The mantra sprouting at leading ad agency Leo Burnett’s offices these days is ‘HumanKind’. The man who has coined the term says it essentially means finding a human purpose for every brand and focusing on that.
“Creativity can transform behaviour if the human purpose of the brand is understood. Then, we can do the best job of creating ideas,” says Tom Bernardin, chairman and chief executive officer of Leo Burnett Worldwide since 2005.
In India for an annual review of the country’s second largest ad agency’s work, Bernardin says a creative agency is about people, purpose and creating acts, not ads, that transform the way people think, feel and ultimately behave. “Our work is about people – what engages them, moves them and stimulates them to act a certain way. It is not about advertising and selling brands,” he says.
The idea appealed to him so much that he found time to write a book on the subject in association with Leo Burnett’s global chief creative officer, Mark Tutssel. The book invites readers into the world of the ad agency and gives a behind-the-scenes look at a global creative network that believes modern-day communication needs to start and end with people.
“It sounds simple, but there is extraordinary power in simplicity. It has meant changing the dialogue with clients who are now more engaged than before in the creative process,” Bernardin says.
If McDonald’s (a key client) has become a “people’s restaurant”, HumanKind can take some credit for that. In India, several of the agency’s campaigns have adopted this mantra. For example, the tag line of Tata Capital says – “Karenge wohi jo apke liye sahi (We will do only what is good for you)”. The theme being it’s not just selling a product; we will also advise you against a product of ours that is not right for you.
Leo Burnett has a roster of clients that can be the envy of most agencies, counting Samsung, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, Hallmark, Coca-Cola and General Motors as longtime partners, besides several Indian companies.
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Leo Burnett went through a rough patch and had to lay off people in the US – something that has been blamed on its traditional ad mindset, exit of key talent and failure to get new clients. Bernardin doesn’t deny the industry went through tough times because of the “unprecedented” recession, but says Leo managed to keep its head above the water because of its stable list of marquee clients. Business declined five per cent globally, which he says is much better than most peers. The agency dismissed 35 people recently whose skills were” not aligned to those of the organisation”, but recruited twice that number. “Our bucket leaked less than others,” he says.
But there is no such worry on India, where it is growing at over 20 per cent year-on-year. He expects the Indian business, which accounts for almost a third of the Asia-Pacific pie, will treble its size within three years.
Bernardin says his agency is actively looking at acquisitions in India to scale up fast and the area he is pursuing aggressively is shopper marketing, the potential of which in India is enormous. “You need specialised skills to understand how your target consumers behave as shoppers, in different channels and formats, and leverage this intelligence to the benefit of all stakeholders, defined as brands, consumers, retailers and shoppers,” he says.