom you don’t know, are not connected to and they tell you how much they love your work I think that is hugely satisfying. It’s been a fabulous 15 year of which each day was great.

Exclusives
@adgully

News in the domain of Advertising, Marketing, Media and Business of Entertainment

More in Exclusives