Chillies 2008 - All Baila, No Ooomph?

Chillies 2008 - All Baila, No Ooomph?

Rumble in the Jungle – Colombo, Chillies and SCAM Ads

My interpretation of Sri Lanka’s brand clutter and the way agencies seek any which way to win.

I personally think that this scam thing has been blown out of proportion. Originally after last years Chillies when the rumblings started, it should have been addressed at that moment in time. Not in the advent of this years Chillies. I understand that many agencies have been caught literally with their pants down. My question is why do you want to do it anyway and what exactly is the interpretation of a scam.

Here but a few of my practical experiences;

When I started at Phoenix in a baptism of fire. I was dumped into an insurance account by Boss (Yes, I still call him that as he is the only human I truly respect unreservedly in the ad industry), Boss thought that I would get the full and unconditional support of my fellow colleagues. As in Sri Lanka’s ad industry this was never to be. But what I found really strange was the element of freedom and trust he bestowed upon the account handlers.

And much to my surprise he called me into his office one day just two weeks into my service there and informed me that he wanted to prove a point. This was in the 1990’s and clients were suspicious or did not understand the value of foreign TVC productions and Boss informed me that the point we needed to prove was it was better. So we were launching a new brand and Leonard in Malaysia produced the TVC.

Fully paid for by Phoenix! The creative was the esteemed Anjelo Fernando, clients were Stuart Chapman and Wiranjan Peiris. So obviously we won with the Supreme Life TVC that year! Obviously we were way ahead in the category, in terms of the idea and both the production values that strived for excellence. Therefore, not limiting the creative thinking or the effectiveness of the message.

And to me this was a superb baptism to Phoenix’s way of thinking and working.

Then there was British Airways. Working with the dearly departed Aunty Jo (Joanna Miles) and Subhash! Many were the days that Sub suffered in silence at Jo’s apartment with his layout pad, listening to Jo’s and my inane ramblings over a bottle of Mendis Special, yes Jo’s drink of choice! But we sat there and discussed the various Comms opportunities for British Airways, most importantly it was always discussed without boundaries. The single goal in mind was that as long as I made sure it fit the clients brief, Jo and Sub set out to create outstanding, award winning advertising. That goal was set in stone.

I remember presenting the Dubai stopover campaign to BA. Sitting in the lovable Joe Rajadurai’s office at the trans Asia with a raving hangover from the night before. Joe, Kevin Steele and another marketing guy from Bombay. Joe expected and demanded that his agency people were quirky. He was happy that way.

So I sit in front of all these gents eagerly waiting to see this campaign and I talk to them about how I was feeling really horny that morning and how hangovers always make you feel that way. We were four men suddenly discussing how true this was! Then I described this delectable young lady I saw in the bus stop on my way to work in a white chiffon see-through Saree (sorry ladies, even though we refuse to admit it, it is true, when not in your company, most men conversation’s is about sex) and how seeing her made my journey so much better.

And then I said you know “Every journey has a beginning and an end. It’s the middle that counts”. This had all three of them nodding in agreement.

And I said “Dubai in the middle”!

They were dazzled, they suddenly realised all this time I was selling them the campaign!

The lines I used were Aunty Jo’s, from the campaign! It was a simple B&W teaser. We won gold for that at the awards. The question is did I scam the client? Or was it just old-fashioned good old account handling and excellent salesmanship?

But all along with BA; Aunty Jo, Sub and I constantly looked for ways to surpass creative boundaries, always with awards in mind; the client allowed us this comfort.

Ceylon Breweries (Then) were reputedly one of the most difficult clients in CMB. But finally with Guinness, Aunty Jo, Sub and I managed to really break into that business. How did I do it? Prassanna the Marketing Director expected hands on involvement from the ad agency. Which also meant that most days I was stuck in a car with him and Ravi Gunda driving around Colombo visiting outlets and checking out the branding!

From all this resulted winning gold for Guinness print, winning the CBL and Lion Brewery campaigns (Direct award, no pitch) and the Carlsberg Rugby campaign.

At Lintas, during the Hay Days of 2000 to 2002, all of us constantly looked to win awards, and creating long-term trustworthy relationships with clients who allowed that.

In MY mind, the best radio commercial due to its simplicity I have still heard is when Naveen Amarasuriya created the Pizza Hut delivery 729729 commercial. It was so brilliant he didn’t even bother coming for the recording. He just gave us the voice, tone & manner, that’s all. When we recorded we just had a loads of fun at Soundtracks and with Jerome De Silva the voice.

All the commercial was Jerome started really seriously giving the tel number for fire, police and ambulance. The he finally cackles away reading the Pizza Hut delivery number. My respect here for Mr.Sumithra Gunasekara and Suresh Jayawardena, the two best clients one can dream of working with.

Then there was HSBC, when the then young David Blacker did that campaign for PIL (Personal Instalment Loan), even Tags didn’t want to come for the presentation. All Tags said was if you guys really want to take it but please if Shiroma throws you out promise her an option. But I sold it to come back to the agency and threw the visuals at Davy in delight. And all Davy did was to take the creative hook of a loan in 24 hours and actually execute the idea by through Boodie actually setting up a cine camera in front of HSBC for 24 hours. Again we won Gold!

But I also remember Shiroma first screaming at me and Pahan and I why we bothered bringing the campaign. As I explained, she begun to love and grasp the creative idea.

Unilever, in the golden years, when Lintas swept the boards at the ad awards in 2001/2. The client and we were true partners. The brand managers loved me, Amal Cabraal offered to set me up a desk at Unilever, Surith Perera and Amali Nanayakkara were both clients as well as friends. Ramani one day just asked me could you please now stop bringing me proactive work.

The Sunlight Wesak Campaign Leon produced in 24 hours! And won a gold for the TVC. Briefed Friday morning, produced and delivered to SLRC by 11am on Saturday!

The examples I could bring about are just endless.

The point is all of us worked towards one goal. We were PROACTIVE. Everyone in the agency got on like a house on fire, and we had one goal in mind – Deliver!

And look at the creative teams, Phoenix then – Boss, Anjelo, Aunty Jo, Kusantha, Subhash, Naveen, Dileepa, Ranjan Amaradeva.

JWT in their untouchable years – Prasad, Chandini, Rizwi Saldin, Lucien, Rehan, Rajiv, Udaya, Jayantha, Sujeewa in the studio.

Lintas when we were at our best – Padma Kumar, Leon Rajaratne, Johann, David, Rajiv, Dileepa, Narmada, Subhash, Priyantha, Naveen, Udaya, Jayantha, Suj in the studio.

Truly dream teams, and award winning. And yes, more or less a basic shopping list for someone wanting to start an ad agency in CMB.

And the omission of any account handlers in those lists is not an oversight.

But the key point I am trying to make is, a scam could be doing the production element of an ad free for client, keeping the first edit of a TVC to enter for awards as the first edit before the client sees it and fucks it is the best, using your PR with the client to really sell him something he doesn’t need but will win you an award, sometimes always sticking the addresses in a print ad in the bottom on a strip so you can cut that strip out when entering a print ad, subtly using press pulls instead of the actual ad but pasting it on with ‘yakka mount’ so no one catches you, going after social service/charity clients as they allow you to be creative, sometimes doing one or two print and radio ads to support a TVC to make it a campaign; in my mind these are acceptable scams.

But if you are a bloody good agency with good account handlers/suits; all you need is sound strategy and a will to win and learn your clients business. Winning the ad awards is not waking up two months before and thinking shit we need to get our act together, it is about the whole agency working coherently to deliver on that promise. No politics, lots of ego’s, but all pulling together as a team.

STOP scamming everyone, start a plan, for the whole year. Work towards it, COHERENTLY.

You don’t need to scam…

And most importantly I am not taking a dig at anyone through this post. I am bored. Looking forward to actually see all the work at Chillies.

This is a post, something I want to say, that’s all.