‘Piyush taught me how a complete ownership about what one does leads to magic’

In the last two weeks, a lot has been written about Piyush Pandey so I wonder what I can share now that is new. I have shared 34 years with him as a senior advertising colleague, boss and a mentor. However, of these 34 years, the seven years at Pidilite have been more special because, as the CMO of Pidilite, I had the good fortune of working closely with him on brands like Fevicol and Fevikwik and learn first-hand how Piyush Pandey creates the magic on these iconic brands.

Fevicol and Fevikwik already had iconic status by the time I partnered with Piyush on these, but I saw that Piyush always embarked upon a campaign on these brands with the same enthusiasm and rigor as if it was their first campaign, putting his heart and soul into it, as he always does. Few learnings that I picked up from him while working on Fevicol, Fevikwik are – First, never take the brand status as granted but keep building upon it continuously. Second, keep pushing the creative boundaries of brands with each campaign, always surprising the consumer while entertaining her. Third, the human and emotional element is most important in conveying the message, but brands must always talk in a manner as we normally talk in real life. Brand cannot be artificial or phoney and make that deep emotional connect that they always aspire. The brands that deeply connect with people are always authentic. 

Over three decades, numerous entertaining and award-winning campaigns later, today if you ask a random person on street ‘What is Fevicol?’ or ‘What is Fevikwik’, they will give similar answers, often parroting the brand’s sign-off lines. How does this happen? The answer is in what Piyush told me once “keep the soul of these brands intact” – as simple as that but profound. He defined the soul of these brands and nurtured them over years, along with the team at Pidilite, and would firmly but gently defend if anyone tried to change it. Defining the soul of a brand is not easy as it seems but watching Piyush do it, I learnt that a brand’s soul is not only brand’s single-minded promise but its human connection with people, its personality, tone of voice and ultimately, how it makes people feel. And no one could define it better than Piyush with a brilliant combination of clarity and simplicity.

Piyush not only just created the communications for Fevicol and Fevikwik but he took complete ownership of these brands 24x7, 365 days a year and it meant that he would be thinking about what is next and ideas on these brands even without a brief. I remember calling up Piyush after getting the creative brief ready for Fevicol 60 years thematic communications only to hear, what was music to our ears, that “I have already thought an idea on this”. A complete ownership from mind and heart about what one does leads to magic. This has been one of my biggest learnings from Piyush Pandey. 

I am sure Piyush has the same magic formula for all the brands that he nurtures. And that brings me to one of my most favourite ad of Piyush Pandey and that ad is not from Pidilite. Of all the lovable ads from Piyush, my favourite is the TVC for SBI Life insurance ‘Diamond ring’ wherein an old gentleman gifts a diamond to his wife on Valentine’s Day and when the wife hesitates saying “ab is umar main kahan pehnoongi heera’ and the husbands says “here ko kya pata, tumhari umar”. What a beautiful and touching way of infusing positive emotions of love in a category defined by safety and death. My heart goes warm every time I see this TVC. 

And my heart thanks Piyush Pandey for multiple lessons in brand building that he taught me, unknowingly.