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A behind-the-scenes look at how an ad gets made with the TBWA\ZEENAH team
Nazia Khan

Waiting at TBWA\ZEENAH’s reception for our meeting, we are struck first by the quiet. The movies and television shows have given us another image of the ‘atmosphere’ at an ad agency. Creative directors deriving inspiration from Goth rock played loud; art directors with blue hair extensions; copywriters mourning rejected tag lines in smoke hazes...we expect the whacky and zany. Definitely not a sign over the door that says ‘Entry restricted to employees only.’ Talking to the team, we realise that popular perceptions of the advertising world are sometimes just false advertising. The real picture of the people and processes here is not boring, but there is a lot more method than madness to its functioning. In Oman, as elsewhere in the world, advertising involves big bucks and bigger brand reputations – not things to be taken lightly. They explain why even clients are not allowed entry to certain areas in an advertising agency. Who knows where they might stumble upon a competitor’s secrets. We certainly gained an insight into the ways of advertising from our time at TBWA\ZEENAH. And it turns out that the staffers are a lot noisier and whackier than we thought. They let out later that they were quiet because it was a Thursday. And that they could not let us know how crazy they actually were.

While every advertising campaign has a process to it, there are no set processes. Different clients have different needs and wants, and an agency is geared to meet all of them. As account director Vanessa Dolan explains, “A client may want to launch a new product, increase sales, or convey some specific information about what they have to offer. They give us all the information we need to achieve what they want.” Based on this data, the creative department and the client servicing department write a client brief, i.e. the agency’s understanding of the client’s requirements and how it plans to meet them. They have also got to keep in mind the client’s budget.

With the brief ready and, hopefully, appr-oved, the client’s further involvement depends on…well…the client. Some leave everything to the agency and let it handle all aspects of the campaign while some others give the advertising agency a basic concept and allow it to get on with it the way it thinks best. There is yet another set of clients who want to be more involved in various agency processes, translating into mee-ting after meeting.

Messengers in a campaign
Ronald Hollett, creative director, business development, says that the agency provides the client with a toolbox of communication avenues. “An ad has to be believable, technically right, different and powerful, even as it is sensitive to cultural norms.” He says all this in a single breath, and, after a pause, adds, “I just made a speech there, didn’t I?” Speeches or exchange of information are keys to the relationship between an agency and a client. The client’s contacts within an agency are account handlers – account directors, account managers and account executives. Account executive Siham al Busaidi is among the people representing the agency to the client and vice versa. Account handlers pass on the message the client wants conveyed to the creative team.

Creative curry
The creative team’s job is to come up with ideas that can be used in print ads, on posters, in radio jingles, basically a host of mediums. The idea, says creative director Vikram Reddy, is to think in terms of brand building. “Brands are built through behaviour. We have to generate an experience every time a consumer comes into contact with a brand.” Among the staffers who are part of this process are senior copywriter, Helen Kirkbride and graphic designers, Marlon Peiris and Arwa Macky.

In the process, there are conventions, both specified and unspecified, to face. These could be rules within a company or a market, or notions customers have (Water is water. What is the deal with mineral water?). TBWA’s disruption formula aims to work its way round these to arrive at connections and an end vision. Says Reddy, “Disruptive ideas bridge the gap between convention and vision.”

Vision delivery
Say you have a great, big, disruptive idea and a client standing by it. The next step is to physically produce what has been envisioned. Enter the production team. “The end result,” says production manager V K Raman, “is the product.” So if production does not deliver for you, your advertising is in a lot of trouble.

Adds media manager Krishna Garg, “You can create the most wonderful ad in the world, but if you don’t select the right publication to position it in, it will completely lose its impact.” The next step is to select the most appropriate mix of media – print, outdoor, broadcast, and Internet, among others – to achieve the desired objectives of a campaign.

Also helping to add a buzz to a campaign is the events arm of an agency. Jason Clarke, events and PR director, says that this new facet of advertising has the potential to rock the way customers view products and services.

Made in Oman
So how effective is the finished product at its final destination in the advertising market that is Oman? Doesn’t advertising seem stuck in the ‘prizes and promotions’ context? Says Hollett, “The market here is changing drastically. About 70 per cent of the customers are young and clued in to what is happening around the world. Marketers have to realise this. An ad agency has a responsibility to make its clients aware. Or they will just end up spending a lot of money and not getting results.”

Reddy believes that the more constraints there are in a market, the more challenging it is to create successful ads. “You can be innovative even within conventions.” To raise creative standards while retaining the essence of Oman is what the team aims at in its work.

But there are the bigger challenges that the limitations of media itself present. How do advertisers reach people who cannot read, people who live in the interiors? As urban markets saturate, the way ads are made and delivered might undergo some drastic changes themselves. Says Garg, “We continue to work as a cohesive force, sharing and learning, to deliver great end products.” Hollett tells us to have a look at the back of their visiting cards to encapsulate their advertising philosophy. ‘Change the rules,’ it says, ‘to rule the change.’