Believe me! Before I could make up my my mind to finally settle down and write this post, I took a break from reading Piyush Pandey's PANDEYMONIOUM; I was on the 198th page. I longed for a distraction from the engaging read. So I took the break. During this break, I slipped into my pair of Reebok sports shoes, descended from my 3rd floor apartment and headed straight towards the main gate. The watchman took a note of my exit with amusement dancing naked in his eyes. I started with my night walk at 11 pm with a morning like energy in my feet. The pleasant climate made me walk faster, sweat faster. As I walked, I continued building a skeletal premise for this blog post. After I returned, I went back to reading of the Pandeymonium again; proceeded till the 204th page and then again opted for a break; only this time for the sake of writing my first post on this blog. It didn't take too much time though to pull out my laptop, unlock the screen, push in the charger, turn on the music, stare at the failing software, lament the loss of old data and address the desperately rising need of a new toy on my lap. Let me make you believe once again, this is going to be a long read, might leave you bored, intrigued, exhausted or perhaps enlightened (laughs, laughs and more laughs).
I dedicate this blog and all the future posts to my prolific team of 8 creative Writer Warriors. Let me begin by quickly introducing the youngest member whom I appointed today and shall be joining us soon. I appointed her for being courageous at an age, we begin our careers in. Her association had just taken off with an agency. After some days, her father suffered a massive heart attack. Therefore at a very raw age, she had to shoulder the responsibilities of a business empire; but with the fire kept alive within, to return to her passion for creative writing. The other youngest member is an intern, who has been showing great promises of not becoming what is forcibly expected of her. The third member is someone who seals her ears with the tiny heads of her hands free and laughs incessantly without bothering about her surroundings. Her experiment with ideas makes me recheck my notepad everyday. The fourth member is a thought generator; give him a word and he will remix it by adding dollops of short, steep and sharp twists. The fifth member hides in his head, an enormous warehouse of movie centered knowledge; happy to mention that he has made me richer with more movies per day (looking forward to more). The sixth member travels between two cities, works with us on a part time basis and releases fire whenever dealt or manhandled unprofessionally. The seventh member had embraced freedom long back, but continues to live with us in spirit and still partners our combats against unprofessional malpractices. I think she was the most auto-aligned person, I've ever met. The eighth member, even though hijacked and airdropped in the social media team, continues to be our source of a good laugh over anything he writes or emotes with. In short, every Writer Warrior is immensely talented. I am sure if I ask them to take up one brand each, they can individually churn out and create, what the great visionaries of the #MinistryOfChaos have repeatedly failed at for the last two decades. That brings us to the topic of this very first blog post - A case study of a rapid failure.
We were fresh out of a launch ceremony of a major agricultural brand in the farming heartland of Maharashtra. Stories of the successful launch arrived in our palms first and then to our eyes through WhatsApp. Appreciation overflowed; this was the first sign of the muddle, we were about to get into. Only one person who continues to handle this brand (against all brickbats), took the pain and also had the courtesy to express her gratitude to every team member who worked hard to support this success. This success paved the way for a party; sponsored by the client, abused by us! Little did we realize or take note of what I kept observing. Each and every team member was being surveyed, based on their capacity to consume alcohol, dig in their tooth into whatever got served, frequency of pulling out a smoke, placing orders and reaction to the brief, which had started lurking around like an invisible ghost. Before I forget, I would like to give full credit to our Non Creative Destroyer (NCD) for introducing the client to his raw, kiddish and cheap humor. He was too good at it, after having downed three pegs of neat whisky on the rocks (after all, we were in for a Client Sponsored Party). This party, for which, we departed; dressed smartly, minds charged and chests swollen. This party, which constantly reflected the weakness, the vulnerability of a brief that was exchanged through two or three malnourished emails and dysfunctional forwards on WhatsApp. As a traditional practice, we did mail the client two options of the creative, which lacked the elements of good design and authentic storytelling. This creative, which was supposed to be a corporate campaign looked like a classified ad; screaming for attention from absolutely no one.
A so called Corporate Communication Mismanager stepped in, filling the scene with nuances of his utter nonsensical feedback. We were reprimanded for being bad in our approach towards a corporate campaign. His misgivings continued to be generously shared over WhatsApp too. On Saturday till the time we departed, we were struggling with all the impossibilities. Thankfully the fire to get the corporate ad right kept burning. I sacrificed precious sleeping hours of a beloved Sunday, acquainting myself with corporate campaigns for brands, which ranged from condoms to condos, vessels to Viagra, business houses to brothels and so on. But the real three ideas sparked while I embarked on a journey to resume work at the #MinistryOfChaos. I caught hold of the designer who was supposed to work on it, was miffed to know how misled he was, took stock of the situation, which was only made to seem urgent. After some while, we bounced across some ideas at each other. These were visual ideas. When we brought the copy and the art together, we found ourselves closer to creating miracles. OMG, we were finally ready with two strong stories. I wish to make it a point in here; we hatched these ads with absolutely no help, direction, suggestion or REFERENCES from our NCD. Neither did we consult the so called Account Head on this brand. The client servicing soul put her faith in us. Thereafter we were on a roll. We delivered, only to be informed later that the brief had changed. All the efforts went into vain. The brief changed, appreciation reversed into criticism, egos barbecued and what followed next was obviously the stark chaos in the #MinsitryOfChaos.
Cut to November 3; the new brief was pressed on us. We were also pressed against it. I decided to fight. I fought like Ben Hur and surrendered like Puru - The Great Emperor of Golden India. Our refusal met with no success. We were shooed into the cabin where failed decisions take the center stage. Instead of supporting the team, the Cabin Owner stared at us; the expression on his face brought alive his personal history of rapid failures. Halfheartedly we continued and delivered. This time the fodder to rethink and criticize our work arrived from all quarters. At around 8 pm, when I had packed up, made an exit from the #MinistryOfChaos, I was requested to return and explained that the brief for the copy had changed, visuals were not liked and more options. This time, three different representatives from the client's side, started singing their own songs of infighting. It is too early to say whether we are going to succeed or not; but I think we have a good case study with us.
The case study is that of a rapid failure. As the misguided but rightfully rebellious members of the #MinistryOfChaos, we a select few raised our voices while others chose to compensate by adapting a tone of complaint. The story which was to be narrated as a corporate campaign was twisted & twitched but never once considered to be an example of an honest narration. Instead of spitting on the client's face, for they being wrong (no matter what they bring to our table; bread or butter), we spat on our own faces, sat on our asses and slogged. Till the time, I left, they were still struggling. This case study brings into focus two important aspects - 1) Never accept an oral brief or a brief that was farted out at the last moment 2) Rebel against the malpractices of rehashing badly created communication in the past.
Therefore till the time, we fail again in the #MinsitryOfChaos, let us continue with our journey seeking impossibilities.
-Just an inhabitant from the #MinistryOfChaos
Statutory Warning: After reading, if anyone wishes to take offence, I am not in a mood to apologize but keep writing more provocative stuff.
