advertising was all about us pieces
which are unique selling propositions or
single-minded propositions and reason to
believes and ideas so a lot of poopa
making small brands and petty things
into large things so the dilemma that we
were faced with on a daily basis was
such that imagine you had to write sale
700 different ways every day so what
would you do sale great grand reduction
sale super grand reduction sale mega
sale and loot sale and so on and so
forth and this is how I started in the
world of advertising in the early 90s
and this was a world where there was
lots of mind-opening stuff happening
grand opening sale you know very mind
opening and this is where we are still
stuck to this state this is the world
where you know we were making pointless
claims I even read in the early 90s in
fact I wrote that piece for an airline
called Aero Asia then three percent
extra legroom in your business class Wow
what does that mean a fifty three
percent more radiant skin fifty three
percent really only 53 percent radiance
in anyway so these were the claims that
advertisers are making this was a world
of her words as I call a linguistic
paradigm of her words newer bolder
brighter sharper and cheaper of course
you know but then as we went along in
2002 Daniel Kahneman and his colleague I
think won and Smith did this profound
study and found out that not merely
women but all humans are powered by
emotion okay so it’s good news right and
we men have taken such a long time to
kind of keep this thing a secret but
damn Daniel Kahneman you figured this
out and you won a Nobel Prize for this
also so and this was good news for a lot
of us in the advertising profession we
said yeah you know
we thought it was all rational it was
all reason and here we are driven by
emotion powered by our hearts you know
and and so that was good news and he
said this is going to be the future of
advertising where we will be emotional
and we’ll do some really nice stuff so
we went on still stuck in the paradigm
of the ER words newer bolder bigger
brighter and of course cheaper anyway so
moving forward working with this Daniel
Kahneman’s study you know study after
study told us in the years that followed
that you know it’s it’s it’s it’s the
heart that that rules and if even the
the the the decision-making centers of
our brain and if our brain in some way
kind of misfires or is damaged not only
do we lose the ability to laugh and cry
we also lose the ability to make
decisions we thought this one is going
to help our f MC G’s and our brand
managers make those leaps towards more
emotional advertising but this didn’t
happen I an interesting man called
Donald Khan at the University of British
Columbia put it very brilliantly he said
reasoning leads to conclusion and
emotion leads to action and we thought
prank this is the time when advertising
industry is going to take some action
more emotion and less of those words not
happen we moved on
indeed in 2014 Paul Zak came along Paul
Zak is of what is called a neuro
economist he did another study very
interesting study and he proved to the
world that out of every 8 people 3
people love brands more than their
significant others their partners and
their spouses those three people are now
divorced
and our single okay Somu these like
unbelievable study and what a great
opportunity you know to – now getting
hugged or getting an embrace from your
significant other from your mother from
your sister from your wife from your
girlfriend releases oxytocin in your
brain oxytocin is is a chemical that
kind of triggers the pleasure centers of
your brain now imagine a hug versus
thinking about rooves ah I’m sure these
guys needed to be divorced anyways and
we thought you know we thought you know
okay this is the opportunity so here’s
our opportunity we need to create brands
and build businesses and services and
communicate these to people where the
thinking about our brand kind of leads
on the release of oxytocin and what a
great challenge as an industry for us to
have so here we are you know armed with
all of this data in a world where tech
permeates every facet of our lives 1.6
billion cell phones sold in the year
2016 1.6 billion phones sold in the year
2016
out of on these 1.6 billion phones that
we all own around the world we spend on
an average this is the average for hours
every day off these four hours every day
that we spend on our cell phones
eighty-seven percent of them are spent
using some kind of an app or the other
now that’s all right
but you over there sir not not now
please don’t use that lap now shut it
off cheerio anyway sir coming back so so
87% of that time is spent using apps now
imagine you know all the parents here
you know I I am a sir I am a father of
two teenagers a 17 and a 19 year old and
we used to struggle as a father and his
and and their mother we used to struggle
and we realize that this is not
representative of an addictive behavior
these four hours spent on the telephone
this is not representative of an
addictive behavior but it represents a
massive cultural
shift all the kids are very happy yeah I
can see that yeah you’re welcome okay so
this represents a massive cultural shift
in where we are headed now we look at
the world today and and and we realize
that we creating a lot of data we are
creating a lot of you know interactions
that Mooney had spoken about also
earlier and we are creating this legacy
it is safe to say that the future of
advertising or the way forward for
advertising will be largely tech driven
and when I say tech driven I foresee a
future where proliferation of no-code
platforms will will be very very high
they’ve already started kind of a
movement where coding is becoming easier
and easier and there will be a time when
people like me with low-level or
mid-level
technical skills will be able to write
advanced level of cold it’s like when
the cars came out for you to be a mortar
kind of a mechanic you needed to be an
engineer certified by Ford but today you
see proliferation of motor mechanics and
it’s a really low level skill so writing
code and proliferation of code and and
wonderful stuff is going to become
really really easy and what that in turn
will do is open up new worlds of hyper
realism where as advertisers or as brand
managers will be able to give you
experiences that will be super real
hyper real imagine yourself you know at
your home within VR set on you and not
these ugly bulky sets but really nice
swanky set right on you experiencing a
ride that in its physical nature exists
in Orlando but you were experiencing it
this at your home or being a participant
in say a battle of the bands show as an
audience while still being at home even
you don’t doing nothing all you have to
do just just say anyone who has an apple
for you just take out and say hey Siri
and see what happens yeah there you go
she comes alive or he or whatever you
know he she I don’t know Siri as gender
so so we’ll move on with that
so so imagine all of this data and
everything that is being recorded about
us and as marieve said earlier you know
we are leaving this this pool of tons
and tons of ourselves in the afterlife
couple and to top that with AI systems
you know facial recognition I was
talking to you earlier about this the
possibilities are endless to top that in
March this year University of Ohio
developed an algorithm which can predict
human behavior or human emotion better
than humans you know so I mean really I
need to get that because last Saturday
when I asked my wife you know it’s that
boys night out and she said fine and I
said all right she’s fine
little did I know what fine meant after
23 years of being married I still don’t
get fine fine so it’s fine it’s fine
it’s fine it’s so many finds out there
so we need that algorithm anyways so you
know in this this is the kind of world
that we are living in going forward
armed with all of this data I think is
going to be scary business in Pakistan I
don’t think we are ready for it we are
there are many fundamental questions
that need to be answered that need to be
raised who’s going to own this data
who’s going to serve this data there are
many many questions but the bigger
question remains is that are we going to
move beyond this world because when I go
home and every now and then when I turn
on my TV kind of to see what’s happening
on the local scene
I still see advertising that is still
full of her words it’s still bigger
bolder newer and still cheaper
Ageha up be sure you know I’ve worked on
a with a client I’ve been working with
them since 1997 and since 1997 I’ve
probably created about 300 pieces of
advertising I swear I’m not exaggerating
you see it’s the Harmon not in a single
piece of advertising have I not said a
patient now
so they have like multiple products on
them there’s one of the largest FMCG s
in the world and every piece has a
middle in it and they call it the
product module and they say a patient a
super annika Booga so you know going on
so we I don’t think are ready to kind of
leverage all of this data there are many
ethical questions that remain and as
creatives I think we just not there
Mike what my take when I was asked to
speak on this subject on the way forward
was the big question for me is are we
going to continue to walk in the
footsteps of those that have followed
before us you know not challenging the
status quo continuing in this journey
aimlessly or are we going to be bold
enough and create a new path explore new
avenues and boldly go where no one has
ever gone before and that is the
question for the industry to go forward
these conversations have started we are
having these conversations yep sporadic
conversations here and there in the
boardrooms of telcos of FM C G’s of
banks and other organization even an ad
agencies but but the tragedy I think is
that we’ve set our sights too low you
know some can say small mercies that you
are having that conversation yeah yeah
okay we are having that conversation but
the sights that we have set for
ourselves are too low
I think advertising has a huge role to
play in in the society going forward we
recently did a couple of years ago we
did a piece for a client where we got
Pakistan’s biggest heartthrob to make
tea for his wife when she comes home
okay
this was favicon making P for an
ordinary-looking wife that he has in
that TV commercial and the Internet the
internet went wild the Pakistani
internet went wild the women went crazy
and they were like a bath her mazzaglia
this that and the other you know now my
husband’s making tea at least he’s
thinking about it this and I mean really
and to us it may be to a lot of people
out there
it may be floozy it may be flaky it may
be superficial but you know what there
are many women
out there who would really appreciate a
cup of tea made by their husbands
that’s our road you know and and and we
are not trying to glorify our role here
this is our role we can be you know we
can stand for things that are bigger
than ads we need to stand for ideas that
are bigger than ads ideas that break
down barriers ideas that enrich lives
ideas there are the currency of the
future ideas that end up becoming love
marks not brand marks or trademarks you
know ideas that end up doing advocacy
but to do all of this but to do all of
this we will need to be able to walk out
of that paradigm we need to be able to
think big and when I say big it doesn’t
mean 53% more radiant skin or three
centimeter long hair by the time I get
come to your wedding that’s an ad that’s
currently running you know Mary Ball
number which is really Nanyang gay I
know that product anyway you know so we
need to think beyond that we need to
think much bigger and you know I there’s
a wonderful film that I saw many years
ago it’s one of my favorite films it’s a
film called hitch and in that hitch
tells his friend it says life is not
about the number of breaths you take
it’s the number of moments that take
your breath away advertising will have
to be able to do that to have a future
[Applause] you
which are unique selling propositions or
single-minded propositions and reason to
believes and ideas so a lot of poopa
making small brands and petty things
into large things so the dilemma that we
were faced with on a daily basis was
such that imagine you had to write sale
700 different ways every day so what
would you do sale great grand reduction
sale super grand reduction sale mega
sale and loot sale and so on and so
forth and this is how I started in the
world of advertising in the early 90s
and this was a world where there was
lots of mind-opening stuff happening
grand opening sale you know very mind
opening and this is where we are still
stuck to this state this is the world
where you know we were making pointless
claims I even read in the early 90s in
fact I wrote that piece for an airline
called Aero Asia then three percent
extra legroom in your business class Wow
what does that mean a fifty three
percent more radiant skin fifty three
percent really only 53 percent radiance
in anyway so these were the claims that
advertisers are making this was a world
of her words as I call a linguistic
paradigm of her words newer bolder
brighter sharper and cheaper of course
you know but then as we went along in
2002 Daniel Kahneman and his colleague I
think won and Smith did this profound
study and found out that not merely
women but all humans are powered by
emotion okay so it’s good news right and
we men have taken such a long time to
kind of keep this thing a secret but
damn Daniel Kahneman you figured this
out and you won a Nobel Prize for this
also so and this was good news for a lot
of us in the advertising profession we
said yeah you know
we thought it was all rational it was
all reason and here we are driven by
emotion powered by our hearts you know
and and so that was good news and he
said this is going to be the future of
advertising where we will be emotional
and we’ll do some really nice stuff so
we went on still stuck in the paradigm
of the ER words newer bolder bigger
brighter and of course cheaper anyway so
moving forward working with this Daniel
Kahneman’s study you know study after
study told us in the years that followed
that you know it’s it’s it’s it’s the
heart that that rules and if even the
the the the decision-making centers of
our brain and if our brain in some way
kind of misfires or is damaged not only
do we lose the ability to laugh and cry
we also lose the ability to make
decisions we thought this one is going
to help our f MC G’s and our brand
managers make those leaps towards more
emotional advertising but this didn’t
happen I an interesting man called
Donald Khan at the University of British
Columbia put it very brilliantly he said
reasoning leads to conclusion and
emotion leads to action and we thought
prank this is the time when advertising
industry is going to take some action
more emotion and less of those words not
happen we moved on
indeed in 2014 Paul Zak came along Paul
Zak is of what is called a neuro
economist he did another study very
interesting study and he proved to the
world that out of every 8 people 3
people love brands more than their
significant others their partners and
their spouses those three people are now
divorced
and our single okay Somu these like
unbelievable study and what a great
opportunity you know to – now getting
hugged or getting an embrace from your
significant other from your mother from
your sister from your wife from your
girlfriend releases oxytocin in your
brain oxytocin is is a chemical that
kind of triggers the pleasure centers of
your brain now imagine a hug versus
thinking about rooves ah I’m sure these
guys needed to be divorced anyways and
we thought you know we thought you know
okay this is the opportunity so here’s
our opportunity we need to create brands
and build businesses and services and
communicate these to people where the
thinking about our brand kind of leads
on the release of oxytocin and what a
great challenge as an industry for us to
have so here we are you know armed with
all of this data in a world where tech
permeates every facet of our lives 1.6
billion cell phones sold in the year
2016 1.6 billion phones sold in the year
2016
out of on these 1.6 billion phones that
we all own around the world we spend on
an average this is the average for hours
every day off these four hours every day
that we spend on our cell phones
eighty-seven percent of them are spent
using some kind of an app or the other
now that’s all right
but you over there sir not not now
please don’t use that lap now shut it
off cheerio anyway sir coming back so so
87% of that time is spent using apps now
imagine you know all the parents here
you know I I am a sir I am a father of
two teenagers a 17 and a 19 year old and
we used to struggle as a father and his
and and their mother we used to struggle
and we realize that this is not
representative of an addictive behavior
these four hours spent on the telephone
this is not representative of an
addictive behavior but it represents a
massive cultural
shift all the kids are very happy yeah I
can see that yeah you’re welcome okay so
this represents a massive cultural shift
in where we are headed now we look at
the world today and and and we realize
that we creating a lot of data we are
creating a lot of you know interactions
that Mooney had spoken about also
earlier and we are creating this legacy
it is safe to say that the future of
advertising or the way forward for
advertising will be largely tech driven
and when I say tech driven I foresee a
future where proliferation of no-code
platforms will will be very very high
they’ve already started kind of a
movement where coding is becoming easier
and easier and there will be a time when
people like me with low-level or
mid-level
technical skills will be able to write
advanced level of cold it’s like when
the cars came out for you to be a mortar
kind of a mechanic you needed to be an
engineer certified by Ford but today you
see proliferation of motor mechanics and
it’s a really low level skill so writing
code and proliferation of code and and
wonderful stuff is going to become
really really easy and what that in turn
will do is open up new worlds of hyper
realism where as advertisers or as brand
managers will be able to give you
experiences that will be super real
hyper real imagine yourself you know at
your home within VR set on you and not
these ugly bulky sets but really nice
swanky set right on you experiencing a
ride that in its physical nature exists
in Orlando but you were experiencing it
this at your home or being a participant
in say a battle of the bands show as an
audience while still being at home even
you don’t doing nothing all you have to
do just just say anyone who has an apple
for you just take out and say hey Siri
and see what happens yeah there you go
she comes alive or he or whatever you
know he she I don’t know Siri as gender
so so we’ll move on with that
so so imagine all of this data and
everything that is being recorded about
us and as marieve said earlier you know
we are leaving this this pool of tons
and tons of ourselves in the afterlife
couple and to top that with AI systems
you know facial recognition I was
talking to you earlier about this the
possibilities are endless to top that in
March this year University of Ohio
developed an algorithm which can predict
human behavior or human emotion better
than humans you know so I mean really I
need to get that because last Saturday
when I asked my wife you know it’s that
boys night out and she said fine and I
said all right she’s fine
little did I know what fine meant after
23 years of being married I still don’t
get fine fine so it’s fine it’s fine
it’s fine it’s so many finds out there
so we need that algorithm anyways so you
know in this this is the kind of world
that we are living in going forward
armed with all of this data I think is
going to be scary business in Pakistan I
don’t think we are ready for it we are
there are many fundamental questions
that need to be answered that need to be
raised who’s going to own this data
who’s going to serve this data there are
many many questions but the bigger
question remains is that are we going to
move beyond this world because when I go
home and every now and then when I turn
on my TV kind of to see what’s happening
on the local scene
I still see advertising that is still
full of her words it’s still bigger
bolder newer and still cheaper
Ageha up be sure you know I’ve worked on
a with a client I’ve been working with
them since 1997 and since 1997 I’ve
probably created about 300 pieces of
advertising I swear I’m not exaggerating
you see it’s the Harmon not in a single
piece of advertising have I not said a
patient now
so they have like multiple products on
them there’s one of the largest FMCG s
in the world and every piece has a
middle in it and they call it the
product module and they say a patient a
super annika Booga so you know going on
so we I don’t think are ready to kind of
leverage all of this data there are many
ethical questions that remain and as
creatives I think we just not there
Mike what my take when I was asked to
speak on this subject on the way forward
was the big question for me is are we
going to continue to walk in the
footsteps of those that have followed
before us you know not challenging the
status quo continuing in this journey
aimlessly or are we going to be bold
enough and create a new path explore new
avenues and boldly go where no one has
ever gone before and that is the
question for the industry to go forward
these conversations have started we are
having these conversations yep sporadic
conversations here and there in the
boardrooms of telcos of FM C G’s of
banks and other organization even an ad
agencies but but the tragedy I think is
that we’ve set our sights too low you
know some can say small mercies that you
are having that conversation yeah yeah
okay we are having that conversation but
the sights that we have set for
ourselves are too low
I think advertising has a huge role to
play in in the society going forward we
recently did a couple of years ago we
did a piece for a client where we got
Pakistan’s biggest heartthrob to make
tea for his wife when she comes home
okay
this was favicon making P for an
ordinary-looking wife that he has in
that TV commercial and the Internet the
internet went wild the Pakistani
internet went wild the women went crazy
and they were like a bath her mazzaglia
this that and the other you know now my
husband’s making tea at least he’s
thinking about it this and I mean really
and to us it may be to a lot of people
out there
it may be floozy it may be flaky it may
be superficial but you know what there
are many women
out there who would really appreciate a
cup of tea made by their husbands
that’s our road you know and and and we
are not trying to glorify our role here
this is our role we can be you know we
can stand for things that are bigger
than ads we need to stand for ideas that
are bigger than ads ideas that break
down barriers ideas that enrich lives
ideas there are the currency of the
future ideas that end up becoming love
marks not brand marks or trademarks you
know ideas that end up doing advocacy
but to do all of this but to do all of
this we will need to be able to walk out
of that paradigm we need to be able to
think big and when I say big it doesn’t
mean 53% more radiant skin or three
centimeter long hair by the time I get
come to your wedding that’s an ad that’s
currently running you know Mary Ball
number which is really Nanyang gay I
know that product anyway you know so we
need to think beyond that we need to
think much bigger and you know I there’s
a wonderful film that I saw many years
ago it’s one of my favorite films it’s a
film called hitch and in that hitch
tells his friend it says life is not
about the number of breaths you take
it’s the number of moments that take
your breath away advertising will have
to be able to do that to have a future
[Applause] you
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