The importance of being Piyush Pandey
“When Piyush pens his thoughts, he is no different from how he is in person – simple, direct, insightful” – Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group.
On August 2, 2022, Piyush Pandey, Chairman Global Creative & Executive Chairman India, Ogilvy, completed 40 glorious years with Ogilvy in India. He started his career in account management and spent close to over five years managing brands at Ogilvy Mumbai. But while he was in account management, he sported a double hat and was simultaneously involved in working on lines and translations in Hindi for some of the brands and helped the servicing teams who were struggling to get some quality original Hindi translations. He was encouraged by the then creative director Suresh Mullick who later on asked Piyush to head the Indian languages cell which he then expanded into a full-fledged creative team that included bilingual people fluent in their own language and who came out with original concepts. The approach to language campaign was redefined and every campaign was conceived independently to address the audience of that region. He was then promoted to a larger role and piloted the creative function at the national level.
Piyush has been continuously reinventing himself and never allowed the quality of the creative standards come down at any point of time at the agency. Instead, he ensured that the graph only went up, as each year they picked up several local and international awards consistently. He was conferred with the Padma Shri in 2016. Along with his brother, Prasoon Pandey, Piyush was conferred with the Lion of St Mark lifetime achievement award at Cannes Lions 2018. He was named the most influential man in Indian advertising for 10 years in a row by the Economic Times. He was also awarded the Life time achievement award by AAAI in 2010 and was the only person to get the Lifetime Achievement Awardat the CLIO Awards, New York. Awards poured non-stop as this iron man of Indian advertising stood always tall and has been the industry thought leader and brand ambassador not only for India but also for the whole world for over two decades.
He has been the man behind several iconic campaigns like Fevicol, Cadbury’s, Asian Paints and Perfetti and was very closely associated with Suresh Mullick for the ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’ film, where he penned the lyrics. In his early days he did some memorable work like ‘Chal Meri Luna’, for Luna mopeds, ‘Lambi race ka ghoda’ for Kinetic Spark and ‘Dil Ki baat’ for Britannia Vital Oil, among many, many others. While awards meant a lot for Piyush to encourage the creative team but he also ensured that every campaign created by Ogilvy is relevant and works for the brand at the market place.
His contribution to the industry can never be measured as some of the best talent which came from Ogilvy later on joined other agencies in the industry to lead thecreative of their respective agency. Sonal Dabral, Prasoon Joshi, Bobby Pawar, Rajiv Rao, Abhijit Avasthi, Ajay Gauhlat, Pushpinder Singh, Ramanuj Shastri and Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, to name a few, worked very closely with Piyush at Ogilvy.
Piyush’s intuition and understanding of the client’s challenges is very amazing. He strongly believed in the power of observation which always helped him think deepto cull outthose powerful insights for every campaign. He had this childlike enthusiasm and his deep commitment with great passion that helped him create path breaking work which solved the client’s problem. Over a span of time in his career he has helped and breathe life and soul to many brands through the deep understanding of the roots and culture of India’s hinterland. His campaigns for the Literacy mission and Pulse Polio simply touched the hearts of millions of people across the length and breadth of the country.
One of the biggest strengths of Piyush is that he never gets upset or disturbed when a particular script is not approved. He quickly comes back and revisits that script and finds a new and better solution for the client. This has been an amazing quality that he has built over a period of time that has helped him bond stronger relations with the clients and also earned huge respect from them.
Also read:
India @75: When Piyush Pandey became emotional about ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’
I’ve never planned my career, but have taken every day as a game: Piyush Pandey
India ends Cannes Lions quest in a Grand manner; Pandey Brothers add to cheer
Adgully spoke to some industry stalwarts who have either worked with Piyush Pandey or have been a client to know the advertising guru better.
Lloyd Mathias, Business Strategist and a former senior marketer at PepsiCo, Motorola & HP, (who was a client of Ogilvy while working on Motorola):
“I had the privilege of working closely with Piyush Pandey when I was Marketing Head of Motorola in the heydays of the Moto RAZR. Piyush was closely involved with the whole process of reimagining the brand – from a tech-oriented product to one that redefined the mobile phone as a lifestyle statement.
He sat in on working sessions, ideated with the creative directors Abhijit Avasthi and Emmanuel Upputuru to bring out campaigns that shook the dominant market leader in the category – Nokia. Piyush was in on every detail and leant his considerable clout within the Ogilvy ecosystem to persuade the Motorola corporate team in Chicago of the advantage of signing on Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan.
What stands out about Piyush Pandey is his deep commitment to the brand, his passion to deliver creative that alters consumer behaviour and his ability to play with the larger team as an equal – many of whom are overawed by his considerable stature.”
Prasoon Pandey, Director, Corcoise Films:
“When you work with Piyush closely, the first thing that strikes you is that his approach to building relationships is completely different from everything you may know about building relationships. From the first interaction itself, he treats you like his own; gives you room, trust and respect like you were always his close friend. It is almost like he begins each relationship as if it has already been built. That is how he is with not just with directors, but also clients, music directors, editors and office colleagues. And that is precisely what gives everyone, a shot of adrenalin while working with him.
The other strikingly unique thing about him is that he always narrates only the soul of his idea and every single time in just one short sentence – precise, deep and incisive. Like he will say, “Yaar, ye idea suno – The big Indian joint family. Celebrated by Fevicol”. He has this uncanny ability to hit the core of an idea in order to reach out to the heart of his audience, after which he would offer his complete trust to you with where you will set the film, how it will open, what you will cut to, etc. That is just craft and he does not allow himself to get distracted by it. Like Arjun, he focuses only on the eye of the bird.
I think the most obvious example of this is when we see how his words “Mile sur mera tumhara” touched the entire nation. That was in 1987. In the 32 years since, 32 more films have been made and released on respective Independence Days, all with multiple celebrities singing together at multiple locations and so forth; but none could impact the nation as a whole like “Mile sur”. I guess because Piyush knew that while celebs coming together to sing for something was impressive, it is not the idea. The idea lay in his words “Mile sur mera tumhara, toh sur bane hamara”. The words were deep but simple, just like the man himself.”
Govind Pandey CEO TBWA India:
“When I joined Ogilvy, Piyush was heading the creative of the Mumbai office. I have very fond memories of Piyush. He was a formative influence in my early years professionally and I tried to pick up a lot from my interactions. Firstly, his philosophy of work and life has been shaped by years of playing cricket and from growing up being part of a large family. He knows how to build a strong team and lead it from the front. Like he used to always say play front foot fearlessly. He knew the emotions of being part of a large family and the dynamics of relating and connecting.
He had the knack of bringing that Indianness with strong ideas so effortlessly and with ease which was his biggest plus point that touched the hearts of millions. He is a tough competitor and a fighter who never believes in giving up. He is a natural storyteller with immense self-belief that gave his work an original and a distinctive voice. He even now continues to inspire the current generation to believe that kuch khas hai hum sabhi mein.”
Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar,Chief Creative Officer, Contract Advertising India:
“If you find the right person who inspires you and gets the best out of you then just hold on to them for the rest of your life.
I did just that. I left Ogilvy in 2007. But every time I faced any kind of challenge, I asked one question to myself “Agar is jagah Piyush hota to kya karta?” That’s how he ended up guiding me even after I left Ogilvy.
I remembered my first meeting with Piyush in the Bangalore office. I was keen to take a transfer to Mumbai because I wanted to be close to my parents. Sanjay Naik introduced me to him and said, “he is a good boy and would like to come to Mumbai”. Piyush asked me “What do you do?” I said, “I am an opening batsman”. He smiled and I knew… I shifted from Ogilvy Mumbai in 1995/96.
I was lucky enough to play cricket with him. No one can hide his basic instinct in sports. I saw his cricketing brain and knew I am dealing with someone very special here.
"Kuch khaas hai hum sabhi mein" was written by Piyush for Cadburys, which then became an anthem for Ogilvy’s young small-town boys. I was one of them. This anthem gave me confidence and helped me to fly in a world I had just newly become a part of.
His basic value system has always been strong with his most important quality being the refined ability to treat people with so much respect that it makes them feel good about themselves. From lift man to visa counter guy at the airport, to colleagues. Very few leaders can do that. These leaders are not made in corporate culture, neither in workshops and nor in client meetings. They are made through the support of his parents, teachers, middle class grounded upbringing and joint family culture.
My Journey at Ogilvy was outstanding. It was in-between Vada Pao to Jaipur ki Dal Kachori to French food at Cannes. If you pay attention to great work, everything else will follow, which has held its weight throughout the years. He never believed in numbers and 40, I’m sure, is also just another number to him. One big thing which I have learnt from him is that no matter who you are in your organisation, don’t let it affect your craft. I don’t think I‘ll ever forget that. We didn’t join the organisation to write timesheets and just do administrative tasks. I hope to carry this passion forward along with his habit of writing ‘Om’ on top of every piece he creates.
Lastly, I’d like to leave the question he asked us ever so often, “Udana aata hai?”. After some time, I understood what he meant. It means – Is this the best you can do? He knew exactly how much to push to get the best out of us. Piyush, thank you for everything.”
Ramanuj Shastry, Co-Founder, Director, Infectious:
“When I joined O&M as a trainee writer in November 1994, Piyush was already NCD. I was too junior to work directly with him, but I have certainly seen him work. He is a natural leader – inspiring, just and meritocratic. He is a brilliant creative and a fantastic presenter. Nobody works harder than him. I have never seen him lose it on anyone. He pulls up people in private and praises them in public. He always has his team’s back. He answers the dumbest question of the junior-most client without a hint of derision and with absolute politeness. He wields his power lightly. He never forgets to laugh his booming laugh, no matter how terrible the day is. My learnings from this ‘force of nature’ are too numerous to put down here. I am eternally grateful just to be in the same office with him for the first five years of my advertising career.”