Vedobroto Roy, creative director, Pepsi, JWT, moves to Palasa

Vedobroto Roy, creative director, Pepsi, JWT, Delhi, is moving on. He has joined Mumbai-based ad agency Palasa, as creative partner. Apart from Pepsi, Roy had worked on 7UP, Tropicana, Pizza Hut and sports drink Gatorade, during his stint at JWT.

It might seem a bit unusual for a person to move on from a big agency to a smaller agency.

Roy clarifies, “In the process of brand building, one must not forget that at the end of the day, the consumer wants to be entertained with the ad. There is a certain sense of pride in being able to achieve that, which I was somehow missing out on, at JWT. It’s a personal thing. I guess when a certain work philosophy doesn’t fit in with the scheme of things one has planned for himself, it is time to move on.”

Talking about what prompted him to join Palasa, Roy clarifies, “Palasa is around two years old, and has a pretty good set of clients. We are working to make it a bigger entity, and roping in more IT clients, particularly. We are also in the middle of opening an office at Singapore. The agency is in the stage of stepping out of the nest and flying, so to speak.”

At Palasa, Roy will be working on brands such as Gili, Apsara Pensils, Mercury (the IT brand), and the launch of STAR One’s ‘The Great Indian Laughter Challenge 2’ (the creative duties for which were recently won by Palasa).

At JWT, Roy had worked on some memorable campaigns, such as the Arshad Warsi-Amitabh Bachchan ‘Boatman’ campaign for Pepsi. “The task was to show water as the only alternative to Pepsi, when one is really thirsty,” explains Roy. “We thought of bringing this out through wise-guy situations between Warsi and Big B, by portraying Warsi as the one with an arrogant attitude.”

“The shoot took us about three days,” recalls Roy.

Roy was also responsible for the re-launch of 7UP’s character, Fido Dido, in India, in 2004. “Initially, the ‘beach’ commercial for 7UP was nothing, but a promo for 7UP beach towels, 7UP umbrellas, 7UP ice coolers, and other beach items. The idea was to bring out the cool, glamorous image of Fido Dido, and for men that implies attracting women. Later, we decided to use that whole idea and make it into a full fledged commercial for 7UP,” says Roy.

Roy started his career in 1998 with Mudra, Delhi, as a copywriter. There, he worked on brands such as Samsung (refrigerators and washing machines), Nestle (corporate), NIIT (corporate ), and Hindustan Motors’ Ambassador car. He moved on to join O&M, Mumbai, in 2000, where he went on to become the creative group head. Kotex, Huggies, Pond’s, Mattel and Asian Paints were some of the brands he pioneered there.

His last move was to JWT, Delhi, in 2003.

Roy adds that he has known Palasa’s creative director, Sandeep Bomble, since his days at O&M, which also added to his decision to move to Palasa.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!