Give yourself permission to fail: Josy Paul to his younger self

To call him unconventional would be an understatement. Josy Paul, Chairperson & Chief Creative Officer at BBDO India, once found inspiration while seated on a colourful commode. This was in his office at RMG David, where Josy's room featured a bathtub and a chair designed like a toilet. Now, at BBDO, he works out of an Ashram. It is a white room with white mattresses and one candle in the middle of the room. The silence is meant to spark ideas so that you listen to your thoughts better. 

Upon entering the seventh floor of Omnicom Group’s building, BBDO greets you with a Gandhi charkha in the lobby, and the entire corridor is lit with lamps and flowers every morning and evening to elevate your mood. The concept of an office as an ashram came to Josy after his visit to the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad. Josy proudly calls himself a Gandhi junkie.

Always seen in his trademark black cap and moustache, Josy is known for his kind and calm demeanour. However, he is also known for going to great lengths to fight for his ideas and his wacky approach to creativity. He brought ‘out of the box’ ideas to the table when the world was not ready for them.

Josy's love for creativity shines brightly in two of his significant campaigns – Whisper’s Touch the Pickle and Ariel’s Share The Load. These campaigns won multiple awards on international stages, such as Cannes, recognised by rooms full of talented people from around the world. Yes, that happened. However, both campaigns also made their mark in another significant way; they became part of household conversations, leaving a lasting impression on consumers' minds and boosting revenue for clients. It was a victory from all angles.

As he heads the Jury at Social Samosa’s Sammie: Best Social Media Brands Awards, I speak to Josy about his journey in Advertising, which saw the birth of BBDO India in the backseat of his car.

Q. Josy, could you walk us through your typical day? What does a regular day look like for you?

I wake up to the music of Pink Floyd’s 'Shine on you crazy diamond'. It's been my morning raga for over 25 years. I head to work around 10 am. On the way, I call my dad. And my creative partners.

The BBDO ashram is always in full flow. The creative energy of the open office mixes with the gravity of deadlines. It’s a rush of meetings, briefing sessions, creative explorations, deep listening, and white-room confessions. Through the day I play many roles - the explorer, the artist, the judge, the warrior. But mostly, I’m listening. 

I leave for home at around 8 pm. Bandra is not a place; it’s a holiday. After 9 pm I walk in the narrow lanes of Bandra. Through the back lanes, up Mount Mary and down to Bandstand, and then to Bandra Gymkhana. I get about 6-7 km of walking with historians, rock stars, UFO sighters, CIA agents, phycologists, neuroscientists and all kinds of people through the various podcasts that I listen to.

Then a late dinner with my wife as we speak to our son who is studying at NYU.  

Around 11.30 pm, I journal my thoughts! After which I respond to the day’s WhatsApp messages. Read for a bit. Daydream. Listen to myself. By 1.30 am, I drift into sleep. Faraway, a song whispers like a distant lullaby.

Q. Going back to one the biggest milestones of your career when BBDO was born from the backseat of your car in 2008. Can you describe this day if you can recall? What led to the agency’s birth?

It was January 1, 2008. The Chairman and CEO of BBDO Asia, Chris Thomas, and regional CCO Danny Searle were in Mumbai for the official launch of BBDO India and to announce my role as Chairman and CCO. We spent the day at ITC Grand Central, Parel, where we had a media event on the rooftop room. We spent the day visioning and planning the future of BBDO India. After Chris and Danny left, I began my journey of looking for people to partner me.

In Mumbai, we did not have an office. My car was my office for nine months. From the backseat of my car, I would make calls and meet people and potential clients in coffee shops. That’s how I was fortunate to find the most amazing partners – insanely talented people like Ajai Jhala, Rajdeepak Das, Sandipan Bhattacharya, Manoj Deb, Sangeet Pillai. They were part of the founding team.

We were a start-up. But we received a lot of support from BBDO Singapore, R K Swamy, and Andrew Robertson and David Lubars from BBDO Worldwide. Students from XIC and St Xavier’s College, friends from ‘David’ (the agency I helped set up in 2000) also came forward to help.

I spent nine months moving around in my car listening and trying to understand what young people were going through, their relationships with brands and the changing media. It gave me some interesting new perspectives. I realized to move people, you’ve got to keep moving. The address on my business card is still my car number.

Before launching the agency, in 2000, you set up the challenger agency ‘David’ for Ogilvy in India. What did you learn from this experience that later went on to shape BBDO as we know it today?

David was about the spirit of challenge. We questioned everything. Our office was a play school. I sat on a colourful commode. There was a fluorescent bathtub next to me. When you joined David, you got a resignation letter, not an appointment letter. You had to resign from adulthood. It was all very playful, and it was central to idea creation. All this led to work that broke new ground. We got a lot of media attention, and won worldwide recognition. It is this challenger spirit that I brought to BBDO India. That’s how we introduced the philosophy of ‘Create Acts Not Ads’. It helped us find a new way.

Looking at the larger landscape, how do you think the agency culture has evolved and what things do you wish were different today?

This is an important question for our time. Most agency cultures have always been conducive for creative exploration and brand building. The time has come to rethink not culture but structure – to meet the demands of the changing nature of media and idea. With increased fragmentation of media touchpoints, the rise of social platforms, diverse audiences and mindsets, and greater need for measurement and accountability, what should the new agency structure look like? That’s the big question. It’s structure, not just culture.

Josy, you have been in this industry for over two decades and have worked on impactful campaigns like Touch The Pickle and Share The Load. What do you think about the industry’s progress with gender issues on the agency and the brand side?

I feel optimistic because I am a witness of change.

In 2015, at BBDO India, we started on a journey with P&G and Ariel detergent. More than a campaign, #ShareTheLoad is a long running movement that’s owned by both brand and society. It’s ranked as the most effective campaign in the world. By revealing deep rooted conditioning and uncovering hidden truths, the brand is creating conversation, affecting sentiment and changing attitude. In 2015, 76% men believed that laundry is only a woman’s job. That number is down to 25% today.

Today there are many brands that are changing the narrative and breaking gender stereotypes in India. Enlightened CMOs, motivated agencies, and change makers in media are seeing business value in embracing the shift in consumer values and behaviour.

The ecosystem is responding. Recently the state of Kerala has introduced gender-neutral images in school textbooks to promote equality, challenging traditional gender roles and stereotypes. 

Whether it is Touch The Pickle campaign or Share The Load, both these campaigns have seen longer shelf life and recall value. Today, the recall value of ads is going down. What do you think is contributing to this and how can the industry tackle it?

I don’t have the answer, but I have a few thoughts. Today, more than ever, media is hitting you incessantly at the speed of light. The deluge of content is creating a certain attention deficit condition. Reduced attention is creating reduced retention. You are neither able to receive or hold on to things. The river of information is flowing faster than the brain can process. 

The only way to build recall value for your brand is to anchor it in a human-centric idea that is deeply relevant to people. An idea that is so true that it is as personal as it is universal.

You are having a long innings with P&G. What is the secret sauce behind long-lasting client-agency relationships?

We began our P&G relationship in 2009 with Gillette. Our campaign ‘Women against lazy stubble’ resulted in a 400% increase in sales. It won accolades at P&G Worldwide and was awarded the inaugural ‘Creative Effectiveness’ Lion at Cannes. This led to us working closely with P&G on projects for Whisper and Ariel – both campaigns turned into long term movements that’s still impacting brand and society.

Ideas feed relationships. Relationships feed ideas. It’s the loop of growth and discovery. It’s chemistry, and it creates history.

On an industry level, given the influence of AI, are there new roles or specific skill sets that BBDO is incorporating into its workforce to stay ahead of technological advancements and industry trends?

It’s still early days. At BBDO India, we have introduced AI tools and learning programs to upskill our teams. It is helping us speed up some of our creative development and pre-production processes. Our partners at Omnicom Group and our clients are working alongside us to introduce AI and tech to grow our ideas. It’s been a fascinating learning experience so far. 

We see AI as our third creative partner on steroids.

One message you'd like to give to your younger self and one thing you think you can learn from your younger self today.

To my younger self, I’d say - give yourself permission to fail. Embrace rejection, make it your friend. Fall in love with embarrassment. Failure, rejection and embarrassment are like a tough mother. They have only your interest at heart. They fuel growth. Success is a byproduct.

And from my younger self I learn - never forget the words from the movie ‘Dead Poets Society’, “The power for play goes on and you may contribute a verse.” So stay playful like a child. Let there be innocence, excitement and wonder, always!

Lastly, Josy, as the Chair of the Creative Jury at the Sammie Best Social Media Brands Awards, what are your expectations?

I never go as a juror, I go like a pilgrim, to worship the work. I don’t judge the work, I let the work judge me. The work must open up my world. Question my own prejudice. This is what I am expecting at the Sammie Best Social Media Brands Awards. To see work that rearranges something in me.

Could you also share one message for the participants? 

It’s good to participate. It shows you love your work, and that you are not afraid to be judged. It says you are not a spectator. So no matter what the outcome, you know you love what you do. In the end, there is only love.