AgTalk | I want Rediffusion to be the No. 1 in India: Sam Ahmed

Sam Ahmed personifies creativity at its best. What better proof than his own words to describe his two love-travelling and women. “I was only four when I was wrapped in a beige suit and a clip on blue tie and put on a plane unaccompanied. I flew first class and spent a lot of my time in the cockpit. There were these two beautiful crew girls who took special care of me. Two things happened that day. I fell in love with travel(ling) and I fell in love with woman.”

A veteran in the advertising and communication industry , he has worked for brands like Ford, Nestle, Pepsi, P&G, Colgate-Palmolive, Citibank, Skoda, Jaguar, Sony Ericsson, Du Telecom, Zain Telecom, HTC, Apple and World Gold Council. A director for about over 100 ad films, he has won more than 200 awards in his career which include Cannes Lions, Clio, New York Festival, Epica and others. At the young age of 28, he became the Creative Director of Y&R Dubai, and at 38 he was the Executive Creative Director of the region. After toiling hard and establishing himself in the industry, he decided to come out of his comfort zone and begin something new which would give him a new thrill and excitement.

Ahmed left the advertising world to pursue his passion-film making. It was a difficult decision to quit but it took him a lot of courage and determination to foray in to a new field and it did pay him off.

Sam Ahmed now returns back to where he started from.. His appointment as Vice Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, Rediffusion, last month, marks his return to the advertising world. Adgully had an exclusive interaction with him to know more about his plans and ideas for Rediffusion and to learn about his own personal journey from the world he began to his return back to the same world.

Adgully: Sam, could you please highlight your professional journey till now?

Sam Ahmed:  Yes.  My journey started when I was 19 years old. At that time things were undecided. I joined a much known advertising firm of those time Trikaya, with few of my J.J. School of Arts’ friends from Mumbai. It was my first freelance job. Later, I joined the advertising and communications industry in Dubai. I joined Kanz at the age of 21, I worked with it for few months and then joined Y &R, at the age of 28.Working at Kanz I realized that this job is not meant for me and in some time I got to know about the agency, ‘Team Advertising’ which was later took over by Y &R.  The Y&R portfolio excited me and I spent about 14 years with them. Meanwhile I quit Y &R 4 times to make short-films. I also worked as Creative Director with Richards Carlberg in US for 6 months and came back again and joined Y &R.

AG: Tell us about your new role and your responsibility at Rediffusion?

SA: At present, my role is a very challenging one where I have to generate and create new ideas. But I don’t consider it as a challenge for me as I am enjoying my work at Rediffusion. I feel India is a hub of talented people, and at Rediffusion, I have got a great team. As you can’t format the creative culture, I’ve just removed it, and opened all the doors for my team to go ahead and procreate creative ideas.

AG: India is a totally new market for you, how are you dealing with it?

SA:  I am preparing myself for the Indian market and I feel advertising is all about creating an emotional bond with people. I’ve been to many countries. Language has been a barrier for me in few of them but I managed to overcome that. I succeeded back then and I am confident I’ll do well in India too. My last visit to India was 5-6 year back with Steve McCurry (American Photojournalist) for a shoot, and that was the time when I explored the country.

AG: Is film-making a career that you always intend to pursue?

SA: Film-making is my passion; I shot several short films to learn the craft and film making techniques. There is a lot of travelling involved in this profession. At one point of time you are in Europe and the next day you have to shoot it South Africa.

AG: What did you learn in the process of making a film?

SA: I’ve learnt a lot. It taught me to adapt to situations, mobilizing and networking with new people, connecting with them, and exploring new places and strange lands.

AG: What lead you to be a creative person?

SA: I never thought that I’ll ever land up doing the job of a creative head. But with experience and time I made it to that level.

AG: How would you define ‘film-making’ and ‘advertising’ as per your experience?

SA: For me, film making is a scary job, scarier than working in the advertising world. I can say, film –making is like my girl-friend and advertising is like my mother, it has always been kind to me.

AG: What is your success mantra?

SA:   I think more than the others and keep on generating new ideas. We should have a responsible and a creative team around us who would help us in strengthening our thoughts. Generating a new idea is very important.

AG: Is there any specific brand that you loved working with? What is your take on the brands’ ways of approaching the audiences of today?

SA: It was a different experience working with each brand, for each brought altogether a new and different idea. I believe today brands should work more on creating dialogues to engage the youth of today, rather than just informing them about the functioning of their brand. Today’s youth would not like the ideas or trends which were followed in their father’s generation; they want brands to persuade them with an attitude, through their concept. It is no more just about selling a product. I feel the youth of today wants to be identified by their individual identity rather than be known as a collective group of individuals.

AG: Could you please shed some light upon any major challenges faced by you till now?

SA: I feel the most challenging commercial for me was the Ford commercial, where I could not sleep for 2 weeks. It was a big budget film of 350, 000 dollar. With an amount like this riding on us, the responsibility was huge. It was really a tough task to shoot that.

AG: What is the thing that matters to you the most and what is your style of functioning?

SA: I believe more in result oriented work than process oriented as I focus much on the output.

AG: You have won several awards, so tell us how should an agency work to achieve that level?

SA: The most important task is to win the consumer’s heart and then win the market share for your clients. And once you have gained the trust of your consumers and clients, awards will follow suit automatically.

AG: Is there any goal that Diwan Arun Nanda, (Chairman, Rediffusion) has set for you or you have set for yourself?

SA: Nanda wants Rediffusion to be among the top 3 agencies in the country but I want it to be the No. 1 in India.  But I’ll have to attain the No.3 to go on to be No.1.

AG: Agenda for this year...

SA: Being at Rediffusion, we want to do some great work in India for our clients and for ourselves.

AG: What is your message to the India’s young who are following you?

SA: Advertising is a vast creative field, a fabulous industry, you get to learn a lot here and you are exposed to different brands, different brand culture, You meet talented, confident people every day and that makes you start thinking, thinking about new ideas to satisfy your audience’s needs. You have to invest some precious time to come out with the best ideas and the time spent in thinking for new creative ideas is fun. | By Ranjana Gupta [ranjana(at)adgully.com] & Rabab Rupawala [rabab(at)adgully.com]