Noel Alex: Very Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome back to another edition of the Mad Over Videos podcast. This is our 13th episode today, and we’re really proud of how it’s coming out. And today we have a very special guest with us, we have Prathap Suthan, a Titan of the Indian advertising industry. He’s had more than 35 years of experience. He started off his career as a creative director, the DDP Group, then went on to be the National creative director of Grey global group for another decade. And now he is the managing partner and Chief Creative Officer at a BangInTheMiddle based out of New Delhi. So it is my pleasure. Thank you for being here.
Prathap Suthan: Very welcome ya. You missed out on one chunk of my career. That is after Grey, I was the head of the chain, which is the Samsung agency. You know, in the end, I spent almost close to five years. And after that is right, BangInTheMiddle happened.
Noel Alex: Yeah. Any further. Thank you so much for giving us your time. I think when I was thinking about what the podcast should be about, considering how you have so much experience in this field, I want to talk about the advertising field in general, and how our ads are coming up today. Because honestly, what I see on screen today does not make me happy. Like driven ads out there, ads that have your exposition of facts, and ads that are designed to sell rather than to entertain. And it’s a shame because we used to do it. So well. India had this golden period of advertising. And I just wanted to understand from you like in this day and age, why should creativity and entertainment play a more important role in Ads today?
Prathap Suthan: Okay, so, you know, you know what you said about the current state of advertising. I think it’s an aberration at this moment, because with the pandemic, and COVID, and all sorts of things. Nobody knows where the industry is going. Nobody knows what the economy anyway, we all know that the economy is crashing down. And it’s, we are on top of what we call a frozen lake, right? We don’t know where the ice is thin, whether you can escape fast, walk fast, whether the ice will break in or not. Right. So everyone has been careful. Right? So the current set of advertising, which is going out, is because of that, you don’t want to over-promise too much you would, you have to maintain a certain sense of balance and rhythm for you as you don’t want to go to the left, you don’t want to go to the right. You know, I want to make sure that I cross this pandemic so that life can happen again. Right. So like I said, it’s an exception to what advertising is, right. But I completely understand what you’re trying to get at. Because unfortunately, what is also happening is there is because of media, or digital media and social media being far cheaper to ask as media platforms, versus traditional mainline press, advertising, preservation, television advertising.
Anyone can everyone can actually make an ad and put it out there. Right? So there is an enormous amount of content that keeps coming out. And don’t forget, you’re also fighting against dogs and cats and elephants and snakes and trees falling down and lightning and you never know what your timeline is going to bring up. It is not an ad all the time. Right? Sometimes it happens to be an ad but mostly it is about babies gurgling, some accidents happening, you know, all sorts of things keep crashing down on your timeline. So at times and you also have great trailers for movies that keep happening. Right. So you’re talking about multi-million dollar production, clashing against, a 10,000 rupee static ad out there, right. So at times, on digital and social, you have a plethora of things happening. Okay, from animation to 3d modeling to AI to stuff in AR and machine learning and all kinds of things, adding layers on top of that programmatic stuff happening. Right? So there is so much stuff. And again, how much do you see? And how much do you retain? Right? The reason is that we, we want something when you know, it is something which you haven’t seen. So suddenly, you know, a penguin that is talking to you is has got more appeal, than let’s say, Priyanka Chopra talking to you today because there’s so much content about her already, but I haven’t really seen a penguin talking. So I am inclined to watch that. And it may not be an ad, it could be somebody who’s put a voice, on top of that, maybe, like, they say, what are those deep fake videos that you see? Right, so you don’t know what sort of content comes in, and therefore there is so much stuff out there. And certainly our ads within the basket of such brilliant stuff, and such incredibly funny stuff that was happening, your paid ads, so to say looks very bland, you know, I read a very interesting expression the other day, that we are not into brand-building these days, we are into blend building. And these are brands versus blends. And I completely agree, it’s such a bland promise that we make, and everybody is so right about it, that there’s so many, you know, things, filters that you have to use within advertising, you don’t want to piss off the feminists at one point, you know, you don’t want to piss off the political guy. So the other end that you don’t want to piss off the religious guys, the bugs, there are so many layers, you could all and suddenly somebody will have a problem with that, why did he show this color? And that color means something else, you know, why did you have a guy with a beard, that means something else, all sorts of shit happens. Right? So a lot of marketers and brands are completely pushing forward stuff that is extremely liked. You know, and nobody takes cognizance of problems. They don’t want to create issues with people as you don’t know where the market is going. So from that perspective, there are so many things that are sort of prompting us and ensuring that you do not go out of the way to create stuff. However, there was a time when and see today’s media is very different. Right? I mean, like, you can’t quite argue with what happens on television. Right? I mean, television is all it’s a broadcast media, television speaks to you, you watch them at best, what he can do to show revenge, is you skip the ad and you go to the next channel, versus social media interview where you can actually interact with it. And then say, your point of view, right? Now, even in newspapers, when you see the ad, you like it or you don’t like it, you flip the page and move on, no magazine for that matter or radio for that matter, you listen to one then keep going there at least there’s a certain sense of credibility because suddenly that media is higher than it is not an on equal terms. Social media makes it equal, a brand is equal, you know everything is equal. Because you can argue with the president you can argue you can have a point of view that you want to send Prime Minister Modi right because on Twitter you can do that you can tag him and you can be tweeted him or you can say what you want, but on television and using regular papers you don’t, To me, I still think that television and newspapers and magazines are brand making media versus social media and media which I think is more brand breaking media’s, you can destroy, one slip of the tongue one small me the other day, I saw this ad, I forgot the brand. But they had used an audio clip, sorry, a music track, which had much like a watermark. We’ve had that audio jungle stuff coming through in the track. And somebody had forgotten an actually a replay track, I’m sure they would have bought the track. But the bad went on with that audio jungle thing happening behind and the entire world got after it. You know, so these things happen.
All right, because we want to buy a good track at a cheap price. I mean, that’s a place where you go and buy it from. But I mean, it’s a mistake, it’s a genuine mistake that happened, right, but people who went after it and everybody wants to criticize Because see, it is very difficult to create. It is easy to destroy. You know, you can stand in front of the Mona Lisa and say so what a horrid painting you know, I don’t know why she’s not smiling. Maybe you know, you don’t see us actually angry. Are you able to do something or you cannot. It is so easy to critique and destroy and bring down something and have no point of view right? And that is exactly what has happened to advertise anyone and everyone has a point of view and everyone says it sees in India till social media happened, the media and the world where, where you could press into or suppose limited to people who had a point of view, right who was important. The common man, we never really had a moment under the sun. Social media has changed everything. Right now everybody is out there. Everybody’s a creator, everybody’s a joker, everybody wants to comment. Everybody has a highfalutin point of view on things, right. And see, the trick in advertising is to be consistent. Now, unlike being happy, your Tick Tock creators and all that all those guys create stuff, and the inherent creativity and everybody come out. And it’s a platform that allows everybody to be creative. But the trick in advertising is, you have to be consistent. Right, you have to be consistently creating stuff, which is an ad, which is, I have written speeches for politicians. I have written articles for professors, right, I have written radio sports, I have written television commercials, I have written full-fledge print campaigns, I’ve done magazine ads, I’ve done posts, I’ve done all sorts of things, right. But you have to be consistent every day, you have to create stuff, which will go out into the public domain, and you bet you ready for being criticized or appreciated. But for the New Age Creators of engages, create something they go out, and you never know, when they will come back again because chances are, you would not find them coming back again. So everybody will have a high point they will, you know, I mean, imagine somebody capturing the shot of a coconut falling on somebody’s head, and you were there exactly the same spot anywhere, you got that. But that happens once in a lifetime. That’s a once in a blue moon incident that happens and it will never come back to you again. So you have got your 20 lakh views on a day. But after that, you just go back into what you were into the shadows. But for us, you know, people who are in the advertising industry, every day, you have to create and for me, I mean, it’s 35 years, and I’m still doing it. At my age, a lot of people would want to retire. I mean, if I was in a government job, I would have retired by now. You know, I have a lot of friends who have retired and become grandfathers, etc, etc. But for me, I think I’m still as good as I was if not better than what I was, you know, when I started because today I have control over what I want to communicate, I have control over what I can create within a certain set of parameters, you know, all that, so many things. And again, it’s all experience. So yes, coming back to what we started discussing brands and blends, now blends will continue to help. You know, for every 100 blends, there is going to be one brand that is going to come through, which is brave enough to have a point of view, and perhaps have a product benefit that is useful to me. So if you keep doing democratic stuff, you will just create, keep creating plants, every great sense for venture capitalists to put money behind all these things, you know, so that they also have a brand in the same category. But that was the end of it. You know, and again, brands have to be built across time a brand is like a person, right? You know, if my name is Prathap Suthan. And today, I look like this. And this is not something that happened yesterday, I have grown a beard for the last 20 years. Not tomorrow, if I take it off and I start wearing a red choker, you know, tennis ball red ball over here. And I start to have, years inside walking around in a sari suddenly, it’s not me, for a brand to build itself. It has to be consistent. Of course, it can evolve with time.
Noel Alex: Sure, just to add on that, like, I totally understand the fact that brands would want to take a safer approach, because they at the end communication is subject to, like the public’s opinion. But the way I’m saying it is, if you fear that and go for a very straightforward and expositional approach to communication, it’s not really good to help you because nobody’s going to end up watching your video in the first place. Where I mean being infamous in a certain way would get you more views and but here, that’s not the case. People are not even watching your videos because they already know what to expect. Like if it’s a bike and Okay, what to expect. I’m seeing this bike going to be zooming around here and there. I’m going to get some key features about the bike, which I really do not need to know, right now, I can just ask about it in the showroom or have it on the end screen. But again, no thought, so why would I want to invest my time watching this when I can watch something more entertaining? That’s just a scroll away? Because that’s the times we are in. The content is like, we’re in a content overload right now.
Prathap Suthan: Absolutely. 3 seconds is what you have.
Noel Alex: I mean, three to five seconds to grab the person’s attention.
Prathap Suthan: Right. See, which is again, See, the thing is, I don’t think the fault entirely lies with advertising agencies. I see, at the end of the day, the role of the advertising agency is to create advertising. And I think half a decent agency will do their best to do something which is entertaining, which is attention-grabbing, you know, which we’ll catch, there’ll be a great idea within it. Now, unfortunately. And fortunately, as well, do not forget, the money that is going to be spent on creating that ad does not come from the ad agency. It is from the client. So the client also has been equal responsibility to put out stuff, which is as bold, you know, right? Now, when you have a completely new product, if you make chappals, and you’re coming out with another pair of chappals, and if that is really no difference, right, then you have to have a bold ad idea to go with. Now, if you also save, I also have a supple linear that doesn’t know you’re finished. Right? Now, again, you just also the advertiser, the owner of that brand, that needs to have that understanding. Because I don’t think that 90% of all advertising agencies in the world, okay, would be very proud of the fact that they want to do some really differentiated, effective advertising that is creative and will also sell their product. But a lot of clients. Most clients today are, while they are marketing savvy, etc, and they’re digitally savvy, social media savvy, etc, are not really clued on into the business of buying an idea, or judging an idea. You know, why the power is with them? They are not equipped to buy an idea. I mean, how do you judge I mean, if I present an idea, it should grab them, right, it should grab them, there are no evaluation parameters on which they can judge an idea, just that experience that tells them that, this idea is scary, but I’m willing to not do it. Right? Because it’s my money at stake. So, therefore, they go safe. And that’s what happens. And that was why you see.
Noel Alex: More than the money, they’re afraid of their reputation, like, Oh, yeah, I don’t think is on. If they screw it up, they’re answerable to their seniors or right, just anyone knows that.
Prathap Suthan: So yeah, so that entire chain of command from the brand manager onwards up to the CMO, and to the CEO, and of course, and then of course, to the owner, somebody out there has to have a spine and say, Look, I if I’m going to make this brand, and this is going to be on the back of great advertising. And for me, I need a great advertising idea to go out there. Because if it is a mutual brand, see the thing is you’re not creating a sample that is going to be gravity, okay, if you have such a fantastic idea, okay, there are inbuilt you know, small little rockets that will give you elevation and maglev the first maglev chapels in the world, then it’s okay. Then you can say introducing, XYZ supple with mag levitation, right? Then it will sell the idea is yourself. Yeah. But if you don’t have that, then at least you have to give the feeling that there is maglev over there, you need a bold idea for that. Right? The foot has to be backed by a plane without the backing of a client. No ad can do anything. Because mostly what happens after that.
Noel Alex: Like I want to talk a little more about that in a later segment, where we’re talking about how we should have that trust between the client and the agency. But I think before that, we could just going back to that golden age of advertising thought about India, okay, like I just thought we can Yeah, some of the ads that we are very fond of from yesterday years. Okay, I’m just playing what you chose out for us.
Prathap Suthan: Isn’t that such a beautiful ad? You know, this. So I mean, you know, the, you know, unfortunately, this is not an ad that too many people talk about, you know, and it’s not exactly an old ad. But it’s the typical, it this is what a commercial is all about. You know, it tells you a story, which is so entertaining. And it tells you the product. Yeah, the exactly it is done.
Noel Alex: Like, even even from the start, they’re not talking about the product, the audience has no idea what the product is.
Prathap Suthan: Absolutely. Yeah.
Noel Alex: Only until, when you see the copy, tie it all together, the audience gets this epiphany.
Prathap Suthan: Yeah, yeah. And it’s something which you want to watch again, and again, because there are so many layers. You know, one, of course, I mean, and I will tell you why I just this particular ad.
Noel Alex: We had gone back to YouTube and search for it, it’s not like they appeared on the monitor to see that ad again, we went back to YouTube, just to watch it again. Right. So just to put ourselves in the shoes of the people who created this video, just to give other creative professionals out here an idea of how we could come up with a concept like this, and how we could sort of sell just a quick thought.
Prathap Suthan: So, you know, obviously, you’d have to think backward, right? And say, look, what is the audience that they’re trying to reach? You could say, from the kind of people that they’re showing, you’re actually appealing to them, let’s say, middle class, middle class, kind of a thing. And more of a Pan India sort of an appeal, not definitely urban, but even the urban guys get it when we get to the magic within it. And don’t forget, it’s as government, as it gets, of course, the MetLife bit, is that we just took you to know, the American one, which of course, is very famous for the peanuts, and all that shows. But the whole idea has come from and it’s not a, it’s a very generic line. Right? It’s the most generic line that you can think of, when you look at, look at insurance, that you’re safeguarding yourself from something untoward happening to you and it so beautifully brings our life, it’s the same I mean, that is why you buy insurance, right? Because you really don’t know you’re walking down the road. And suddenly a camel can come and slam you down or maybe a tree can fall on top of you, or your car can be hit by somebody else who’s drunk, you know, all sorts of things happen.
Noel Alex: So, the concept stemmed from the copy.
Prathap Suthan: Say that again.
Noel Alex: So I guess the concept stemmed from the copy, Like, anything can happen in your life, That the Ad agency came up with and designed this whole story.
Prathap Suthan: That’s the translation of the idea of as a line. And in this particular ad. I have another reason why I chose that. Okay, a long time back. When I used to work in mudra. I also used to work for a client called National Insurance, which is based in Calcutta. And so the friend of mine Yogi who was the head of the Mudra branch on both of us were handling this and anything is possible was the line that I had suggested to the client. And we had built up a campaign based on that line. But of course, at that time, the people sitting there didn’t think that was the right approach to get-go with. And they never bought the campaign. So anything is possible was a line that I thought of. And so when this line when this campaign came up, and I said, My God, it’s almost the same line, the same thought that I had, but was happy that somebody actually came up with the same idea.
No, I don’t think anyone even knew, I think barring me and Yogi, I don’t think everybody anybody else even knew that I did a campaign like that, you know, full marks to the guys who came up with the campaign. But for me, that is a very personal thing. Sometimes you tend to like something because we saw something that appealed to you. Right. And this is something that appealed to me because at some level I had thought of the same line. And look at the look at how beautifully extendable this line is. Right? So anything is, can happen. Something, certainly a man turning into this. And you can, once you have the core, which is what the trigger or the idea is all about, anyone can start creating more and more. Now, that’s the beauty of advertising. Great advertising will always have a central idea.
Noel Alex: You can have way more ideas along the same idea, Right?
Prathap Suthan: Say that again?
Noel Alex: You can have many more ideas along the same idea.
Exactly. Exactly. So so that is what makes it beautiful. Right. And that’s what a great brand is built on. There’s always I mean, you remember the MasterCard commercial, right? Everything else? Yeah. You know, pricing things. But there are hundreds of ads that people have created themselves and put, you can find. So that’s the beauty of this. When you have a core idea when the core platform, then you can anyone can, you know, I mean? So maybe the creative director has moved on, but somebody else will come on. But because this is there, you can build on it. It’s not a waste of money, but I don’t think they have built on it much more than this. But it’s a great idea. It’s a generic insurance thing. And it says it so entertainingly. And it stays with you. It’s a beautiful app. I mean, I wish I did that.
Noel Alex: It’s one of those that I wanted to share.
Prathap Suthan: Yeah.
Noel Alex: This again, is relatable. I think everyone remembers this one.
This still cracks me up.
Prathap Suthan: Yeah, it is another layer that I mean, again, like I say, storytelling as its best, it’s fabulous. I like it for one reason, because of the contrast between that really polished guy who’s dealing with those calls.
Noel Alex: With one minute they have created this whole hero villain kind of a context.
Prathap Suthan: Yeah, and it’s and it’s sort of the audiences and right.
Noel Alex: Yeah. Which is when I was thinking about how to create. Yeah, when I was thinking about how the creative must have come up with this, I think the brief that they got is see superglue is a product that is not very familiar to a class of audience like you see here, like the very common man, I think when he first came in, it was not very familiar to us. But how do you make a product like that stand out to an audience like this? And the way to do that is to make him the hero of an ad like this. So I thought, brilliant like they did not explain like key superglue is 10 times stickier than your novel blue. They did not go into the functional aspects at all. They just made it purely for entertainment purposes. And I think that’s why he still remembers it right? Correct. Ultimately, we want a brand recall.
Prathap Suthan: I mean look at that as an interesting side angle to it, it’s an ad that sticks. Right? It goes blue. And the sheer ridiculousness of that moment because, you know, it has to work underwater, fish have to be attracted to that, you know, all evidence, obviously, it doesn’t happen, but still say the ridiculousness of the whole thing is what gets you. And again, you want to watch it again and over again.
Noel Alex: Yeah, but bringing back to your point of how you said. So if you imagine an ad like this, in social media platforms, I mean, some people might certainly bring it up like it, will the superglue work underwater, you’re making up for, practically, finally.
Prathap Suthan: Okay, now, I don’t know whether you are aware, but there is a new certain set of guidelines that the government has come up with, right, which came about a month ago, or it’s the draft stage, where they say that you can’t really exaggerate. Now, if you actually read through the guidelines, and if you take this particular ad, this ad doesn’t work. If you follow the norms of a current exaggeration, as to how the government is good. And it’s crazy, because you know, sometimes you have to exaggerate and the current fact I also spoke about it the other day, the way they have written out their legalese when it comes to exaggeration, people should not really, you know, expect much more than what it can deliver. Now, sometimes advertising high advertising is all hype, it’s a hyper ball, advertising is built on, you know, magnifying a product advantage, or a product benefit. I don’t think I mean, obviously, lawyers wrote it. I don’t think they understood what advertising needs to be. If that is the case, tomorrow, somebody will come up with cinema and say that you cannot exaggerate the cinema. I mean, this is to me is, you know, it’s a 30-second film, cinema, right? That’s what advertising is. It is your escape from the dreariness of reality, advertising is an escape. And people don’t really appreciate that.
Noel Alex: Yeah, I was thinking like, people would want to watch ads to sort of it take a break from what they’re already doing. And if this ad is not more entertaining than what they’ve already been doing, then why would they want to spend their time there?
Prathap Suthan: Exactly. I mean, you remember the Lyril ad, right, the woman and the waterfall?
Noel Alex: Yeah.
Prathap Suthan: You know, in fact, it painted up the inside was about the freedom that a woman had when she was bathing. And that’s, you know, blooms to life. So to say, you can always say that nobody ever takes a bath under you can have a waterfall inside the house. I mean, it’s an escape. I mean, if you look at me, at that moment in time to go back, this is I think, the mid-70s, I think you go back into the typical life of a housewife, so to say, it was very tough. Life was very tough. And that, you know, that the box that she had was her only solace. I mean, even that time telling me even television wasnt there, you know? No, this item I use, remembers first seeing it as a film in cinema halls. I don’t think television came up when 82-83 along with before that if you saw the movie in theaters.
Noel Alex: Alright, cool. so I think we’ll move on to, again, what we talked about the brand and agency relationship. So I started off this segment by writing it down, like too many cooks spoil the broth, advice for marketing professionals on how to trust and work with creative agencies to create memorable ad campaigns. So if there are video marketing professionals here right now. Like what advice would you give them like on how to work with another creative agency and sort of giving that trust to them that they will ensure a really good creative output As well as have your brand messages out there.
Prathap Suthan: Okay, yeah, it’s very easy for me to say this. But what I think is, the one thing that is currently missing, or one thing that needs to happen is the process of writing a brief. There is some, there’s a document called, right, which the client gives the agency. And, and that is where everybody sits down in the marketing team. Along with everyone who’s concerned, right, they sit down and write a brief of that campaign that needs to be done, including the amount of budget they would have. Okay. And earlier on, if I go back to my earlier avatars, there was a time when the CMO or the head of marketing would actually sign off. On that brief means, everybody who’s a decision-maker in that in the company has had them agreed to the direction that the brand is giving the agency they take. Okay, and there are no questions about it. And once the brief comes into the agency, the agency people describe the strategy people and the planner, along with the senior creative guy who sits down and discusses the brief, and then they would arrive at the creative piece. Okay, there’s a marketing brief that comes in and translates into the creative brief. And there are formats within every agency has its own written format, you know, that proposition is subtracted out and then given to the creative department create stuff. Now, this process makes a lot of things easier. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen today.
Yeah, I can say 99% of clients out there do not know how to write a brief and will not write a brief because they think it is below them to write a brief. They will say, look, I have hired you. So therefore you are subservient to me. I want to launch a pair of chappals. Now you go and do it. It is impossible to go back to them with something which will make sense to everybody in that room. Because no one knows what the brief is. Do you get what I mean? I mean, they do happen. See, right. If I say, Noel, I want you to go. Okay. And the question is now where the hell do I go?
Now, if I say okay, Noel, I want you to go to Bombay. Okay, it was clear that the direction I wanted to go to Bombay, then I’m going to think saying, How the hell do I go to Bombay my client up established? What? address how to say it is the advertising agency’s business. So if you say, Noel, I want you to go to Bombay. And then you will come back and tell me saying, Look, there are 10 different ways of going to Bombay, right, I can take a plane, I can take the train by walk it, I can pick a cycle, I think there’s a bullock cart, or on the other hand, that makes it into the dinosaur, get on top of and do something or I can walk. I can get to Pakistan, and I can go to Dubai and from Dubai, I can take a plane. But there are hundreds of ways suddenly, you’re opening up many, many, many more ways. Of course, on the right, I can actually from Delhi I can go to Calcutta, take a boat and come all the way around India and comfortable. There are so many reasons, then you need to figure out which is the most effective way of reaching Bombay, right? But that direction going on is never given. You know, so because that is not there, then you don’t know what you are charging the producer. There is no scale on what you can measure now. So get the brief right, get everybody to sign off, and then give it to the agency. Because cutting what happens is you’re given a brief the agency interprets in its own way back to the client. And the client says to I don’t know what this is, this is crap that you have done. And then if he buys that, and it goes to the next guy who says Who the hell asked you to do this? This is not right. And then if everybody agrees, and the CMO says but then you’re not even launching this. Why did he even look at it?
Noel Alex: Because then you realize that the first briefing stages go very well. Like we’ll create an exact storyboard and give them exactly the kind of preview of what the final output is going to be. But I think there is this innate fear in them that if they don’t get involved in the creative process, the film is going to crap.
Prathap Suthan: Look at, it is clearly- Why is an agency hired, agencies hired because the client cannot do what an agency can. Right? That is why you having a client of an agency, right? Why Why do you go to a dentist to fix your tooth? Because you can’t fix it yourself? You have a problem with your tooth, right? It is your set of wisdom teeth, which is coming, slanted, except, etc. which was figured out in the last X-ray, which you took about five years ago. Now we can get, this given me trouble. But you can do it yourself when you go to a dentist. Right? How do you sit there?
Noel Alex: And the problem is they know, they know that they know that they can’t do it. But they still tell you how to do it.
Prathap Suthan: That’s exactly what you don’t go to that to the clinic to the dentist to you. You don’t tell them. Look, I want you to stand over here and drill over here and take that drill in the drill. And you do that and then you give me an injection over here. I mean, any dentist would slap you right? And get asked you get the hell out of my office. That’s what I mean, when do you go to your lawyer and say, Look, this is how I want you to argue the case? Do you go to the chef in the restaurant and say, Look, this is exactly how I want my dal to be made. Or the rod that the tech guy has called a recipe. He’s famous for that dal, you will only make it that way. Because otherwise, it goes against what the restaurant stands for. I mean, you go to any specialist, and you tell them you want that. But when it comes to advertising, because it’s anybody’s game, because anybody can have a point, as I said earlier told you, which is what is currently happening. Everybody has a point of view and advertise. It is the easiest thing to do. Right? Again, now how are you judging something? So I show you some?
Noel Alex: Thoughts on how we can solve this?
Prathap Suthan: Say that again?
Noel Alex: Any thoughts on how we can solve this?
Prathap Suthan: Oh, no, the only way to solve it is by saying that you’re the agency, you’re the guys who know this best. Come back and tell us what needs to be done. Trust the agency. I’ve been doing this for 35 years. And for 35 years, my career is full brimming with brands that have been successful, whether they have liked what I have done, whether the market has bought the work that I have done, the market has changed, the market has grown, done the work, that I have followed the work that I have done. And they’re successful. So I have a 35-year record of creating brands that are successful. I have very, very few brands that I have failed. And they have failed only for reasons which are beyond advertising. So that is the experience that I bring to the table. Now you have two years in marketing. Are you going to tell me if you know this ad is not going to work? I don’t like the idea, on what basis are you telling me. Yeah, you know, a lot of people so when I narrate a script to somebody, you know, very nice, simple. I try to keep my detailing of my story as expansive as possible because a lot of people miss out on details. Yeah. And I’ll tell you how it happens. Imagine a person walking down the street. Okay, as simple as that. What, did you imagine? Tell me? Noel. Tell me what just saw.
Noel Alex: Just a man in the street. Not many details.
Prathap Suthan: Okay, now tell me. How old was this man?
Noel Alex: The young chap, my age.
Prathap Suthan: No I saw a 70 year old man. Okay. Was he Indian, was the white was the black was the Chinese was the Japanese was the arab. What was he?
Noel Alex: He was an Indian, though.
Prathap Suthan: No, I saw a white man.
Noel Alex: All right. I see where you’re getting.
Prathap Suthan: Which year was the set?
Noel Alex: This year?
Prathap Suthan: No. I saw this one. is a cowboy, cowboy wild west a wild west? What time of the day was it?
Noel Alex: Was noon!
Prathap Suthan: No, this was evening.
Noel Alex: Right.
Prathap Suthan: Okay. How many people were on the street?
Noel Alex: 10 – 20?
Prathap Suthan: No, it was empty. Okay, the clouds in the sky.
Noel Alex: I didn’t go to the sky.
Prathap Suthan: Exactly like an overview. Yeah, because I am seeing a smoky sky. Like noticing how one simple line has given you a completely different picture.
Noel Alex: perception. Yeah.
Prathap Suthan: And what I had in my mind was very, very different. You know, now imagine, this is just one line. From here goes, if I can do the entire thing, you’re seeing something else completely. I’m seeing something else. And obviously, the way to bridge that gap is by putting pictures so that I can say, Yeah, I will be very clear. Okay. Now, yes. You’re not hearing the music in the throat. Right. I’m actually in the cowboy movie, I’m actually getting Carnatic music. Right now, because at the end of the day, at the end of my film, you actually see a Carnatic singer, which is a very, it’s an aberration, to have Carnatic advocacy that is yet and they never do that advertising, like, completely changed the paradigm, you show something completely new. It’s like the penguin that was singing. This was something that should not have been there. Right. So how do you judge so this comes only after years of understanding and hearing scripts, that way you take away everything else, you take away all the details? And then you understand the crux of the idea. Okay, and yeah, see the idea? You know, now, can you make this idea bigger? Can you know, do this? People never see an idea, they get caught up in details? And then they are in a whirlpool of something else, which is, is the right, they don’t have the experience, Judge ideas.
Noel Alex: How would they get this experience? Like, rather than having to work with many agencies, is there any way they can?
Prathap Suthan: No. See, that’s the thing. No, so leave that judgment to the advertising agency.
Noel Alex: Yeah. So have that trust?
Prathap Suthan: Yeah, have that trust, because you don’t have it with you? You will not have it with you, saying, okay, you think it’s a great idea? Can you back it? I said I’m absolutely convinced there. Because see, when I come and pitch something to you. I don’t want you to buy the idea by my conviction. In five years, I’m telling you, I can put my thinking behind and said this is gonna work. Trust me. If you don’t trust me, there’s nothing I can do. But now you want me to do a regular I will do a regular ad, it is your money want to blow up? Blow up your money? Which is exactly what happens. See, I am not in a position. I am an independent agency. I need my revenues to come in. Right. I also know if you think I’m being too aggressive in selling an idea, right. I’m not trying to steamroll you into buying any gear. I’m trying to tell you look, go with my experience go my judgment. I think it works for you because of XYZ reasons. Plus that, because there is nothing concrete, I can give you extra for my gut. Yeah, but a feeling tells you that it’s going to work. So go with it. And that’s what great clients do. Because great clients know that look, from a marketing perspective. I know what needs to be done. This is somebody else’s job, respectively, completely convinced about it. Let me back their conviction. How do you think great advertising is created? Nobody knows, right? I mean, did anyone know was no fight the pandemic was going to happen this year, you couldn’t have built it in your marketing matrix, right? You couldn’t. How do you think great advertising was ever born? It’s always about backing the data idea. Oh, I love the idea. Let’s go with it. You know, I don’t trust you. I mean, most of the basics and most of the 99% of all the advertising that I’ve done. I’ve only gone with my gut. I did not know how to look at how did that happen? Because across the years I’ve started, I have caught a feeling of the people. I think the emotion of the country. There is this common thing that binds us together. You know, coming to that, a lot of the advertising that I do, I don’t use language Okay. Now Yeah, I come from Kerala as you know. And Kerala and people from Kerala and Hindi don’t go together, you know somehow we just got to get our heads around the language of now grammar goes for a toss, Of course, today I know a bit of Hindi I can survive in Delhi. But I am not equipped to write a Hindi spot with dialogue. Okay, and this is something which I recognized long back. So, therefore, I would never make my commercials heavy with dialogue. Right. Oh, visual. I have, I would have actually sent you an ad Ajanta clocks.
Noel Alex: So let’s play that.
Prathap Suthan: Yeah. If you remember, there was this woman who is knitting. And suddenly there’s an orchestra that comes around her music. Right. And one of my first I think my first ever commercial. Okay, okay, actually. Now, that has no language is just music. Right? There was a problem because clocks at that point in time, were seen and considered by the market as a noisy thing. Okay. And the client had too many of these things stuck in his godown. And he wanted to sell this. Okay, the noise into enjoyment. Okay. And it became a hot seller, and I’m sure everybody would know that, they would have seen this ad 100 times in their lives because they have played that for ages setting for 15-20 years, they ran the same commercial. And that brand was built on this, this commercial. And this is one of the first commercials that I did. And, this commercial has also won almost every award under the sun. In India. There’s again, there’s no language. Okay, so when I was hired by Cheil, the head of cheil was a Korean gentleman. And there was we were discussing something and there was a campaign that needs to be done. And I said, let’s do a thing that’s called the creativity, we’re working on it. And let them present the commercial to us, the campaign to us. And they started present in the commercial, and it was in Hindi. And so then I said, Look, can you stop? Can you explain this in English? And after some time, the Korean’s expression changed. And he looked at me and said that you don’t speak Hindi. Either know, I don’t understand Hindi. And he had to shock the expression. I negotiated a lot, baby a lot of money to get you from gray to join chail. And I asked you 1000 questions, except this one question whether you know, how if Hindi is the most popular language in the country? How can I have hired somebody who doesn’t speak it? So I said look, if you know if that was a handicap then I wouldn’t have got as far as I have in my life. Right? And I don’t you know, work with the language instead I use emotions. You know, I work on emotions. I mean, love is the same in every language, mother’s relationship with the child is the same in every language, the child when the child falls, Christ, whether it’s a person from Congo, or whether the person an Eskimo was living in Eskimos living in Alaska, or somebody in Siberia or somebody in Antarctica, it’s the same thing, right? And if you’re hungry, you will eat- human emotion, human feeling physical, physiological needs requirement. So I work with common human values and human feelings. So I haven’t got it wrong, I don’t think I will get it wrong.
Noel Alex: So I have that video ready now.
Prathap Suthan: It’s one of the very, very old, this would be 1989
Noel Alex: Well, I wasn’t born.
Prathap Suthan: Exactly now. So this is again, just this question was directed by Ram Advani. Ram was the director and he made one change in this. And again, that’s the other thing, the relationship or creative directors, or creative people and the director who’s working on your film. So my script had a young lady who was knitting, a pregnant young lady who was knitting. And then he said, the youngest people have can actually handle music and do some. But the older you get, right, they get more irritated by the sound. So, replace it with an older lady. So that, you know, it works. Because if we trim, this noise is actually music and beautiful, then it will work for everyone. So I said fantastic thought and in Ram’s idea was to put a place the young lady with the old lady. And to me, that was the most critical change in the script that I had done. The rest, everything was the same, you know? So he made that change. And I think that is important. And that’s the most critical change that ever happened in that film. And why the film became so successful, and why the brand became what it is. Yeah. Like you said like you saw there is no language, right? Yes. Last bit where you say, auto music shop at night, there’s nothing as it’s visual and audio, right, no dependence on the language. So the first that we saw the thing, I will never be able to write that dialogue ever. You know, I can visually see the film, I can do a film like that. But I will never be able to write stuff. There are a lot of people who do that, that craft is there. And that’s one of my deficiencies, but then there are people who, whom I have in my office who do that beautifully.
Noel Alex: But you know what, a lot of the clients, that we’ve interacted with are now all in favor of this approach of no dialogues and music plus supers approach. And they have a different logic to it, which actually makes sense. So they have to run these ads across multiple locations, right? So rather than having a very amateur dubbing of the entire ad, just make it a very visual and super oriented act so that you can just easily replace the text, which I think is a great thing. And especially right now, since all these social media platforms, they begin the playing of the video, even without the audio, like you have to manually tap the button to hear the audio again. So again, there there’s a risk of people missing out on the starting lines. We go for a dialogue approach. Yeah, something that’s interesting. It’s going on right now.
Prathap Suthan: So maybe I was far ahead of the time to see. Very good. But I’m very much contemporary. Okay,
Noel Alex: Cool, I just wanted to dive more into you as a creative professional. Like, we all know that creative professionals turn pro when they actually put in the work and do the practice. So it might seem like a very generic question, but how do you practice creativity, do you have a process for that?
Prathap Suthan: No to see it is? See, as they say, you know, most detectives most cops, right? They are cops by reflects. Everybody as a criminal, you know, they look at everything with suspicion. Right, right. Much like a priest, for that matter. I mean, if you’re talking about a proper priest, they look at everybody as a sinner. Everybody needs attention, everybody needs to be, you know, cleansed of the seams. You know, or a grandmother, who suddenly thinks of children, very nice and cook for them. And it’s a general motherly feeling that happens. The same with lawyers. Lawyers are always trained to see Okay, are you lying? lying? Are you lying? Can you see loopholes? The same way, when you’re, when you get into this line, you look at everything and you say, hey, that’s a nice idea. I can use it. Yeah, all right, going in a specific way, I can use that in an ad for something else. So you, you automatically become a reflex for you. Right now, so that reflex perhaps was there when I was a kid as well, to create things, but that is something which you need to inculcate and build and keep feeding in you.
Noel Alex: mindset shift, like you have to be in that process,
Prathap Suthan: right! Even when I’m scrolling through something or the other, and if I see a nice picture, the first thing is that, ah, it’s a nice picture for something, and then make a mental note of it today, you know, there are so much of stuff that is coming my way, I keep forgetting things. So when I see something really spectacular, I write it down. And I keep it small, on my notes, and my phone, I keep writing on this picture for that, so, and I keep keywords for it. Okay, so this is a recipe, or a food ad, or a mobile ad, or something like that. And I, tag them within my, I will have my own little system of writing stuff out and keeping. Because there’s lots of stuff going on an average day, I pull out about 20 to 30 thoughts. Also, and I write it down. And that becomes a habit. So even when I’m in a conversation with somebody, I would pick up my phone and write something down. Because sometimes, you know, a thought comes into the left here and goes off to the right here. You know, it doesn’t stay unless you capture it. Right. And you have, you’re constantly thinking about, seeing new ideas and picking up new ideas, you will keep forgetting half of them at least. And one of the things that I do is keep writing every day. So that’s my skill at the end of the day. Writing is my craft. Okay, take everything away. And I’m a copywriter, I’m a writer, not just copy. So I write, I mean, I could write on anything and everything. I don’t need inspiration.
Noel Alex: Hmm. You may, you’ve made it a daily habit to write
Prathap Suthan: Oh, that’s the poetry that I write. Right. So yeah, that’s what I do at 615 in the morning, every day. And I’ve been doing that for the last five years, more than five years, actually. But that’s one of the things that I do. But I keep writing. And, you know, a lot of people think to see that, you know, I need to be in the right place at the right time. I need the inspiration to hit me, I need a glass of beer by my side, I need to be sitting at the seaside. Forget it, I mean, you’re going to be sitting in a small little cubicle in a noisy office, you have to be your best at writing at that point. So you see in your head is everything that you need, right? I mean, what happens if there is no internet? You still have to write. You know, and, and that’s how people need to train for, for, and in the right within, you know, in 100 words, you need to write this or in 20 words, you need to write this, you know, Train yourself for it.
Noel Alex: Twitter might be a good practice, not because you have that word limit.
Prathap Suthan: In fact, I used to start writing I used to write on Twitter, and I never used to. I’m very bad at Twitter. But I used to use that when it had a limit of that 100 characters that I survived everything within it. You know, so I know exactly how much should that descriptor have for a post?
Noel Alex: Yeah. Yeah. He doesn’t really understand how hard it is to write a short form content and over a long form.
Prathap Suthan: Yeah. See that? See, if you’re a true writer, you can stretch a thought for as long as you want. Do you know? And you will need. Yeah, you need to be very fluid, you need to be able to write a tweet into the writer able to write long body copy, you know, you need to be writing about things you don’t know. So many things. I mean, and to me, there’s so much to write about in this world.
Noel Alex: Yeah. But keeping it short, and writing impactful short form content is much harder than we think. Right?
Prathap Suthan: Yeah, because it is easier for me, because I’ve been doing this for a long time. Right?
Noel Alex: Practice of doing that.
Prathap Suthan: It just, I mean, you go to a grizzled, General physician or GP, and he looks at you, and he will say, Oh, I think you have diabetes. How does he know you’re different? Without even feeling it? Because he knows you? Because that’s, he seems so effective. That he can, yeah, he can sort of identity without even touching and feeling the person.
Noel Alex: Right. So I think that will go into our last segment. Okay. I just think that a lot of creative professionals, who would want to watch a podcast like this and get more value for somebody like you? So keeping a very general what advice would you give young creative directors, copywriters, or other advertising professionals on growing and having a career as big as you have, right now, if we were to sort of have a trajectory similar to yours? What could we do to get there based on your experience?
Prathap Suthan: Okay, one is that you have to love what you do. Right. And when I say that, I don’t see myself working. In fact, I keep seeing this. The first day I went to work was the last day I went to work. Because, you know, I went to mudra as a copywriter, and that’s when I started writing it. Then I said, I am here to have some fun. So for me, I morning, and I say, time to kick some ass. You know, and I’m raring to go early morning. Yeah, you need to love what you do. If you don’t think you will get bored. If you’re bored, you can’t be interesting. And you will never be an interesting writer or an interesting creative cause. Yeah, okay. Read watch. Experience, observe. The length and breadth of your expression is the length and breadth of your experience.
Noel Alex: Absolutely, yeah.
Prathap Suthan: You know, so the more you take in, the more you have in your reservoir to write about, or to express.
Noel Alex: Our young professionals in this day and age have a upper edge right they have access to YouTube and so much content out there to get influenced by that
Prathap Suthan: That’s very mechanical watching, you can watch it with your eyes, but you have to see it with your soul. Only then you will do it stateside. You have to absorb it. I mean seeing a postcard of a lake is not as good as sitting by the lake and enjoying it. Because when you look at a postcard or or or a video you know especially on mute you’re missing the sounds of the waves of the little reflects rules, you’re missing the sounds of the butterfly mean the honeybees are going around in the background, you’re missing the sound of the birds chirping, you’re missing the sound of the little you know a train that is going the horizon, a little hoot that comes in you know miles after the puff happens so to say but he was missing so many details that you have to get your expression has to have detail. It can be flat. You know why? Why do we love stuff that is got lots of detail? I mean go to a palace, especially the French palaces and all that kind of work on the walls. And it can be just four walls, right? But look at the walls that are made. It is replete with stuff I mean you can spend hours looking at it. So you knew what something you need to take in everything you need to dive into it. Do you want to enjoy it? I mean, you can stand by the beach and watch the sea. But you also have to walk into the sea to feel the water how the sand feels under you, How do your feet feel in the water goes away kind of, you know, takes the sand from under your feet, crabs running around, there are so many things that So to me, you know, while they have so much stuff to watch, I don’t think it is going past their eyes. And that is not going to create a rich soul. And you need soul. If you don’t have that song, and you don’t have anything, that is very hollow.
Noel Alex: Good. A prism of one last thing like, this is something that I wanted personally also, like, how do you create a selling better, if you go into a meeting with a brand? Like what would be your process?
Prathap Suthan: 31:04
So you know, there was a time when I was a junior, where I used to be led by service people, they say, Okay, we have to go to the slide. And we have to share at least five campaigns sufficient. And then you’re working on five campaigns. And then you realize, if you’re not even concentrating on what, you know, you have five different thoughts going, you know, in all sorts of directions. So you go to the pitch meeting, and you present like five campaigns, and then the client is of increasing, how scattered are you, out in agency, but on the other hand, like, you know, the servicing partners, I went to the same look at the spread of work that we got for you. So then I slowly started thinking like a client, saying, what is the client sitting there for? He is not definitely sitting there by the campaign, I can tell you that. He’s looking at buying an agency, right? Oh, connecting with an agency. He’s sitting there to buy the thinking of an agency. How does the agency think? How, how effective are they thinking? How clear they’re thinking? How sharp are they? Yeah, they’ve got a sharpness, right? How has that sharpness come into play in the creative work that they do? Right. So you have one position, one direction that you have placed your thinking on, of course, platforms can have 100 ways of looking at it, but can be best expressed in one form, like all in one campaign. Now, if I only present one campaign, and I want my return on the campaign, but I present the entire 360-degree look at that thing. Saying that, if you want to do a print ad, this is how it’s gonna look like, if you want to do social campaigns. This one gonna look like a world war film campaign. That’s this is how it’s gonna look like on the radio, this is how the thought translates into radio, how would you translate into Twitter, etc. The client is sitting there to buy the conviction of the agency, not sitting there to buy the campaign, saying, If I give these guys my account, how will they think? How forceful are they? How strong are they because like I said earlier, a good client knows that he is no good at doing advertising? You want somebody who will lead him, agency people or advertising agencies have to leave their clients. You know, as clients have to follow agencies, today’s the other way around. We’ve become subservient. Great advertising agencies have always led clients to success. And they’ve only done it because they’ve been bold, committed the rushes, and convincing about the work that they do. Absolutely, yeah. And you don’t want to get into a pit stage and look like one bunch of nursery kids running, you know, pre-school stuff around them. Yeah, they don’t want it. They want it to be strong for them and make give them value for the money that they’re spending. Now. You know, I’ve been to many multiple pitches. One of the biggest pitches that I’ve been to is a client called ONGC oil and natural gas in 2003 when they were doing their IPO campaign, and it was led by a gentleman, possibly one of the most astute and the most arrogant CMD I’ve ever met in my life. That man was a rhinoceros who would bull-doze into everything to us well into thinking as well. Right? So when into the pitch, knowing that look, I have to face this man, who is so convinced, in fact, he is the guy who wrote the brief himself. Unfortunately, my life has taken me through some really fantastic lights, some really brilliant minds, some huge personalities. So, when I compare my clients of that stature to some of those wannabes today, actually very sad, and when they say, like, then I’m telling them- Look these legends have given me the freedom to work for the companies that have been successful. But unfortunately, I have to look at you up any money. You know, so I have, okay, this is do you want? Because, you know, that’s easy, a lot of agency guys won’t say this, because they just don’t have the guts to say it. But the fact is that I know, in the back of the head says, what are they thinking, at least a senior guys laugh at their clients are telling some of them. So I mean, I’m not saying that all my clients are like that some of the times are very good, some of the mechanical, but that’s the way it is. You can’t have them all right. So, I had fallen under the brief on ONGC was written by this man. And he had a line that said, all in DC makes tomorrow writer, that was the line. Okay. And he also said that, if you intend on changing this line, be very sure that I’m going to ask you questions that will be better than this line. And you have to substantiate why?
Noel Alex: That sounded like a threat.
Prathap Suthan: Yeah, it was a threat. So, he said you will mess with my line, you make sure that you have the guts to mess with it. And you are better at it. And you have to tell me why looked at it and said this is not going to happen from the tone of the brief I know I will be walking into the execution chamber if I change the language. So, let me work with that line and see what I can do the best right. So I made that line come alive. And it was an IPO. So, when you say ‘make tomorrow brighter’, and it was aimed obviously at the investors, so how do you breathe physically bring make tomorrow brighter, the campaign was that thing that, today ONGC is worth 10,000 crores right. So that is today. So, tomorrow’s Ad was today ONGC is worth 12,000 crores. The day after today it is worth 14,000 crores. The day after that. Today, it is worth 15,000 crores. So with every day, the future for the investors would look at ONGC see, as of three separate to their money, because the value was growing every day. Because ONGC was exploring and pulling out oil and gas and so to say, right, so if you put in money, tomorrow will be brighter.
Noel Alex: So you ended up going that same line.
Prathap Suthan: I did 30 ads, in newspapers, and I said Sir, this is what it is. Today is January 1. Today ONGC is worth so much. Today is January 2 today, you’re worth so much. And he looked at it and said this is brilliant. This is what audacity is best.
Noel Alex: Was it 30 days a month?
Prathap Suthan: Yeah, it was a 30 day campaign one at a day.
Noel Alex: Wow.
Prathap Suthan: And one of the most successful IPOs in the country ever, sold out 11 seconds flat.
Noel Alex: What did he say?
Prathap Suthan: He said, this is the most audacious campaign ever. Yeah, and in the end, he was an audacious man. And of course, over time he was very fond of me. Unfortunately, he is no more he passed away and he was writing a book. And he wanted me to write a bit on the advertising of ONGC. See, and I had written it but unfortunately, that book never came because he passed away. In fact, I remember the initial spend of it in the public space was a lot of money, you know? And obviously, the print media wouldn’t, because it’s a humungous company and all that. And people said, Why did you have to spend so much money, etc, etc. And, you know, somebody called me up from the media and said, Look, this is a humongous amount of money that you have spent behind. I said, first of all, this be very clear, it’s not my money. It is their money, right? I just can’t be. They said, Why do you think they did the campaign, I said, Look, ONGC is ONGC, it’s insanely as big as corporate, so to say, and public sector corporations and, and trust me. It is a giant that has woken up because Khumbakarana was woken up. And when Khumbakarana walked, the earth trembled. So that’s the feeling. So I have a look at the numbers quoted. And I think a day after that, I get a call from CMD’s. Office. And he picked up the phone and said and put up that is very good that you said. So line with the way he would have thought, you know, when a giant walks, the Earth would tremble and you would know, which is why you needed that money to be spent.
Noel Alex: Absolutely. That’s a great story. We’re out of time for our session today. Unfortunately, we would love to hear more stories from your escapades in the past. Thank you so much for giving us your time. And giving back. We hope the people who are watching have gotten good value from what you’ve spoken. And I would like to just sign off by just saying again, like, let’s remember that create a memorable ad campaign come out when there are trust and synergy between the client and the agency. And let’s try to be bolder, and put out marketing communications that aren’t just exposition of facts that require some thought and creativity. Let’s try to put videos out there, that are designed to entertain first and then sell. And let’s make it worthwhile for them to hear out your business proposition. Okay. Let them hear your story with a smile. And hopefully let’s bring back that golden age of advertising.
Prathap Suthan: One last thought.
Noel Alex: Yeah.
Prathap Suthan: See, nobody wants to be a boring person in this world. by just saying, I don’t want to be a boring person. Because I know when people won’t talk to me. I don’t know you. I don’t think you want to be a boring person. And I wouldn’t be talking to you. Right? Nobody ever wants to be boring. So why does a brand new? Boring? Why are you building a boring brand? Who wants a friend who wants to intimidate people will look at me if I bought a boring brand and say what sort of a guy are you? Why have you gone and bought that stupid thing? It’s a boring brand. So make interesting, appetizing. Right, then the magic happens when agency and the client work together and respecting each other’s strengths. And to use a very, often use cliche that they say it takes two hands to clap. Right? So if you want to make noise, got to work together you’ve got to meet. And that sound is the sound of your address. Otherwise, it’s not gonna happen.
Noel Alex: Absolutely. And with that, I think we’re gonna sign off right now. So okay, again, to all the creators and future advertisers out there. Let’s try to bring back that golden age of advertising. And here is us signing off, make sure to get back to some better videos. Next week on Saturday, we’ll have another amazing guest for you guys. So see you guys there.
Prathap Suthan: Thank you. Pleasure being welcome.