The trick lies in keeping the idea fresh and relevant: Priya Shivakumar

The COVID-19 global lockdown has not only confined us to our homes but also at us myriad challenges. From the ad industry’s perspective, organising and shooting an advertising campaign in these conditions are proving to be the big test. However, despite these challenges, our creative leaders have continued to conceptualise work that inspires. In our new series – e4m Creative Zone, we get to know how Creative heads have been surpassing the COVID hurdles.

In today's edition of e4m Creative Zone, we speak to Priya Shivakumar, National Creative Director, Wunderman Thompson who is passionate about telling untold and memorable stories with life as her muse. Shivakumar has won several heavy metals at all the prestigious national and international shows – ranking her among Asia’s hottest creatives and has rolled out great work for the likes of Johnnie Walker, Britannia, Pepsi, Lifestyle, Kingfisher, The Hindu and The Times of India, among others. In conversation with her, we delve into the rise of creatives dishing out work on their own, managing remote shootings with limited resources and more.

Edited excerpts below: 

What are the opportunities and ways of working that you’ve seen the lockdown bring about for the ad agency world?

I think as creative people, we are so used to discussions or creative collisions and working with each other. And suddenly overnight, we got into this whole work from home format. I think it's taught us that we are really very resilient because work has actually gotten even better now with so many lovely ideas coming out during these times. We have had to figure out this way of working, or the way to do calls and chats and still keep the regular work running, and at the same time, really find that new energy to create fresh work. And I think we have seamlessly adapted to that and kept the work running so it's been a great lesson. It has also taught us that we are resilient and that if we want to do great work, we can do it from anywhere, without any constraints whatsoever.

The pandemic has caused a massive dent to the travel sector. Most ad-landers these days tell me that this is not a typical scenario where the client gives you a brief and you go back with an idea. So in terms of your #Flightsofimagination campaign for AirAsia, did the client come up with a brief or did you come up with the idea and approach the client? How did it all come together in this scenario?

As we know with flights not having taken off for some time, we realized that flying was not just about getting on an aeroplane. With AirAsia, we wanted to give out a message of hope, and the human spirit. That was really the attempt. That was the story that we try to tell for AirAsia because we realized that flying really is an emotion to us. It means so many things to us. It means possibilities, it means freedom. That was really the story we thought was powerful. And with the line that we landed on is that humans have never stopped flying. With the hashtag, you see where our flights of imagination have brought us as a human race. There is really nothing that can stop us. And that's the message of hope and positivity that we wanted to put out. 

So we leveraged user-generated, putting together all the images. We really wanted to capture the emotion of the flying rather than the act of flying. So we had such interesting things people just flapping their hands to be wings. We had the first act of like a paper plane. We had people swinging. Anything that really captured the feeling of flying. And this was stitched together and I directed that film apart from also writing it. It was stitched together as a seamless narrative to tell the story that actually humans have not stopped flying at all.

Since this was entirely a crowdsourced thing, what were the roadblocks in terms of putting it together?

There were huge challenges because as a content creator, you need a lot of different, varied images. There were constraints of the lockdown. Everything was shot observing the spirit of the lockdown. So, we really needed a white canvas of images shot. We had everybody shoot it from their balconies or from wherever they were. And then they had to be given one visual look. I think music and sound design played a beautiful role in that film because we really had a track that gave you the sound of the flapping of birds, the sound of wings, which also gives you the feeling of flying. So yes, a lot of challenges but yes we were able to pull it off.

 Take us through your campaign on domestic violence. What prompted you to come up with that piece of work?

It just struck me at that time that there was a very unexpected side effect of the lockdown, which had really not come to light. It was a war fought inside the home against an all too familiar one. And that was the most frightening part of it. These days, we sign off every conversation or message by saying stay home and stay safe. And it was very frightening to think that for a lot of women home is actually an unsafe place. And this is what had me thinking, made me do some research and the figures found were also quite horrifying. That was really the motivation to do this film because I really felt this was the thought and was a story that needed to be told. It was almost an idea that I couldn't get out of my head until I actually made the film.

From start to finish, how did you pull it off? How long did it take?

So the director Shashanka Chaturvedi (or Bob as we all fondly call him) and I realized that we wanted to tell a story that was a very real and sensitive portrayal of these times. So everything you see, which is the setting, the characters, the way the film is taken, is all very real and cinematic yet beautiful. And obviously, because we shot this film in the middle of the lockdown, there were a lot of constraints. We knew that we were telling a story of a strong woman character and we needed to cast for this. So the way we cast for the woman was that we had to get someone who was locked down with a DP. because that's how we could shoot. That’s how we did the casting call. 

We were very lucky because we thought we found a beautiful face that really had that strength and vulnerability that we wanted in the character and was luckily locked on with the DP. How we went about doing it was that we had a pre-shoot where we had the entire action sequence shot, and then sent it to the director.  

And based on that the entire shoot plan was worked out because we didn't know the exact location. We kind of had a test shoot done. And based on that the entire plan was figured out.

The director was constantly on video and we had to make use of the available lights, hence everything took much longer than it would ordinarily take, but I think it was worth it because we had really powerful visuals to tell that powerful story.

These days, there’s a rise in creatives like yourself coming up with lots of powerful work, on their own. Not for a client or agency but just themself, telling interesting stories. What do you think has fuelled this trend at such a time?

Any circumstances allow you to find your centre. As a creative person, your centre is really about creating. It’s about finding the idea. You always want to focus on the positive and I said there are things you cannot control, which is the environment, something is a challenge. No point looking at the rising cases, it won’t help. In such a circumstance, finding your centre is really about how you put out work that is meaningful that makes a difference in these times. I think that's what has kept me motivated and positive during these times to do something that's meaningful and to create. Maybe that's what has motivated everybody as well because that's what you feel you have control over.

While we see a spate of UGC format work and shot from phone films, don’t you think that there will be saturation/fatigue soon? What are clients saying? Are you seeing it already?

I think the trick is in keeping the idea fresh and relevant because the execution is only going to go where the idea goes. I think that in our recent campaigns, we managed to beat that picture because I think if you keep the idea fresh and you know we've been able to do so many things. If you can keep the execution relevant and yet keep changing it to keep it interesting, I think we can avoid the fatigue that would have build up. 

What would be your message to creatives with on creating work that works through constraints?

I would say that the one message is to believe in the power of our ideas because that is so important in these times. Take these ideas and push them, if you will, to where they haven't gone before, beyond any and all boundaries of constraints. And I think another thing I would say is to just be empathetic and sensitive because these are trying times for everybody. And I think empathy and sensitivity will also make sure that those ideas are not just great in power but also right in spirit.