JWT breaks the chain, brings talent from international market

The creative agency is recruiting international talent as part of its gameplan to bring in creative minds and fresh ideas in the highly competitive advertising industry.

Its musical chairs for the advertising industry in Delhi, as professionals often hop from one agency to another, only to return to the same agencies where they once worked. While this trend is now almost routine, JWT decided to break the chain and rope in talent from the international market.

Says Rohit Ohri, senior vice-president and managing partner, JWT, "The idea behind getting people from the international advertising industry is to infuse it with fresh ideas and sensibilities. We feel that the Delhi-based industry has been working with the same set of talent for a while now. We need new people who would present fresh perspectives."

JWT breaks the chain, brings talent from international market

The appointment of Adrian Miller as chief creative officer in July last year was the first step towards this. Miller had been the executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi, Malaysia and Singapore. The agency has now recruited Budi Dwisantara Sutisna aka Didi, as executive director, planning. Sutisna is from Australia, where he worked as planning head at Lavender. He will work on the Airtel account at JWT. Sutisna comes with over 12 years of experience and has worked with agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi, where he was director planning and was responsible for brands like Tiger Beer, P&G, Sony, Toyota and Kraft. Before Saatchi, he was with the Amsterdam-based hot shops KesselsKramer and StrawberryFrog on brands like Bavaria beer, Diesel, IKEA, Mitsubishi Motors, MTVE, Cap Gemini and Onitsuka Tiger.

Additionally, the agency has got two creative directors on board, Nazly Kasim and Devina, both from Kuala Lumpur. Kasim joins JWT from Saatchi & Saatchi, where he was senior art director. Before that, he was art director at Grey Worldwide. Devina, too, comes on board from Saatchi & Saatchi.

Commenting on the selection of the right kind of people, Ohri says, "One of the most important things that we are looking at is the ability to take a communication strategy across mediums such as television, print, radio, outdoor and digital. We often bring in people from mature markets where they have had the experience of communication launches across various channels. We at JWT, are combining both the international and the Indian experiences, thus introducing new concepts for clients."

JWT has set a precedence. Is it the start to a new trend for the advertising fraternity to follow? Let's wait and watch.

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