Ciao '14 | Evaluating 2014 with Pops .!!!

The advertising industry surely witnessed the biggest jerk and a shock during the year gone by when Pops aka KV Sridhar, one of the big daddies of advertising said good bye to the ad-world, after bidding adieu Leo Burnett and said ‘Ola’ to the digital domain while entering SapientNitro. 

During the launch of one of the digital creative films of Sapient nitro, Adgully caught up with Pops, Chief Creative Officer, SapientNitro to evaluate the year gone by, comprehend his stint at the new company and how is finding the shift of industry.  Below are the excerpts:

Adgully: Undoubtedly the year gone by was a memory for you, as you shifted From Leo Burnett to SapientNitro. How has the transition and journey been?
Pops: It is been a very exciting journey so far as I am really enjoying this partnership of technology and creativity…I have been taught a lot many new things during this phase. At the end of the day, what matters is the fact that how you tell a brand to story to your consumers. The last six seven months have just been full of understanding and learning and blending creativity and technology together.

Adgully: It’s time to welcome the New Year and bid adieu 2014, how have you planned to welcome 2015?
Pops: Well, I am not going for a year- end holiday….!!! There will be a lot projects coming up this January and the focus will be on leveraging services and brand stories which Indian audiences have never experienced before with innovative use of technology. Being a new breed of the agency culture, SapientNitro will be seen leveraging enterprise expertise to e-commerce to internet marketing to understanding brands and communicating across all platforms. We are focusing towards coming up with a new campaign every fortnightly.

Adgully: What was the biggest clutter breaking event in the media/ad-world that you witnessed in the year gone by?
Pops:  The biggest change that we witnessed was the shift in focus towards digital whether it’s a marketer or the consumer. Interestingly today we see some of very well-produced internet films and usage of long-format storytelling by brands which clearly marks the growth of the domain.

Adgully: According to you which have been the best digital ads of 2014?
Pops: Though India is still at a nascent stage of digital advertising as the brands still take digital advertising as just Facebook and some banner ads, but still some of the brand stories that I liked were: Fortune’s Ghar Ka Khana, Nescafe’s it-all-starts and the three webisodes of DBS Bank’s Chilli Paneer. I feel all these ads were quite good and experimental.

Adgully: Since Sapient is a technology company and not a digital agency so how has your expertise and strengths helped Sapient since you have joined?
Pops: Though quite difficult to express what I have contributed to SapientNitro but what is all the more important is to understand what expertise SapientNitro is bringing in. Undoubtedly my experience with lots of bigger brands in India will obviously add value to the company. So I believe it’s a fair marriage of creativity and technology.  

Adgully: As New Year is around the corner, what is the most important task in your hand?
Pops: To deliver work…we are working on another campaign…in short I will be working this December therefore no New Year vacation.

Adgully: Which are the new brands that you worked upon?
Pops: Though I can’t reveal names but every fortnightly everybody will see a new campaign coming up…We are working on a big television campaign with a big Bollywood star…..all that I can tell is this…!

Adgully: What is SapientNitro's core strength? 
Pops: SapientNitro’s core strength lies in effectively mixing creativity and technology and delivering best to its client. We use creativity and technology to tell a brand story which should be catchy and innovative. 

Adgully: What trends do you visualize in the media and advertising space in the next couple of years?
Pops: Shift to digital and going beyond the realms of 30-second story-telling format are some of the biggest trends I can visualize. | By Aanchal Kohli | Twitter: @aanchalkohli