Give the idea the space to engage with people and make an impact: Piyush Pandey

In conversation with Piyush Pandey, Social Samosa unravels the need to humanize ad campaigns and its impact on consumers.

The iconic ad-smith, Padma Shri Piyush Pandey, Chairman Global Creative & Executive Chairman India, Ogilvy shared his thoughts on adding a human touch to the digital world and how to look at creative blocks as the speed breakers in the journey. He walked into the change and brought the shift with him to the advertising industry.

He believes and often says "It doesn’t matter how many times the ad is being played but what matters is how many years the ad stays with you”.

On his journey in advertising...

When asked what according to him was a turning point in the Indian advertising industry, he expressed, "In the late 80s, a lot of advertisers were still doing product functions. I wanted to humanize advertising. So, my first campaign ‘Chal Meri Luna’ was about a person’s life and not about what Luna has. I wanted to touch people's hearts and I think over the years, that is the kind of work I did and it influenced many young creative people."

Piyush Pandey has seen countless advertising campaigns during his four decades at Ogilvy. He created the advertisement "Ek tapakti boond aapki kismat badal sakti hai" for M-Seal about 16 years ago and according to him that one advertisement had an impact for 16 years. His well-known composition "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" is frequently performed on the 15th of August. People enjoyed the Cadbury Dairy Milk ad 'Kuch Khas Hai' with the girl dancing on the cricket field and now after 28 years, a new advertisement that is a remake of the previous one with gender swap has been released.

Good things that touch people’s hearts stay. Otherwise, you have to keep running the ads 10 to 20 times a day. That’s my belief and it has worked for me and my clients - Piyush Pandey

Also Read: The moment brands stop looking at Metaverse as a gimmick they will be able to leverage it: Karthik Nagarajan

On his new book...

Speaking about his recent book, Piyush explains, "A lot of times in my life I spoke at institutes and have answered many questions. But while leaving there used to still be 50 students in the corridor with questions. I could answer 4 to 5 and I had to leave. While working on the book Open House with Anant Rangaswami, he came up with an idea and started a Twitter channel called askPiyush. A lot of people started asking questions. We took those questions and put them into separate buckets and made them into chapters. So, it is a people’s book, not mine."

On Advertising Trends...

On the trends seen in the advertising and marketing space, Piyush stated, "People want to increase the number of times an ad is exposed and for that, they are willing to go for very short-length ads. This is not a very good trend. Give the idea the space to engage with people and to make an impact on them."

I would like to say to young people: the number of times you appear is not as important as how much of an impact you make when you say the message. You have the technology, now put heart into it. Once you put heart into it, the message will have more impact. There are very bright youngsters and they will do something. I’m very hopeful about it.