When Kolkata boy Subhash Kamath told his mother that he was setting out for Mumbai to try his luck in ‘advertising’, she thought he would be climbing up hoardings to paint them and was concerned about his safety.
Today, after 35 years in advertising, 17 of them as CEO, Kamath has to worry about the safety and propriety of advertising itself in India, being Chairman of the apex industry body Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) in addition to his advisory role at the Publicis Groupe.
Having set up BBH in India in 2009, and managed the group’s entire creative mandate as CEO, BBH and Publicis Worldwide India for the last two years, Kamath now transitions to an advisory role even as he goes about re-defining the mandate for ASCI 2.0.
KOLKATA CHRONICLES
For Kamath, music, sports and voracious reading were an integral part of growing up in Kolkata. He remembers watching the first ABBA movie with his father, that sparked off his interest in Western music, and eventually turned him into the music lover and performer he is today.
“In school, we were encouraged to do a lot of extra-curricular stuff. Our Principal Father Boris was genuinely our mentor, going beyond studies, talking to us about what we needed to learn from life. Once he sat us down to discuss the Roy Scheider classic ‘All that Jazz’ that shows the actor dealing with the stages of death - anger, denial, bargaining, depression and acceptance. He explained the plot and how to look at life, and why we need to embrace death when it comes. He spoke of Bob Dylan and how his songs carry meaning. He asked us to notice how the words were crafted, the story-telling. That was perhaps my cue,” recalls Kamath.
As his passion for music and lyrics and writing and expressing was building, the other part of his life involved leadership. Being class monitor, NCC head, college cultural secretary; organising festivals and leading teams to Delhi, conducting blood donation camps, making presentations to corporates to sponsor festivals… in the process, communication, selling and leadership got ingrained in him.
At college festivals, one of the things Kamath did was spoofs of ads shown on Doordarshan.
“It always made the audience crack up. I thought if spoofing advertising is so much fun, maybe creating advertising will also be fun,” says Kamath.
Though advertising wasn’t an aspirational field those days, he had been drawn to its ‘cool’ quotient, after working for a local advertising agency that needed college students to do some research work. He was also certain that he wanted to do something more creative than being a CA or banker. So even before his B. Com results were out, he landed in Mumbai, to stay with a cousin and look for his dream job.
LETTING OTHERS BAT
Once in Mumbai, Kamath meticulously found out agency names and addresses and just walked into those agencies. Many people helped the rank newcomer.
Says Kamath, “Shashi Sinha was an account director at Ulka when I applied for a trainee’s job. He said there was no vacancy but referred me to his friend Jayesh Ravindranath at Everest, who in turn put me on to other people. All big agencies were looking to hire MBAs those days, and here was I, without even a graduate degree in hand. One thing led to another and I finally met Sanjeev Lamba at Ogilvy. He spent half an hour with me and said, ‘I want you to meet Piyush. He is looking for someone on his team.’ That's how I met Piyush Pandey, who asked me just these questions: ‘Tu cricket khelta hai?’, ‘Tu cricket mein kya khelta hai - bowling or batting?’ When I said yes and I can do both, he was pleased. I also had to meet Chintamani Rao, then the VP (who only talked about PG Wodehouse, no advertising) and the legendary Mani Iyer before I got the job. Piyush later said he saw a lot of teamwork in me and that is one of the reasons he hired me.”
The biggest lesson Kamath learnt from Piyush Pandey was the concept of teamwork courtesy the cricket field.
“Ogilvy had a fantastic cricket team then, led by Piyush, an ex-Ranji player. He would make us practise every day during season from 6 am to 9 am at Cross Maidan. So, I had to be up at 5 am to go for serious net practice. He was a task master, but we were totally into it. At a particular match against Lintas’s second agency Karishma Initiative, the first three batsmen had gotten out, Piyush was at one end on 45 or 50 when I walked in to bat and missed three balls trying to hit a six. That’s when he walked down and asked what I thought about my role in the team. Was it not to rotate the strike to let him bat? That clicked, and I just kept rotating the singles. I learnt when to lead, and when to follow. Sports is an incredible learning ground when it comes to leadership and teamwork. It’s the same with music, which I have learnt after playing in a band. Through them, I have realised that I can be a leader. I can inspire people to follow me. I can express myself well, tell stories well. I can also sell,” he says.
Later, the great Suresh Malik gave Kamath a piece of advice that he took to his heart: ‘Subhash, don't ever write a jingle, write a song’.
Malik also picked up on his love for music, and asked him to be present for recordings and shoots, even if he was not on those accounts, which was invaluable learning for the young adman.
“Years later, John Hegarty of BBH told me the same thing – don’t try to write a commercial, do a piece of work that can go down in culture,” Kamath recalls.
BLACK SHEEP TRIUMPHS
After Kamath left Ogilvy, moves followed through Trikaya Grey, Ambience Publicis and Bates 141, until he joined the nascent BBH in 2009. There, he found himself in a very entrepreneurial situation.
“We were starting BBH from ground zero. It wasn't an existing agency in India that we could join. We had no office. We wrote down ways of approaching our prospective clients on paper napkins at the Taj Land’s End coffee shop,” says Kamath, “We would rely a lot on our own visibility and network to open doors and get work. But slowly, it built up. The best thing about BBH was the opportunity to break all norms. We were the black sheep, after all! Partha Sinha, Priti Nair and I decided to do away with designations and departmental seating. We named everyone brand partners. We would go to clients with a strategic point of view, and work on creatives only if they gave us the business. The strategy worked. One of the big things that I learnt at BBH is how to say no to clients - to companies which had a way of working that would clash with and ruin our BBH culture. We did not let anyone stomp on our self-respect, no matter how big a name it was.”
To this day, Kamath is not one for hierarchy, and says the youngest person in the office should be able to sit with him, have a drink or coffee and chat about what’s going on. He believes in the importance of mentoring and training for any organisation and takes pride in people he has mentored, some of whom are now presidents and CEOs.
“The leader is only as good as the team that they are able to build. It's a very simple mind shift - your people are not there to make your job easier. You are there to make their job easier,” he says.
BUSY BEING BORN AGAIN
Post the transition phase, Kamath’s next avatar will be of a mentor, some of it at the Publicis Groupe, and some of it to brands and people in the start-up economy industry-wide.
“Mentoring is my next purpose. I don't want to do it just for money, but for people I like. A couple of small agencies, started by people who used to work with me earlier, have already asked me to come in as advisor. I am hoping that I can work three days a week and follow my passions on the other four days… learn cooking in a professional way, create more music. My tenure at ASCI ends in September, and if they want me around as special advisor, I won't mind that, as ASCI will always have a place in my heart,” says Kamath, a strong advocate of people in advertising embracing their passions a lot more to create their best work.
SNAPSHOTS
One word/ phrase to describe himself: Passionate
One thing on his must do list: Listen to music
One thought that keeps Subhash Kamath awake at night: What next? What next? What next?!!
One hero in his universe: Bob Dylan
One thing he’d like to change in the world around him: Wishes he could make the world a more caring and tolerant one, instead of a divisive one, based on religion and race.
