The Mumbai office recently hosted a guest session by the Chief Strategy Officer of Ogilvy & Mather- Prem Narayan.
Braving the hostile AC temperature of A4 Neelam Centre, we all gathered at 4pm to listen to him talk about strategy. But what was essentially meant to be a two hour talk soon transformed into three full hours of fun anecdotes, discussions on the role of research and impactful advertising. It was interesting to look at the work that we do from a third person perspective. Often at a Client’s office there are multiple stakeholders who want to put forth their ideas, but Prem believes that the consumer’s voice needs to be the loudest in the room and that is where research steps in. It is our role to be brave enough to push back and strong enough to stand by what the consumer feels. Being a research enthusiast himself, Prem makes it a point to meet consumers for every brand that he works on and he also told us how such immersions have often resulted in the best work. Case in point being the famous Red Label Tea ad. Prem believes that in order for research to land well, it needs to give DIRECTION + INSPIRATION. The highlight of his talk was his breaking down of strategy to the simplest building blocks – it is just about making the right choice. We ended the session by inviting him out for drinks (obviously) where the chat continued. Oh and for all book lovers and avid readers- Prem left us with a lot of titles which you may find interesting. How Not To Plan, Undoing Project, Second Machine Age, Everybody Lies, Creative Blindness, Truth and Lies in Advertising and Innovation Dilemma. Get reading!
