Chris Thomas, Chairman and CEO of BBDO ASIA

NDTV: Since the time you have begun, what changes have you seen in terms of creative and how gratifying has the whole experience been?

Chris Thomas: Well, it is a fantastic and wonderful business. I am the second generation of advertisers and my father was in the business too, so as a kid I grew up on an apple farm on the south of England, which was my father's hobby and during the weekends his industry friends would come over, pick apples and sell apples. So I grew up in the creative industry. I graduated in 1984 into the business and have remained passionate. Now it has been 26 years; it is a great place to be in. It is huge now; I think it was fantastic then and now I look at the future and say it is more interesting, more complex and more exciting ahead of the creative people to deliver their craft...it has been a tremendous journey and long may I continue....

NDTV: Do you push yourself harder after an achievement?

Chris Thomas: Yeah I sort of live by the advice perhaps I give people joining the business that the first thing to do is to think about yourself as a brand, what are the things you are good at and what are your personal values and how do those values fit in with the creative values and the business; and then find a culture and organisation that fits your values. There is nothing worse in being in a place that does not fit in with your personality; if you define yourself as a brand then you think of the approach you want to take and that fits the brand.

Second thing I would do is think about the next 6 month curve and what do I want to achieve in the next six months. What are the specific two or three goals do I have that will improve my company and my performance, but in that process enrich me, also the people around me so that there is a leader inside the business. They can also deliver more. I still live like that and give that advice to all.

NDTV: What about the young creatives?

Chris Thomas: I think the wonderful thing about them is when I started in the business we had a typing tool that was used to prepare presentations on slides..a mouse was a furry thing that was seen in the kitchen and there were no computers at all. It was ten years before I had a mobile phone. I had to learn the new digital age from scratch. I had to learn about the new opportunities, I had to learn from my 4 teenaged children, and I tend to learn from their eyes. For the people joining in now, it is instinctive- they have grown up in a generation of MTV, social networking and that may be at a different stage around the world. For me that is nice because through that they create different ideas, distinctive ideas. When I started in the business we were engaged in intrusion based advertising; that model served them well. We then saw a second stage in the mid 90s..the rise of CRM and I think we are at the third stage now- intrusion through involvement and we have to build ideas our consumers can be a part of...and this could be scary too.The brand remains in the mind of the consumers. It is true today more than ever before. The idea is to get the consumer involved in the story line. We can see it happening in China where we get the consumers involved deeply in the production. Consumers can vote for the commercials they want to see on say..the latest Pepsi can. There are a lot of ways you can get the consumer involved. Increasingly the young creatives are coming through and getting into it and that is what they should do in India and around the world.

NDTV: What about the digital media- what is the future in India?

Chris Thomas: The future is great. Your government has tremendous ambitions for broadband penetration. If you look at Korea, you see digital communication behaviours being deeply engraved into people's lives. So you see the biggest social networking sites and various brands are using it. In markets like these we are creating content for people to use instead of ideas that intrude. The idea is to create destination content and engage the consumer in an exchange of ideas regarding the brand on such networks. The best example is BMW- they reversed the formula and spent 19 million on production and then used the web and other digital forums to play the ad and gave people the opportunity to download. Increasingly you find that the impact of the digital age on communication is great.

NDTV: How has the association with Pepsi been?

Chris Thomas: Pepsi for us are the closest clients and we have a nice relation with them. Clearly it is nice to work with Pepsi and 7up; we are just developing the idea and work and the idea is essential for longevity and has potential for consumers to get involved.

NDTV: What about the work from India?

Chris Thomas: You look at Cannes this year- you are beginning to see great work coming through. Whenever I come here there is some vibrancy of creative work. It is culturally very sensitive and ideas are deeply rooted to the culture. Success in award shows is about people starting to hear a country's voice and how it is getting accepted. If you look at Thailand, they developed a string of work and a type of work with a sense of humour. India should focus on doing work for India and that is recognized. It is terrific! The key is all agencies should do great, famous work. If you do work for awards, that is a disaster; you write for client's work and businesses it is brilliant and then it would get recognized and the indications from Cannes are such.

NDTV: Do you think some of the creatives are overhyped like the JWT twins winning the Grand Clio?

Chris Thomas: I have great respect for that creative and feel that it was well crafted. For me I have won a Gold Lion for Volvo in the 90s- that is my best creative and proudest moment still. The recognition is terrific; for me the transformation of the brand is a huge achievement; the priority is its brilliant work for the brand and the consumer.

NDTV: What are your plans of expanding in India?

Chris Thomas: It is a tremendous market; what I love about India is they love advertising in all forms and the Press takes interest in advertising. That is exciting, but I think it is accepted as a part of culture and this is great for agencies to do more dedicated work. You have to do work that people can engage with and the responsibility lies with the clients and agencies. In a market like India, an agency's responsibility includes producing work that is enjoyed, that will help further build brands.

NDTV: What do you think is the most important thing to attract consumers in India?

Chris Thomas: For me it is about a breathtaking idea that has been executed in a brilliant way, that is enjoyable. The great creative work has the ability to simplify the consumer interaction. Reduction is the key thing and distilling a complex issue is important. You have to reduce the creative work and pour a single creative and then explore that. So reduction, simplicity and focus on ideas are what I would advocate and BBDO would always advocate.

NDTV: What has been your most liked creative till date and the client you loved working with?

Chris Thomas: For me that would be Volvo twister- it was at a time I was an Account Manager. It was at a nascent stage. The problem with Volvo was that they were fantastic for 20 years and other cars became safe; our job was to articulate that Volvo was much more dynamic. We could have easily sent out a message that said we are the best and completely avoided the safety issue. Instead we came up with an idea of taking a risk- that the best place to be in was the Volvo, so the brand had a umbilical cord to it but had to be revamped too. So the ad won the Gold Lion at Cannes; it was the best I have worked on. A fantastic demonstration and a glorious film to look at and shot wonderfully too. It was very famous and the proudest moment. And if BBDO allows me to be a part of the creative process then I would love to work on all creatives.