Saurabh Varma, CEO, South Asia, Leo Burnett shares his thoughts on advertising, the industry and much more Photo: Mahmud Hossain Opu
Did you ever think you’d be where you are today?
No! When I left MICA, which is one of the best colleges for advertising and communication, I used to make 10 thousand Indian rupees a month. I recall putting down a plan, like how we all make plans as youngsters, that in year two, I should be able to make double and in three, triple. Honestly, I have a great sense of gratitude that the plan turned out to be much better than I ever expected. It’s really a function of loving what you do. Every morning I get up with a great sense of gratitude that I have been given this incredible opportunity to have fun which a lot of people take for work.
They say advertisement is nothing but a trick to make consumers buy what they don’t need. Do you agree?
(Chuckles) You know, the truth is, advertisement kills a bad product quicker. If you don’t have a good product that is not relevant to human beings, advertisement cannot help you. However, if you have a great product which does make a difference in the lives of human beings, ads and communication can play a role in making it desirable.
One ad campaign you wish you could be part of?
I have been working in this industry for over 18 years, and this is that one idea which makes all those years seem worth it. We recently launched something which is absolutely spectacular. We took India’s first and largest battleship, an aircraft carrier named the INS Vikrant, which was being sold as scrap by the Indian government. We recycled it and created a new line of bikes for Bajaj, which is one of the biggest launches in the history of the automobile company. This is one of those ideas which I feel is human, has a great sense of pride as far as Indians are concerned, and also does great business for clients. This is an idea which I wish I was part of, and thankfully, I am. So you can say that I’m living my dream!
Advertising - is it about that “eureka” moment or a matter of rigorous and robust exercises which lead to success?
There are two parts to this question that I would like to address; one is the “eureka” moment when an idea hits you. If you ask me, that’s a gift which doesn’t come easy. The gift comes from forming connections and comes from understanding life that happens around you everyday, understanding how society and culture is changing. It comes from being extremely curious and from reading extensively. It comes from living life to the fullest. It comes from stepping out and observing life and connecting the dots. As you start practising it, you get better at it. It’s a gift but we need to work at it.
Can you compare and contrast the opportunities and challenges in the industries between the countries in this region?
In my mind the opportunities and the challenges will be very similar. Our cultures are very similar, we have too many people, too less resources; there’s great scarcity. We have similar demographic challenges and opportunities as well. What I am excited about is that, life is about generations, and every generation is of three years and I feel that Bangladesh will skip a few of these generations evolving very quickly. It won’t take as much time as it would have normally taken because of the connectedness that we all currently enjoy. I believe that you will see work from Bangladesh that is competitive on the global platform; the quality of the work will be of international standard. I think this is a great opportunity for the Bangladeshi market and for the talent here to grow.
Is there any space for ethics and values in advertising?
I think there’s space for ethics and values in every organisation but there’s a big caveat. One of the things I realised early on is that the opposite of a great truth is not a great lie, and is often another great truth. It depends on the function of perspective, the function of context and often we forget that. In principle, Leo Burnett is a humankind agency and our belief is that we need to understand people’s needs and desires and find purpose for our brands to make them seem relevant. When your brands have a great sense of purpose, you don’t only attract customers, you attract believers and that’s really what we believe in.
Would you say no to working on ads for Fair and Lovely, or even oil companies if they became your clients?
Why would I say no? I think the reality is that, the cultural fuel shapes brands. If you look at Unilever, which is an incredible company, their brand Dove stands for real beauty. One of the reasons they launched this campaign on the concept of real beauty is because, they noticed that everyone wanted a certain kind of a body and this acts as an additional pressure for young girls to conform to this body type. If Fair and Lovely is no longer relevant to human beings, people will stop using it. I don’t think an advertising agency or any human being has a right to sit in judgement of what people want and how they should live their life.
What are the major challenges that you have faced/are facing in this sector?
At the moment we are going through seismic shifts as an agency. We, as an industry, love sharing profound theories with our clients on how they should change, however we are very bad at changing ourselves. We have the same structures that have been existing for the last 50 years. We still have copywriters, art directors, the same labels which mean that nothing has really changed in our world for all these years! If we don’t change, we wont have the right to exist. There’s great change that has been thrust at us, if you ask me what we are trying to achieve with Leo Burnett across the world, we are trying to drive that change for ourselves, which is very exciting and challenging at the same time.
Is Mad Men really how the advertisement industry used to be?
Yes! It is actually how it used to be, but I think my creative partner is the Don Draper in this context, and I like to think of myself as Harvey Specter from Suits!
Any words of advice for those who aspire to make it big in advertising?
Continuously benchmark yourself against the best. Find a guru who has the ability to teach you. I have had the opportunity to work with some incredible bosses who have helped shape my thinking. Be incredibly curious. And as for awards, remember that everything you have won in the previous years mean nothing. Every year you want to start off at zero as you are only as good as your last piece of work, and that’s how I perceive work everyday.