At the recently concluded Effies Awards India 2021 run by The Advertising Club, McCann Worldgroup won the ‘Agency of the Year’ award with a haul of one gold, nine silver and twenty bronze Effies. This is the fourth win in a row for McCann.

The Effies Awards, which are organised across the world, honour effective marketing communications. Storyboard18 caught up with the CEO and CCO of McCann Worldgroup India and chairman McCann Worldgroup Asia Pacific, Prasoon Joshi, to get a quick take on creativity, effectiveness and client-agency relationships in a post-pandemic era.

How has the approach to creativity changed in the past two years?

Life has gone through a lot in these pandemic times. We have seen suffering, we have seen panic, we have seen compassion and we have seen resilience. All this has equally impacted human behaviour and is bound to reflect in creativity. In my view, there is an unprecedented clarity in creativity.

As the human race is getting clearer about its priorities it’s manifesting in art too. For example, relationships. People have realised the ones they truly value and the same goes for their relationships with brands.

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What are the key characteristics of creative award-winning campaigns that are also effective?

One has been fortunate to have produced award-winning work for many years now, but still, I feel what I used to feel many years earlier i.e winning metal in advertising is a by-product, not the end product. It’s hugely important that the work done on any brand meets the market challenges and then comes the aspect of how masterfully you have found the solution. There is no one rule for excellence. You have to constantly work on it and hone it. Our work on Nestle, Dettol, Mastercard, BMGF, Flipkart, Zomato, Unacademy and all reflects this depth of approach.

How have your conversations with clients changed over the past two years? Have relationships become stronger?

It’s an important question and I can proudly say that our relationships are rock solid. Tough times are a true test of relationships. The not-so-great ones do not survive and the true ones become stronger. In fact, it’s the culture I have always believed in - where you are transparent with each other and can shoulder responsibility when times are tough.

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This is not only true of my clients today but with the employees as well. It’s because we share a special bond that we could come out stronger in these times. My entire management team is responsible for this strength and deserves full credit.

What's your outlook for the next year?

There are going to be challenges. Leaders will have to do some innovative thinking. But in our profession we thrive on tension, even a sitar needs adequate tension in the strings to produce music.

(Edited by : Kanishka Sarkar)

First Published:Nov 2, 2021 9:30 PM IST