As a young Account Director in a large, perhaps the largest network agency, I had earned quite a reputation for myself and had given my bosses quite a few headaches. I was known to hold my ground - when clients demanded changes for no apparent reason and had even gotten into a few arguments if our work had been rubbished. Soon I found myself working on the Mumbai circle of a famous telecom brand headquartered out of another city. This client had the penchant of inviting pitches for everything from a greeting card to a double-spread ad.
But one day a call from our client galvanized the entire agency. This company was merging with another telecom entity and the top management from both companies were reviewing a new name, identity and positioning for the behemoth that would emerge. While everyone from the CEO of our agency was involved in the pitch & it was being led by branch servicing the client at their head-quarters, I and my team were completely sidelined by our own branch head.
Had we been invited to share our ideas, perhaps I & my tiny team may not have reacted the way we did. But BECAUSE we were ignored, we decided to do something about it. Here I'll break to introduce you to my team of untouchables: There was KP my 2nd-in-command, who refused to speak unless forced to. And when forced, he believed in being stingy with his words, often replying in monosyllables. Then there were my creative team: art and copy - given to dressing in psychedelic colors and dabble in similar material. The four of us got together, took one look at the staid brief and said aloud, "To hell with this! Lets knock this one out of the park!"
Easier said than done! After struggling for a week, we entered a phase of self-doubt. But in the wee hours of one morning, KP pulled out a single ad he'd done, all by himself, mind you -he was a servicing guy! It showed a gorilla! (long, long before Cadbury's discovered it!) Now we had something, we were energized. Working many nights in a crazed frenzy we came up with the very antithesis of the client brief!
We swam away from the mass-market in our presentation, our campaign was about a cult: A handful of people who lived, breathed and lived on the edge-of technology. It was zoned out, edgy & terrifying stuff! And we took this to our bosses.
I recall the NCD and the Branch head taking a close look at us. Four disheveled 20-somethings standing in front of them with bleary red-rimmed eyes that oozed fire and brimstone. I think their courage failed them in telling us that we were crazy and this stuff nuts. So they politely told us that they'd call us later.
That 'later' never came and our work was never shown to the client. What was presented was the boring, regular stuff done by another team, which the client openly mocked at during the presentation calling it, "Exactly what we expected from you!" This almost cost us the campaign, when one day the client's man-Friday landed up at the agency's branch office for some work and chanced upon our campaign- handed over to the local team.
All hell broke loose! The man-Friday loved it and took it straight to the owner who said that this was what he'd been looking for all along. He took the campaign to the other patriarchs and they all loved it. Finally they chose a name that began with the same alphabet, in the same inverted manner and in the same zone as suggested by us. But I reckon our recommended name was better because it left far more to the imagination and possibility than what they settled for.
In any case, my contribution to their story ended there. But it lives with me till today. Even now when a young, angry and brimming-with-ideas youngster from my team presents something outlandish to me, I look back to that moment. I know that the next few days will have me holding my head in my hands while everyone from colleagues to clients will question my judgement in letting that outlandish idea be presented. But I will take it all and defend that idea. Not only for the merit of the idea but also because I know and firmly believe that an outlandish idea is often the break-through we're all searching for in this rough-and-tumble corporate life. It's what creates huge economic value, recharges economies and creates wealth and prosperity for nations.
This world needs mavericks and their crazy ideas. And because they're not common, they don't fall under 'acceptable' parameters. They're rare. They stand out in a world that's increasingly getting dumbed-down. Where all the 'smart' guys hedge their risks. And everyone want to be in the good books of everyone else. In a grey world, full of yes-men, tricks sell in the place of genuine ideas. Sometimes with the limited objective of winning awards.
So hold you head, keep a pack of Disprin ready, work on your calming statements that'll cool down your clients. But back these kids to the hilt. let them off the leash. give them the run of the place. let them defy everything and pull down every logic. Let them create that new world.
Let a million mutinies bloom!
