 for him creative zone. My guest today is another star creative who's known for his amazing work for immunity charm, for Nescafe, for incredible India. We're pleased to welcome the extremely talented Pratik Bhadwaj, the chief creative officer of Lonitas. Hi Pratik, how have you been holding up? Hi, I'm holding up well and I think I need to update my LinkedIn profile to add more brands in there, including surf and access and a lot of the brands that I've been working off at Lintas. Amazing. So first off we want to speak to you about how has this experience been creating amidst remote captivity and how has it created a concept and changed post lockdown? I think we've adjusted really well, you know, we've adjusted really well. In fact, not just Lintas, I think the entire advertising industry can hold their heads high with the way we've gone on with the work and the way we were adapted. This lockdown has proved the strength and adaptability of the advertising industry. To all those who've been proclaiming that big agencies are slow to respond, blah blah, I think we've all really stuck it to them. We've been there for our clients, we've cracked campaigns on video calls, we've written stories that adapt to the new rules and regulations. We've shot remotely, we've delivered top quality in impossible situations. I mean, look at the amount of proactive work coming out, not just from Lintas and I'm saying from everywhere. The advertising, I mean, the entire industry, the advertising industry has really stood up and proved its value to clients. And it's been a revelation, really. I think we've played a lot in the kitchen. Take us to any of your work done during lockdown and how did it all come together since you're speaking about remote shooting and remote creating? There's so many campaigns we've done, so many. And it's just been nonstop, from life boy to surf to access rivers, Takata, Dorm X, V. I mean, it's just endless the list. But the work, I think the one that's closest to my heart is Kaam Babasi. That's a project that we've taken on as low Lintas. And it started when we saw what the migrants were going through while returning to the villages. And we realized that it's not going to be easy for them to return now. Not without jobs in hand and clarity. And we just gave ourselves this task of helping to bring back the migrants with dignity, helping to restart the economy again. Because so many projects left standard and so many migrants left standard in another place. It's almost like a stalemate who start, do the migrants come back first or do the project start first? And that's where the idea hit us and we created Kaam Babasi. That's like a creative tech intervention. And it's a platform that connects migrant workers with urban jobs. And we've created the tech ourselves and we've signed up big brands as partners. Z has come on board, Airtel has come on board, Access, Radio City. So they've all come on board. And it's a tech platform that we've created at Lintas and Tachoo. I think I've launched it here with you on this interview. Wow, we're very lucky that you shared this with us and it seems really interesting. So we also want to ask you that, you know, this entire situation has brought in a great deal of upheaval in the way we work. So where do you see the green shoots of? I don't hear that Ms. Ma, can you repeat that? Sure. So this entire situation has brought in a great deal of upheaval in the way we work. So where do you see the green shoots of opportunity, learnings, et cetera, that it's brought out? See, I think that part of it is already answered in what I said earlier in terms of adapting to the situation. And what we've done is we've really focused on our clients' businesses. And what is the work that is required to help that, to help them survive through this time? And, you know, I mean, everything, we've gone into performance video making, right? We're creating that ourselves. We're doing, I mean, you take calm prophecy, right? I mean, that's a digital platform. So we're doing all kinds of work in these circumstances. And I mean, you know, there's a myth that advertising agencies just TVC's for their clients. That's a myth propagated by people who haven't been inside an agency for a while. You know, today every agency is in a digital agency and we've all adapted to that. And we've all already had adapted to it. It's just that now that work is visible to everybody. That part of our skill set is visible to everybody now. Right. So speaking about digital, as you know, that it's grown and all that, even creative agencies are now getting into things like social engagement, regeneration, etc. And so what do you think about digital acceleration and all that from your own? What have been your learnings? See, I think everybody has been a digital agency, like I said, everybody has been a digital agency for a while, right? And all of us and we all have the capabilities. We all have the capabilities and the skills and it's just that you take the calm prophecy project. You know, the one that I just spoke about. So would you say that the entire situation has kind of accelerated digital adoption for creative agencies? Yes, it has. Yes, it has. You take the calm prophecy project. That's a progressive web app and an IVR solution with data matching algorithms all under one product. One project. That's all created by Linters. Right. Yes, we're shooting a TVC and a radio campaign as well. Yes. But see the work behind that. Right. That's the part that also we are developing. That's also what we're developing. So it's a switch that had already been underway for a while. And you're right. This entire scenario, this entire situation has perhaps accelerated it and brought it more into the limelight is what I'd say. Perfect. So tell me, speaking of clients, how have like, how clients adapted to this and what is the general mood like now? Are they still tightening their postings or do you see them finally wanting to spend? Are we on the road to recovery? Because with festive coinciding with IPL, you know, there are talks that things. IPL. Three letters. Three letters. IPL. I think it's such an inflection point in the general mood and sentiment. You know, suddenly there's a buzz. You can hear the move is going off in everyone's head. You know, and for advertising, it's like a Google calling, you know, that the hard days we've survived them and now we're nearing the end of the war. It's going to be the single biggest game changer in the situation. I really feel for agencies and marketers, IPL is like a beacon. That's nice to hear. Yeah. Finally, some positive news and positive statements. Also, so, yeah, talk about clients and all that. You know, COVID-19 is a humanitarian crisis and a lot of what shows globally are speaking about not factoring work created for these times. So what would be your message to like brands and agencies on creating through this crisis without using it as a marketing ploy? I'm not even thinking about awards and award shows. I think it's so far removed from the realities of today, right? And I think enough people are conversing about COVID already. You know, I would personally rather focus on its effects on our clients' businesses and how to create communications that tell their brands in the times of COVID. That's the part of the challenge I'd rather be involved in. Getting into the COVID-19 for the sake of awards and creating great communication, great award-winning work. It's very far removed from, I'm very far removed from that world right now. That's right. So, yeah, tell me, tell me. No, I think that that's, it's the last thing on the mind. And actually, the work that we are really enjoying to do right now is hardcore sales work. We are a hit-domics, toilet cleaner. We have to sell this at the time of COVID. How do we do this? You know, that's the work. And rather than get into advising people on how to deal with COVID, I think there are enough people doing it right now. Our focus has to be on our brands and our clients and their businesses, right? Right. If we can't all be at 30,000 feet, we should be right in there, roll up our sleeves and be in the trenches with them, and trying to solve how to sell their brands in these times, not just our own. Interesting. So, we've also, when we started off, we saw a lot of work in terms of film shots from phone, which we still see a lot of UGC format work happening. But do you think as an industry, even that craft has evolved over lockdown or, you know, have you seen any kind of saturation among consumers? But we have, no. I mean, I think we have seen this evolution and that's why I said advertising should be proud of itself, the entire industry and the way we worked and how we found ways of delivering quality. We started off with all those mobile phones. I've been guilty of some of those myself. And now we figured out how a way to create communication even in these times, whether it's a video asset that you need to produce, how to get the quality in without maintaining the rules and regulations and decorum of these times. And the work that has been created is, I think, it's evolving every day. It is evolving and getting better and better. Look at the barriers in front of a creative person and a creative agency today. It's not just about the kind of stories you can produce. It's the kind of stories you can write. You can't write stories which involve groups of people meeting. Because that's not how people are today. You can't write stories of people meeting without masks because that's irresponsible. Despite that, we are writing stories that work. We are producing them and making those productions work. I mean, that's off too. I think we all need to do a little salam to ourselves. We are pretty hard on ourselves most of the time, but I think this COVID situation and this lockdown situation has proven our resilience and our adaptability. Interesting. So lastly, there's been extreme dreadful news affecting our lives. There's so much video fatigue. Work from home seems like work ready for seven. So what do you tell your teams and what would be your message to creatives to stay motivated amidst all this? I think this is what I tell myself and this is what I tell my teams as well. That this is a situation unlike any other. I think no generation has faced this kind of situation of working. It's almost like you're at war, but the economy is working at full tilt. Even if the results aren't there, the work and the effort being put into it is full tilt. And when this is over, we're all going to come out of this so strong. We are going to be better for this. It's actually made us better. It's made us realize each other's values, value more. Sometimes you're sitting in an office surrounded by people and not valuing each other. Here, working from home, you're realizing everyone's value much, much more. And I think this is a positive take out of it. Perfect. Thank you so much for your time and for this really, really insightful, positive conversation. I hope to see you as your office soon. Once things get back to normal, which we hope very soon. Take care, take care. Thank you.