"Our competitors are not Ogilvy and Lowe": Josy Paul, BBDO

In a quick interview with afaqs!, Paul talks about how he thought of putting a basketball ring above the boring ol' washing machine and why he loves rival brand Surf Excel's advertising. Edited Excerpts.

Edited Excerpts

You know, people around the world have been asking me to make a presentation about the 'process' that led to this campaign. These are random strangers, people from other companies, from TV stations abroad... everyone just assumes the whole creative process starts at the moment of 'a brief', but that's not how it was.

A brief is so transactional. We - the client (P&G India) and us - had several sittings, where we just discussed things. It was a circular process. One thought that came up was: should housewives be paid for the work they do at home? At the time, there was a news report on the subject and the governments (human resources departments) of many countries were discussing this. Another idea that came up was that of equal pay at work. Actor Jennifer Lawrence had spoken up about the wage gap between male and female actors in Hollywood.

We feel advertising is more powerful than cinema, even Hollywood, when it comes to creating change.

Yes, advertising had come this far, but it was still at a veneer level. We felt it could go deeper. We feel we have the ability to think a little more than our peers do and the people before us did. We feel that we can change things. That's why a lot of our work is in this zone (ready reference: Touch the Pickle campaign for P&G's sanitary napkin brand Whisper).

When we discussed the campaign with the Ariel team, we spoke about the performance index of the product, yes, but we also discussed what's not being said, what's beneath - the larger cultural context, the social conflicts, and how the brand can achieve a noble purpose, especially since it had reached a certain level (of success in the market).

A new brand may not have the authenticity, credibility or right to suddenly take on something deep. People will say: 'Who are you?' 'What are your credentials?' 'Where have you come from?' 'Are you just abusing the system?' etc. But when your brand's been around for years, you have that opportunity.

We find it easier to ask a question than provide a solution.

The brand has been speaking about its wash capability, but nobody has heard it enough. Sometimes these messages require a more emotional rapping to come through.

At the in-store level, though, there's enough product demonstration happening. There's a lot of that in malls too. We're running programmes with washing machine manufacturers that allow men to get involved. Film is only a part of the integration.

And don't forget, when the first ad was released there was a parallel performance-based film on air that showed the stain removal routine. The film showed a couple doing the laundry together. But overall, it's a new way of doing communication, yes. Maybe younger couples seek a different approach to advertising.

It also depends on where the product is in its life cycle and where the consumer is in her life cycle. If there is a brand that has already taken a strong place in the consumer's mind, how do you dislodge it?

There's no definite path. You can create the path. And the consumer will come with you if she/he feels what you're saying is an interesting start. It's like a catchy headline or a seductive phrase or the Pied Piper who says, 'I'll show you a better world'.

There is a requirement to do strong performance-based communication as well. Remember how we introduced the concept of 'evening stubble' for Gillette? Men shave for office and by the time they see their wives and girlfriends in the evening they have this irritating stubble. The idea is about the functional aspect but falls within the whole man-woman space.

Yes, with Share the Load, people asked us why we didn't talk about the product. Well, a product cannot exist purely on the basis of its performance. It has to be connected to something that's happening in society. The product must respond to something that's universal, especially something that affects women, our target audience. We want women to be on our side.

There's playfulness here. It's not an intense 'Them versus Us' thing. Men tend to smile it off; women tend to use it as a hook. It's about the game. At no point has anyone said things like, 'You can't do this to men' or 'We're going to discuss our constitutional right to so and so...' or 'You're affecting our status in society'. There has not been any such discussion. And even if it does happen, it's good for us, because it's worthy of a debate.

Also, today's men are far more approachable and open to things like these. If this (Share the Load) had happened 15 years ago, it may not have worked... but today social media has given everyone the 'license to feedback'. We've been allowed to speak up and talk back. That has created a whole new psychology. If not for digital and social, all our ideas would die on Day One.

BBDO India is like a newsroom. We're not in the advertising business; we're in the news business. We're here to create news for our brands. Our competitors are not Ogilvy and Lowe; but BBC and CNN.

Yes, I'll be honest. When we started off it was a bit frightening, because, well, it is detergent! (laughs)

But when the people in the room are interesting, the product becomes interesting. You almost forget that someone has placed detergent on the table. The hashtag #ShareTheLoad was the result of a spontaneous statement tossed across the table. When it's so joyful, suddenly you're not discussing detergent anymore. Suddenly, you're talking about how you've never ever heard your dad apologise for anything.

We were excited by the possible discovery of a social situation because of this so-called boring product. Communication can make anything cool. The shaving segment was seen as one of the most boring, but we changed the way consumers looked at it (with the 'Women Against Lazy Stubble' campaign for Gillette).

People have gone into comparisons about all the work. We don't sit and deconstruct our competition. We believe our competition has done a great job. We have received their communication like any other consumer would and we love what we saw. We have great respect for our competition. It is not either-or; good ideas can exist side by side.

We were happy to see more people joining the movement. It means we're doing the right thing.

There's no worry about others getting into this space. We're committed to this space and can't run away from it. We have to keep looking for new possibilities and new meaning in this space. We can't get fazed because others are entering it. We don't feel threatened. We are emboldened. Whoever is following us should feel like they're following the right leader. In fact, we don't want them to turn back.

The day the campaign was launched on Facebook, I was in the US, doing a project for BBDO Chicago; I got calls through the night from Indian consumers.

One girl, who had left her company because she had started hating marketing, called to say the 'Dad' film made her want to come back into the profession. She spoke to me for half an hour. She said, 'I never realised the kind of power I have as a marketer. I stupidly thought I was in the wrong field...'

I got a call from a guy who was carrying his resignation letter in his pocket when he saw the ad. He said, 'The ad gave me purpose...' He decided not to resign. It was like a big 'confessional' thing happening. Just based on the stories we've received from consumers, we can put together ten editions of 'Chicken Soup for the Laundry Soul'.

For me, the real stress is being able to capture this torrent of feedback. We need a whole battalion of people to do that. It's not about institutionalising the process of social listening. It's about knowing what people are saying everywhere - in cinema halls, on TV, in the news, in person and online. This is gossip... for change.

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