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"We need to invest more in print production": Piyush Pandey
O&M's executive chairman and national creative director is all set to judge the Print Lotus at the upcoming Asia Pacific Advertising Festival. In an interview with agencyfaqs!, Pandey talks of print as a category, the scope for improvement in Indian advertising, and what's unique this time about judging at the Asia Pacific AdFest
Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and national creative director, O&M, India, is all set to be a judge at the Asia Pacific Advertising Festival Awards, 2007. Pandey will be the chairman of the Print Lotus; John Hunt of TBWA/Worldwide and Linda Locke of Leo Burnett, Asia Pacific, will be the chairpersons of the TV Lotus and Outdoor Lotus, respectively. The festival will be held in Pattaya, Thailand, March 14 to 17, 2007.
In an interview with agencyfaqs!, Pandey talks of print as a category, the scope for improvement in Indian advertising, and what's unique this time about judging at the Asia Pacific AdFest.
Q. Since you're no stranger to the AdFest (having judged it previously as well), perhaps, you can throw light on what's different this year in terms of categories, the judging process, or perhaps even the quality of entries from across the world.
Piyush Pandey |
Over the last many years, Asia has been extremely strong and talented in print, and I look forward to an interesting week, judging along with the other eminent members of the jury. One significant thing about this year's jury chairmen is that they are all highly acclaimed individuals. They include the jury chairmen for the last three years from Cannes.
Q. How do you perceive print as a category and medium vis-Ã -vis the others?
A. Print is an interesting category and, just when you think that nothing more can be done with print, the fraternity has the ability to surprise you yet again. Compared to film, it is a less expensive medium and, therefore, a lot of creative people, including the very junior ones, get the opportunity to experiment and express themselves through print advertising. This makes creativity flourish year after year.
Q. On a comparative note, do you believe it's tougher to be creative in print than in other media?
A. I don't think one can compare media in terms of the degree of difficulty in creativity. Every medium is as easy or as difficult as the other, and print is no exception.
Q. What do you think are India's chances at the Ad Fest this year? What sort of entries are you expecting - the wacko, creative kind, or the more strategic ones?
A. I have never speculated on awards, therefore I'm not in a position to comment on India's chances. However, India is a fast emerging creative nation, and the Asian fraternity will have a lot of expectations from her. In my mind, what you termed 'wacko' vis-Ã -vis strategic ads is not something mutually exclusive. Every ad has to be strategic in its direction and creative in its expression.
Q. When comparing Indian print work to that from other countries, in what area do you think there's scope for us to improve, where do you think we're lagging behind? Alternatively, what is strong and distinct about India's print campaigns and which is a unique selling point in our favour?
A. India is never short of ideas and it's comparable to any other country in the world. However, Indian clients are still to get used to investing in print production the way other countries do. If there was a way to compare the cost of photography, illustration, and time spent, I think there a huge difference between India and many other countries. Yet it's on the back of great ideas that India has performed well from time to time. I look forward to many more such ideas this year, too.
© 2007 agencyfaqs!