The Hindu Business Line : ‘We need to compare our work with the best in the world’

Since Bates David Enterprise has announced its new Chairman, India, and Regional Executive Creative Director, Asia Pacific, Sonal Dabral’s return has been the talk of the ‘jingle’ town. After a stellar creative show, first at O&M India, and then at the agency’s Malaysia and Singapore offices, Dabral’s now taken on the task of getting Bates to scramble up the creative ladder. Considering his past record, it should not be that difficult. National Institute of Design graduate Dabral, like some of the other industry stalwarts, is very proud of his small-town upbringing (he grew up in Agra) – he feels it gives him a better understanding of the Indian psyche. After a decade in the Asia Pacific region, Dabral is to take up his India assignment next month. He talks about his expectations for Bates, the Indian advertising industry, and “coming back.”

What are your immediate challenges and the agenda you will be setting?

My new role is dual: as Regional Creative Director, Bates Asia, and Chairman of Bates in India. My first job will be to get the creative profile up, to make the Bates Network a force to reckon with across Asia hopefully. As far as India goes, there are great things happening here. There is a huge wave of confidence in the country. Clients are beginning to be more demanding, and they have to be. With the explosion in the number of television channels, they have to be daring for their messages to cut through.

My first priority here will be to create and facilitate the creation of great work. Bates India has got some young and very talented people. The idea is to polish some of these gems and cascade an attitude in the agency that we can all be world-class advertising people.

What’s weighing down Indian creative genius?

My grouse has been that Indian advertising is too much in love with formulas. If a particular ad has been successful you will immediately see two or three copies of it, irrespective of whether the style or treatment works for the product. It could be in the choice of a certain kind of voice-over, or the use of humour. Humour, for example, does not necessarily work for every ad and if badly handled, the ad can easily turn out to be a senseless gag.

Another thing that bothers me is this indifference towards the crafting of an ad. Watch any channel today and you will realise that Indian advertising is full of good ideas yet most of the time we fail miserably in executing them with finesse. They are either over-written or over-art-directed or in many cases over-directed. We have ideas but still do not have the attitude to finish these ideas with care and attention. To help them become the best they can be.

Is it because there is too much pressure due to the manpower or creative power crunch?

Clients could be demanding immediate turnarounds, but poor quality is reflective of the attitude with which you approach work. There are a lot of Indian ads that shouldn’t even have got to the sketch stage. You can always improve on your final product, whether it’s in the direction department, or design department. This malaise is not restricted to films, even in print it’s the same story. It’s not like we don’t have photographic talent. Yet, ninety per cent of the ads, even those with great ideas at the core, are poorly finished.

It’s not that we are totally devoid of great ideas and great executions. Take the Happydent film, for example, shot brilliantly by Ram Madhwani. The execution was flawless, the music brilliant. Or many of Prasoon Pandey’s films … the Fevicol Bus, The Times of India. Young creatives in India should look at some of this work and take it as a lesson in not compromising on quality, before rushing headlong into finishing their ideas by hook or by crook.

Having being on international juries yourself, why do you think the ad didn’t win a gold at Cannes?

You mean the Happydent ad. Well, sometimes at the end it’s a lottery. The jury, I guess, felt that the idea of teeth being a source of light had been done before. (It was used in a poster campaign some 3-4 years ago and the campaign went on to win a Gold Lion at Cannes.)

Is it because of a lack of inspiration? We only celebrate a handful of personalities ...

I guess the media keeps writing about the big guys because of their work and also maybe because they make for better copy. But surely there is talent out there at mid-level or even at a junior level. Something is stopping these guys to take a leap, create work that catapults them into the league of the big guys.

We must also change the way we look at our own work; why only pit our work against work that’s coming from India? We should be comparing our work with the best in the world. It’s true that India is unique, and we have to talk to the audience here in their own language and their own idioms using their own unique insights but that shouldn’t stop us from coming up with ideas and executions that are world-class.

Possibly one of the reasons why we don’t have enough representation at shows such as Cannes or One Show. The shortlists don’t justify the number of entries or the size of our industry.

What inspires you currently?

My three-year-old son and my six-month-old daughter! I’m learning a lot just by trying to share their excitement for everything. At that age I see them getting excited and marvelling at the most mundane of things. That tells me that as creative people we need to constantly see the extraordinary in the day-to-day ordinary. It’s something that we so easily forget in the stress of our jobs while it’s the one thing that’s the most crucial to our existence.

What’s your leadership style?

I look at myself as a facilitator of good work. Help nurture talent, direct the teams without coming in the way. And, of course, most importantly, lead by example. Create great work to inspire and motivate teams and show them that it’s all possible. Creativity is a fragile thing. All big ideas take birth as little nuggets, little sparks, and if they are not recognised early and cared for they can very easily die. As a creative director it’s for me to sift them and find the right ones and then help the teams polish them and nurture them till they are ready to fly.

Why did you choose not to return to O&M, India?

I did give it a lot of thought, but it was too familiar an entity for me. Also, it’s not like I am “coming back” to work only in India. As a regional CD for Bates Asia, my responsibility will also be to start a dialogue across Bates agencies in Asia. I would really be working across Asia.

Is there any nervousness or fear of a disconnect from Indian working styles?

No way, nine, ten years is too little a time period for that. And it will be up to me to bring with me my own style of working.

Does the India assignment have anything to do with a Bollywood plan? I believe there is an aspiring filmmaker in you? What kind of cinema will it be?

Though I love films of any length, right from 30 seconds to two hours, my taking up the India role is definitely not to do with any Bollywood plan.

I have directed a sizeable number of ad films in the last five or six years and have loved working on each one of them. If I do a movie some day it will be more of a human story as against the large blockbusters. But who knows?

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