Ogilvy India has once again made it to the 2024 Contagious Pioneers list celebrating ‘the best and bravest agencies on the planet’. This is the second consecutive year that the agency's Mumbai office has made it to the publication’s annual round-up of agencies that produced 'disruptive work consistently over the last year'.

The other seven winners (in alphabetical order) are BETC Paris; Colenso BBDO, Auckland; GUT Buenos Aires; Howatson+Company, Sydney; Lucky Generals, London; Rethink, Toronto and Uncommon Creative Studio, London.

Manifest caught up with the triumphant trio of Harshad Rajadhyaksha, Kainaz Karmakar, and Sukesh Nayak, the chief creative officers at Ogilvy India to capture their reactions to winning the accolade and what it implies.

“This is not something that you enter or you send to them,” divulged Nayak. “Your work would have to make a mark for them to notice you, select you, and then ask for an interview to feature that work. That's how it works,” he added.

“For us, the great part is its second year in a row. More than anything else, the list of agencies that we are a part of is a group of people that we truly admire. So it's great to be in their company,” he said.

Rajadhyaksha explained what sets this award apart. “There are many, many prestigious award shows that we all participate in and do fairly well across the year but there you have the anticipation that you have entered it, these will be the shortlist dates, this will be the final result date, and so on. But in this case, it just comes out like a bolt out of the blue. You are not given any indication that you're on the shortlist or you're not given any indication that this has happened.”

"This year there were four Ogilvy campaigns that stood out and made the cut," shared Karmakar. They included Vi's Dabbawalas, Cadbury's - 'SRK-my ad', 'Erase Valentine’s Day'- a 5 Star V-Day activation, and Dove's 'Stop the beauty test'. She pointed out that the good part was that the winning campaigns were spread across different brands.

Considering that each of these is a disruptive campaign in its own way, how much of a role do clients play to help create disruptive work such as this - do they need to be brave as well to come on board the idea?

The trio stated that for this kind of work to happen, a mainstream client or a brand has to allocate the budget, and it has to come as a proper campaign.

"I think we are blessed. Because we have some of the most supportive clients," said Karmakar.

“It takes a lot to back an idea because it's not as simple as it used to be. The whole game has changed. When a client approves an idea, of course, they are approving it based on the power of the idea but also on your equity to make it happen. A client needs to be your partner and completely be on board because so many moving parts have to fall into place for a campaign to turn out well. I'm guaranteed that even the most creative person will fail if they don't have a client on the other side who is willing to partner them through it,” she added.

“At least the bravest of our clients are completely co-partners. They have a 50% stake in sharing a vision and supporting work like this. So I would say they are crucial to work like this,” acknowledged Rajadhyaksha.

"There was this misconception in the industry many years ago that the so-called creative work was only meant to be something that amused juries, and that ‘creative work’ and ‘effective work’ are two different things," he further added.

“Ogilvy led the way in the country to prove a point that the most creatively disruptive work can equally appeal first and foremost in the marketplace and that it has to work with the consumers. At the same time, it can also make a mark as disruptive work on world juries. The best creative work will also sell your product and will be great for the business. And hence clients are also acknowledging this fact now," Rajadhyaksha emphasised.

Adding his view on the subject of brave brands, Nayak, said, "To do big-scale work on ideas of this kind on big brands, you need the support and conviction that this is a mainstream campaign that they are running, and that the work that you get acknowledged for is a work that is seen by all and not just by juries that you do for indulgence. And that is very important for our business.”

“If you can drive businesses based on creativity, it won't be tough for you. But if you're going to do creativity to indulge yourself, it'd be damn difficult for you and you may shut down very soon,” he further added.

“We are in the business of building a brand and creativity is the answer for that. And we're very proud of the fact that every single piece of work has driven business and that's on the back of creativity. That is something that makes us proud,” he signed off.

Next stop- Cannes?

With one laurel in their kitty, how much are the trio looking forward to the next big one with Cannes around the corner? We try to find out how big a part do awards play in each of their careers and what are the expectations this year at the French Riviera, considering Ogilvy was “strategy agency of the year" last year.

“Piyush (Pandey) always tells us: Do the best work you can for the brand for the client for the business. Put in all your efforts, be very fair, be very hard working. But after that, don’t let it mess with your head,” Karmakar responded. “What happens after that we cannot predict and we don't believe in predicting, but we know that we have given it the best shot.”

Nayak added, “We’ve collectively put together again this year, like every year, the work that we believe in, the work that has won the hearts of the people already for our market. And that's the best thing and that's our first and foremost objective.”

He acknowledged that they genuinely believe Cannes is a stage where work from across the world gets recognised due to a ‘very rich jury of judges that one can find’ and hence have hopes.

 “But I think we have moved on to the year after if you ask me- our race has begun for what next. And the three of us have one thing in common, which is we never believe in sitting on our laurels for long. Of course, if it’s a good moment, we enjoy it, celebrate it. But we're more excited about new things and we move on to the new much faster than mulling on the old, and that's what keeps us going,” he added.

Three CCOs- a crowd?

The trio reflected on their history and experience of working together for the longest time, highlighting both the benefits and challenges of collaborative creative work in advertising. Has it ever been the case of ‘too many cooks spoiling the broth’ with the three of them collectively stirring as well as steering the creative cauldron at Ogilvy India, we ask.

Rajadhyaksha addressed the matter, “I know a lot of people wonder that about our team and its inner workings. So, this will put a perspective on things. Kainaaz and I’ve been working together for 17 years now. We completed 14 in Ogilvy itself, by the way just a few days back- before that also we have been a team for three years. And with Sukesh, the three of us have been team partners and co-CCOs for almost seven years now. That too is a longish timeframe.”

“Don’t look at it as three conflicting elements-though we are very different people”, he added. “But imagine how much sharper the work can be if you have like a triple filtration process - to use a cliched analogy from advertising product windows. I think thats the way I would like to look at it.”

He continued, “Also, Ogilvy is a vast organisation. We are easily like four times larger than the next large agency I would say in terms of size and even magnitude. So while we all run different pockets- because that's the way we can give personalized focus to so many of our brands and clients. But when it comes to those absolute things that matter, we all just converge, huddle and find time for those few things where a broader perspective is needed or for taking a bird's eye view. All three of us believe in the quality of work even if we come from different schools of advertising.”

Adding his take on it, Nayak said, “Geographically to run an organisation of this scale, for the ease of work we have defined North, South, East and West that we have kind of spread amongst ourselves, so that we can contribute to each city, each geography. Because each of them by itself is larger than a lot of agencies put together.”

Further alluding to the group’s diverse approach but shared commitment to excellence, he said, “By the way, we are three very different individuals, we all have different approaches, different styles. But what binds us is a common belief that our work must be celebrated by the people, and not just by a few. That's a common defining aspect for all of us. That our work must be the best we can do.”

“Having said that, I think in this world of insecure businesses we probably are the least insecure people working together. Because, honestly, we cheer for each other the loudest and we also support each other when we need the help. And that, I think, is very important,” he signed off.