One of the star speakers at Zee Melt 2016, Ted Harry Mellstrom, Creative Director at Forsman and Bodenfors, took time out to speak with MxMIndia on the importance or rather the not-so-importance of fancy designations of advertising agency professionals…
You say there is no need for designations, only Art Directors and Copywriters. Does that really work, because at the end of the day everybody has an aspiration to grow?
From my perspective, it actually works. We have been working that way for more than 20 years and it has been working out really well for us. Businesses have growth and internal growth as well. I think the people who can work within this model need to want to do good work and that is the growth they can get. I do not necessarily think that you need another title to grow, you do not need a title in front of your name in a business card, it is not important. Important thing is to do good stuff and you will get rewarded for it if you do good stuff.
Most big international agencies have several designations. How do you ensure that your people do not get influenced by it or the aspirations are taken care of?
I think we tend to be proving that we can do really good work this way and the people who come to us and start working, understand that we work in a different way. You need to let your ego aside and need to just want to do good work and if the people who come want to do good work, they will fit in. But if people are more interested in making a career and get a nice title, they probably should go somewhere else because at our office we believe that the team together does the good work. We do not feel it is necessary for them to get another title. They will be rewarded in other ways.
And, you obviously pay your people well.
Medium, I would say. Probably I would say a little less than other companies.
Is it just work, work and work that drives people?
No, we also tend to look for nice people. We always say that we look for people we call talented and nice because you need to be humble about what you do. You need to like to collaborate, work with other people because we are sorting out problems together, we are working in groups. The only thing that is important is to solve the problem for the client and you need to leave the ego aside. So, we kind of tend to look for special kind of people who can handle that because many cannot. Some people just want to make a career. That is not the people we are looking for, we are looking for people who really want to do work because we find the work fun, we like the people we work together with.
The fact that you were the most awarded agency in 2014 reflects the fact that it has worked for you. And, how has it worked after that?
We were in the Top 5 in the best agency of the world this year. So, it has worked out quite fine. We won a Grand Prix this year as well. To be honest, three years ago we won a lot with Volvo trucks but this year we won several different times. So, we had a better year in Cannes this year than the year before, even though we won the best agency in the world. I think it worked out.
What is your view of advertising in India?
I have seen a little bit of Indian advertising. To be honest I am not so in depth with it, so I can say that the things I have seen are great but I have only seen a small part so I cannot make a judgment from what I have seen.
Are you looking at setting up an office in India?
No, I do not think we are but may be.
For your clients in India?
Yes and we are thinking about how to handle that since we tend to get a lot of more and bigger clients who are worldwide clients. We are managing that at the moment.