KUWAITI consumers are sharp and well informed, but the advertising industry is not giving their intellectual prowess due credit. Eli Bouchaaya, Creative Director of Memac Ogilvy, Kuwait, opened up to the Arab Times in a tête-à-tête sharing his profound insights into the world of advertising and the forces that are at play informing industry dynamics. Find out how the digital medium is encroaching into the territories of the print medium, and the power of simplicity in communication. “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock,” this copy, arguably the most famous advertising headline in the world, is Eli’s favorite. Read on to find out why, and about the man who wrote it.

Question: What according to you is the status of advertising in Kuwait post crisis?
Answer: Kuwait is clawing back. The budgets for advertising that were rolled back are being allocated for advertisements again. New techniques and ideas are being considered taking cue from the international markets. But if you make a comparison between Kuwait and other markets in the region, Kuwait is still catching up, I would say. It’s in the process of gearing up towards creating great advertisements.
If you look at the ground realities, Kuwait as a market was not severely hit by the crisis. We were well cushioned by timely interference of the government, and so things were nowhere near the chaotic scenes that we saw in the US and Europe. However, advertising in Kuwait did take a beating, because of the illusions the global economic crisis created in the Kuwaiti market. There was a pervasive skepticism in the market, a general apathy to spend. There was uncertainty looming large. Clients were hesitant to go in for aggressive campaigning, and played it soft. These sentiments overrode the ground realities, which were actually quite positive.
As a result of this psychological barrier, advertising spending dropped, and clients got into a conservative mode of spending. This in turn affected the quality of advertising and creativity, with a lot of focus on hard selling, instead of image building. However, now the perceptions have changed. Money has started flowing again into advertising; clients have realized that they did not make the most of the opportunities that were there in the Kuwaiti market during the crisis. Clients are looking for new strategies and media ideas. Things are looking up and bright.

Q: There is a general perception that the Kuwaiti advertising scene is not very creative. Is it because the people here don’t appreciate creative ideas; do you think the market is not intellectually there yet? Or is it a misconception?
A: I feel that perception is not true at all. The Kuwaiti consumer is highly advanced and has the capacity to appreciate new brands, new products and new creative ideas. They are smart. The Kuwaiti market is very techno savvy. This generation is up to date on technology and is active on Facebook, Twitter and other such social networking sites. Through their online engagements they are abreast with the goings on in the world. iPhones and Blackberries are very common in the market, and people extract all facilities on these phones to their advantage. This shows how advanced the people are on the communication front.
They have no limitations to access information. They are in touch with the latest trends and innovations in every field. They not only appreciate creative ideas, but they also keep one another posted on the latest movies, ads, blogs and so on. If there is a great international commercial, the people here pick it up from the Internet and pass it around their circle. They probably have to look outside Kuwait to sate their hunger for creative ideas, because here we are sitting idle with a low estimation of the market.
They are also good critics. They also exchange comments on bad advertising and other media outputs. They are film critics, they review books and so on. Advertisers have to wake up to the reality that the people make their market, and we are here to offer them what they want. There are more than 150 Kuwaiti blogs on different topics.
The Kuwaiti consumer is ready for the big ideas. They are just waiting for us to fire. The client wants to be on the safe side, and we advertisers toe the line drawn by the client. However, if you go into the university you will find a new generation of Kuwaiti youth possessing great communication and design talents. If you go into the market, you will see that the average Kuwaiti is really well updated, and is connected to the world.

Q: Okay, now how is this dichotomy between perception and reality about the Kuwaiti market affecting you professionally? Of course, as a professional you would also be craving to do creative work, and when your freedom to do that is limited by such parochial views, do you feel frustrated?
A: Yes, such false ideas seriously weigh on our energy and zest to do great work. We put our hearts and soul into a campaign, and finally when we come up with what we think are brilliant ideas, they get shot down in the name of consumer’s inability to grasp those ideas.
We have to be daring and not risk averse to do something out of the box and creative. The first test for creativity is whether your idea shocks. When an idea is new, it will be met with a lot of skepticism, that’s natural. Otherwise, it is not a new idea. You can’t buck trends and fire a new path without creating an element of shock, and often it is through these shocking elements that we generate mass interest in a product or a brand. And moreover, don’t think creative ideas are complicated. That’s a misconception. The best ads in the world are often the simplest. Simple communication is very hard.
If you look at some of the greatest ads in the world, you will find that they are very simple in their thought. Take the example of the world famous Rolls Royce ad created by David Ogilvy.
In his book, Confessions of an Advertising Man, Ogilvy shares one of his best headlines which was written for a Rolls-Royce print ad: “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.” Look at this line, no big details on technology, or technical jargons, no bombastic adjectives… yet it’s so powerful. It has said more than what an entire manual on the car’s smoothness and engine would.
David Ogilvy, the maverick adman, came up with his headline after writing hundreds of other options. There is much learning in this for us. We have to try harder and harder to come up with unique messages, coming from the heart of the brand.
Creating an idea has to be appreciated and given time. It’s like how you give time for the best gourmet with unique taste. Guests know that they have to wait if they need something extraordinary.
On the face of it, the ad is actually not talking about any of the sophisticated features of the car like the engine, the leather seat and so on. It is, of all things, talking about an electronic clock. But that says it all. That’s the power of creativity, seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. The secret recipe in advertising is simplicity.
Tell the consumer one thing, one strong selling point. Don’t bombard with information, and that will only confuse. Nobody remembers long winded headlines and a collage of visuals.
I think the advertising industry in Kuwait has to get more daring. We have to trust the intelligence of the consumers. They will understand creative messages.

Q: You said about the need to be daring and adventurous in advertising. Does that also include exploring new mediums, like say the digital medium?
A: Of course. About 5 years ago, I attended international seminars and there we discussed how the digital medium is invading the market. The digital medium is active everywhere in the world.
The digital medium has brought down all barriers. It has really turned the world into a global village. With this medium, advertising has become more informing, engaging and interactive. Earlier, it was a one-way communication process. But now it’s not so. We get feedbacks instantly. Opinions that people shoot off online can make or break a product or brand.
We have already entered the digital era, and it’s catching up slowly upstaging the traditional mediums. However, it’s still not the dominant medium… surely not in Kuwait. But it surely has great potential to take the market by storm.
Ten years down the line, you may have one small device with which you can organize your entire life. Print medium will have its obituaries written by then, probably, we never know. Think how photography was just a decade ago. We used to buy a film roll, load it in a camera, shoot pictures, and only 30 of them in a roll, take the roll to a studio, where they process it, wash it and expose it… wait for nearly a day to see the final product. Out of all the pictures we took, may be only 5 were good enough.
Today, even a cheap digital camera offers you the scope of shooting thousands of pictures, delete them on the spot if you don’t like it, shoot again, download them all onto the computer in seconds, touch them up… oh my God, the possibilities are limitless. So, technology is turning our lives around, and we will adapt our lives around these new emerging trends and not hang onto old habits.

Q: Are advertisements, at least internationally, going madly after creativity at the cost of selling the product? There are many ads that I like for their creativity, but if you ask me what products they were trying to sell, I may not remember the brand name. So, in essence, a great idea has failed to sell the product. What is your opinion on such ads?
A: David Ogilvy said, “We sell or else…” That’s a profound statement. Because we are in the business of selling, and if we fail to do it, we are not doing justice to our business. That’s why we have to understand that advertising is not fine art. It’s commercial art, and has certain very rigid objectives that have to be met. I am an artist, and I do paintings. I may start a painting today, take a break for a few days because I don’t have the right mood, and paint again for a couple of days and so forth. That’s a luxury I have in fine art, but when I don the hat of a creative director, time is of the essence. I have deadlines to meet, and the art I create i.e. advertising, has some very commercial goals. It has to sell a product. I can’t be pampering my artistic egos here, I am trying hard to pander to the masses, trying to impress them and get positive response, which is drive them to act. That’s when I am a successful adman. The first objective is to sell.
The greatest idea is one which sells the most. An idea that wins an award and sells a product is a huge challenge for any adman. As a person who has attended several award shows, I feel some ads are created to showcase the creativity of the admen than to sell the product.
But an ad with too much of logic, and no magic, may also fall on its face. Sometimes, it works for a product when you don’t try to hard sell it, but rather evoke emotions which the consumer identifies with. This is the element of magic. An ad has to have the right balance of logic and magic.
So, creative ideas will also sell products. The bottom line for me is: great ideas that sell. I work round the year, day in and day out, creating ideas to sell. So, that’s my Karma.
We make selling strategies. Strategies are of many types, but the bottom line is to establish a bond between the consumer and the brand. The consumer has to connect with the brand at some level to make the brand click. A world famous shoe manufacturer says they are not selling shoes, but an attitude. A computer manufacture says they are not selling computers, but a solution.

Q: What is creativity?
A: Creativity is sunset, it’s the romantic moon, it’s the sea that’s wild, it’s the desert that’s still… creativity is the extraordinary in the ordinary. Creativity is there all around us, we just have to be able to see them… and that, unfortunately, is not so easy.

Q: You went a little poetic when I asked you about creativity. Poets are liars, they say. Isn’t advertising also a refined art of lying? Are you not actually hiding flaws, exaggerating virtues, and building up lies while creating advertisements?
A: It’s not true. You can never create a good ad if you don’t sincerely believe in the product or the brand. When you tell a girl, “You are beautiful,” to impress her, no one would accuse you of lying. It’s about the telling the truth in a highly refined and polished way. Lying is not in the words, it is in the mind.
When a brand says, “The best a man can have,” nobody takes it literally. Everyone knows that it’s only underlining the many advantages the product has to offer the consumer. So, it’s all about creating a perspective for the brand, and as far as that’s not misleading, advertising is not lying.
Yes, there are advertisements that are misleading. They are over promising. They sell diet food that’s bad for health on the claim that it’s good for health. Such advertisements are bad, and unethical.

Q: Tell us something about your favorite creative directors and some of your favorite ads?
A: I respect every one in this industry. They are like singers, because each has their own voice, unique timber and tone. If you ask me to choose between Umm Kulthum, the legendary Egyptian singer, and Fairuz, the famous Lebanese singer, I will not be able to name one. I like them both for their unique talents. What one has the other doesn’t. Similarly, every creative director has his own signature. Yes, some are successful and others are not, but that’s due to a lot of factors that are beyond our control.
I personally have a very high regard for David Ogilvy. After working as a chef, researcher, and farmer, Ogilvy started his agency with the backing of Mather and Crowther, the London agency being run by his elder brother, Francis, which later acquired another London agency. The new agency in New York was called Ogilvy, Benson, and Mather. David Ogilvy had just $6,000 in his account when he started the agency. He writes in Confessions of an Advertising Man that initially, he struggled to get clients. Ogilvy also admitted, referring to the pioneer of British advertising Bobby Bevan, the chairman of Benson, “I was in awe of him but Bevan never took notice of me!” They would meet later, however.
Ogilvy & Mather was built on David Ogilvy’s principles, in particular, that the function of advertising is to sell and that successful advertising for any product is based on information about its consumer.
His entry into the company of giants started with several iconic advertising campaigns including “The man in the Hathaway Shirt,”  “Pablo Casals is coming home – to Puerto Rico,” a campaign which Ogilvy said helped change the image of a country, and was his proudest achievement.
Ogilvy believed that the best way to get new clients was to do notable work for his existing clients. Success in his early campaigns helped Ogilvy get big clients such as Rolls-Royce and Shell. New clients followed and Ogilvy’s company grew quickly.
 

By Valiya S. Sajjad
Arab Times Staff

Eli Bouchaaya is the Creative Director at Memac Ogilvy, Kuwait, and has more than 20 years experience in the field of communication. He has experience working in different markets, an multinational agencies, for MNC and local accounts. He has worked in Intermarkets, BBDO, Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis, Team Y&R and through to Memac Ogilvy. He has won 27 advertising awards in Kuwait (KREA and KAAA) and 2 Golds, 1 Silver at Lynx Awards, and a Gold at Cannes.
Some of the important clients he has worked for include Mobinil Telecom, Procter & Gamble, Pepsi Cola, Persil and General Motors in Egypt among others. Eli completed his graduation in Lebanon from the University for Arts and Graphics.