At Changemakers, an event, hosted by The Association of Advertising Producers (ASAP), Sudhir Sitapati, chairperson and CEO, Godrej Consumer Product, discussed how he relied on instinct and gut while working on marketing campaigns, why his current company has in-housed creative services, and more, while in conversation with Khalil Bachooali, founder, Offroad Films.

The free-flowing conversation between the two began with Bachooali asking Sitapati why he left Hindustan Unilever after a 22-year stint with the company.

“They wanted me to move to London and I didn’t want to leave Mumbai, having been born and brought up, so I decided to stay in Mumbai and leave Hindustan Unilever,” revealed Sitapati.

Sitapati left HUL in 2021, where he was executive director and vice president – foods and restaurant, at the time, to join Godrej Consumer Products. 

During his 22-year stint with HUL, Sitapati was actively looking at and managing brands. Bachooali asked him whether that’s an aspect he now misses as he’s CEO and chairperson.

“As a CEO you are the voice of the consumer and the organisation. I like to see how much time I use to bring consumers into the organisation. I do miss the active participation (in brand management) and the PPMs (pre-production meetings). My big belief is that advertising works,” said Sitapati.

He substantiated that by saying how Godrej Consumer Products was the 15th largest advertiser in India before he joined the company. Now, it’s ranked third on that list.

Giving the production perspective, Bachooali discussed how companies are worried before the film presentation about how the client could butcher the video and then asked Sitapati about what happens on the other side and how they view directors and producers.

“With experience, long before the director comes in, I do get a sense of how the film will feel. And, very rarely have I found that (the film) to be different (to what he expected). If a PPM doesn’t work out, we change the director. We are okay to lose a crore or two. The conversation I have with the director is very important,” said Sitapati.
 
Responding to a question about his judgement failing him, Sitapati pointed out a film for Red Label Tea that was produced by Corcoise Films.

“Prasoon (Pandey) made it for us. I loved it and still do. But it didn’t work. That’s the only film I regret. We spent money and time, but it didn’t work for some reason with consumers,” he said.

“I spent a lot of time thinking why this film didn’t work. You have to be objective sometimes when things don’t work. I genuinely make films for mass audiences and not awards. We had a debate during the PPM about the back story of the character. The production house knows the other bits like the costume etc, better than we do. The only thing I had a discussion was about the lady. This was a radical film. The son had ditched the mother. One thing we could have changed was the cast. We could have cast a more conventional empathetic lady as the lead. When you’re being radical, be radical on one front and be conservative on one front. That’s my learning.”

Light Box

In April last year, Godrej Consumer Products launched Light Box, an in-house creative agency. 

Stating why the company decided to go in-house instead of working with a creative agency, Sitapati said, “It (the transition to Light Box) moved smoothly. We were spending a lot of money (on marketing). We are lucky that Mumbai has the best creative talent. I do feel that the passion advertising folks had for brands has been lost with time. We might move back to an agency (in the future) and I have worked with the likes of Arun (Iyer, Spring Marketing Capital), Kinu (Abhijit Avasthi, Sideways), Harshad (Rajadhyaksha, CCO, Ogilvy) and Kainaz Karmakar (CCO, Ogilvy). Other than a handful, it’s hard to get passionate people to work on brands now.”

He also touched upon the importance of continuity with regard to working with the same director or production company.

“There’s a merit for big brands to work with the same directors continuously. Prasoon (Pandey) has worked with Pidilite over the years, and you see how that brand has been built. There’s an upside of continuity.”

Taking on digital, and the various edits required for the medium, Sitapati said, “I have a grouse against digital. I don’t think there’s anything called digital marketing. Digital is a means to an end which is digital. To build famous brands, you need famous advertising. At HUL, and now at Godrej, we make a big brand film and then run it on television for a year. The vehicle for remembering your brand is an ad. Six films or edits don’t cut for me. I want brand managers to run the ad for a year. Rewards follow.”

Sitapati added that within digital, his grouse is more against mobile advertising. “During the traditional print days, a 10 cc ad wasn’t 1/6th as effective as a 60 cc ad. There’s a critical screen size that matters for brand building. If you use too small a screen and irritate a consumer by forcing one to watch an ad – it won’t work. The impact of the brand ad is different when someone is relaxing, leaning back and watching something. We spend a lot of money on YouTube on connected TV because that’s where people are relaxing, leaning back and watching soap reruns or songs.”

He went on to showcase an ad created by Light Box which he believes was a merit of ‘creativity being very close to the business’.

“Light Box has created high salience advertising for Good Knight. A famous ad becomes famous only in hindsight. A series of ads make the first ad famous. We have two films down in this series. On this particular film, we spent INR 60 crore and it has worked wonders.” 

Women directors

The next topic the duo discussed was the lack of women directors. Bachooali stated that data shows that roughly 70% of brand purchase decisions are made by women. And while there are more women brand managers, there aren’t enough women directing ad films. 

Giving his point-of-view on the topic, Sitapati said, “I don’t have an honest answer. I don’t look at this from a gender sense. I feel like certain older directors have the experience of working on brands for a period which helps. I did one film with a woman and the PPM was different. The conversation was different and softer. I don’t know if it’s a woman thing or a Gauri (Shinde from Offroad Films) thing. I don’t find enough women coming in at junior levels. At our organisation, we have fewer women at the junior levels too. The industry needs to ask these questions.”

Discussing this ad, he said, “I found a lot of eroticism in the film and it was different from what was done in the past. The thing about great films is that some things are there and you don’t notice them. It’s like those paintings which created an erotic ambience in this film. The high point of the film has to be the brand’s role in the consumer's life and it has to be the central part of the story.” 

Sitapati went on to add that consumers don’t see advertising budgets, and neither do they see what’s spent on production.

“We don’t spend more than 10% of the media budget on the production of a film. There’s a massive difference between a great director and a good director. You have to gear your business model in a way. India’s culture in advertising is about stories and not visuals, while the UK is about art. If you can crack that narrative of people laughing or crying it’s worth a lot of money for us (clients).”

The talk ended with Sitapati stating that brands don’t need to get carried away with digital and fads.

“Storytelling is eternal. Mediums might change. Grasp the fundamentals and don’t get carried away with digital and fads. Those who understand this will make money,” he said.