“We would plaster the walls of Scarecrow office with the proposition - SCARECROW ❤️ CRAFT”: Scarecrow M&C Saatchi’s Manish Bhatt

“We would plaster the walls of Scarecrow office with the proposition - SCARECROW ❤️ CRAFT”: Scarecrow M&C Saatchi’s Manish Bhatt

He talks about the agency’s new ideology and more.

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Mumbai: Why is it that often when we try to step further and walk briskly, we tend to hold back suddenly and stand still? Why don’t we have the courage to move further, take a step ahead – take that leap of faith? Well, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi seems to go all out about its new ideology – its love for craft, without shying away at all.

Ever since I have known Scarecrow M&C Saatchi founder Manish Bhatt, and this is even before he started Scarecrow, Bhatt has always been a sucker for craft. Taking the agency’s love for craft to a new level is the agency’s win at the recent One Show ABBY Creative Awards – South Asia Goafest 2023. Scarecrow M&C Saatchi was the third best in the Video Craft/Film Craft category – the agency was awarded a Gold and a Silver for U Gro Capital (its work called Fund Island), a Silver to the Mahalaya campaign, and a bronze to Rannkaar campaign for Reliance Jewels.

In the era of moment marketing, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi spends a disproportionate amount of time in CRAFTING the campaigns for its clients. Be it a series of five such campaigns in the last three years for Reliance Jewels or even campaigns like U GRO FUND ISLAND or SAFETY ANTHEM - 2D animation film done by the in-house young design team for Adani Total.

In the era where many brands want agencies to produce films almost every now and then to air them as a reel on Insta, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi advocates the brands to let them spend an average of three to six months to CRAFT such campaigns, which includes cultural recess and researches.

When the Industry is busy creating formatted memes for their brands, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi spends its energy on CRAFT cultural motifs and full-fledged typefaces derived from various cultures.

In the era of AI imagery, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi indulges in roping in some of the finest craftsmen of cinematography, who craft each frame enthusiastically and add aesthetic in a medium of 25 frames per second.

Often an in-house young team of Scarecrow explores FILM MAKING CRAFT, and ends up winning Metals at Abby & Kyoorius in the CRAFT category.

Be it cinematography, film-making, poetry, lyrics writing, editing, sound design, music composition, graphic design, typography or interior design - at Scarecrow M&C Saatchi, they explore all forms of CRAFTS.

In an exclusive chat with Indiantelevision.com, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi founder Manish Bhatt pours his heart out with regard to the agency’s new ideology, and much more.

Edited excerpts:

On always emphasizing and betting on craft so strongly

I always feel that whatever we create should not just cater to the audience written in brief or be relevant only for the marketing season mentioned in the media plan to air the campaign.

The work we create may tick mark and fulfill all the functional expectations of our clients. But that is just the hygiene.

It should stay in consumers' minds beyond the targeted time frame.
Consumers should hum your jingles for decades, if not centuries.

Creative work should be created to last long, like those utensils from Harappa or the Chola bronze statues, which help someone unearth and experience the forgotten civilisation and culture, even after thousands of years.

You may not always laugh at a joke said 1000 years ago since it has lost its context, but you can definitely be awestruck by the 1000 years old piece made with meticulous craft.

Likewise, let's consider the Super Bowl ad of Apple in 1984. It is a perfect example of a brand's contextual advertising or 'moment marketing' of that era and remains relevant only to those times. And then, look at the THINK DIFFERENT ads of Apple, which not only encapsulate the brand's story but are timeless and relevant for decades to come.

Craft is a timeless classic that humankind cultivates.
BUT CLASSICS ARE ENDANGERED.

I strongly feel that new-age creative people should concentrate on creating new classics. Because if they don't create new classics for the upcoming generations, then who will?

I have had a fascination for NEW CLASSICS since ages.
And I always felt that CRAFT is the creative fuel to generate NEW CLASSICS.

On building an agency like Scarecrow M&C Saatchi and getting each one in the agency to build a soft corner for craft

The best way to build a culture is never to enforce it, but simply facilitate it.

To start with, we chose the Ballard Estate area in Mumbai for our office. It has the region's most inspiring and well-crafted Edwardian neoclassical architecture (primarily envisioned by George Wittet).

Our office itself is in a 150 years old heritage building made with the same high standards of architectural craft as in our neighbourhood. So we designed our interiors like a restoration of the 150 years old architectural craft.

We turned our office walls into Art Gallery walls and adorned them with the timeless advertising work from the D&AD MASTERCRAFT series of books like Copybook or Art Direction Book.

On the talent front too, we have been mindful of craft. At the early stage of Scarecrow,  we roped in senior creative people like Kapil Tammal, who are known for their craft in art direction & design.

We started training, educational and experience-sharing initiatives like MOM - Method of Madness to bridge the knowledge gap between craft-seeking creative students and the best craft persons in our industry.

We hosted iPOPs - an exhibition & workshop of iPad paintings by POPS.

Thoughtful copywriting, audio and music can also elevate communication through a high level of craft.

That's why on the medium of communication front, Scarecrow has always patronised Audio & Music as mediums to push the boundaries of craft in writing radio scripts, lyrics, voice casting, background scores and music compositions to prove a point that visuals are not the only playground for the good craft. This helped us win the AGENCY OF THE YEAR at audio award shows thrice.

We also facilitate and give liberty to our young team to express craft in any form. Hence, our amateur team often wins Craft Awards at Abby and Kyoorius, even when competing with senior professionals in the creative industry.

We spent a disproportionate amount of time engaging the youngest team members of Scarecrow to create campaigns for Adani Total, Reliance Jewels, U GRO and many other brands. This not only involves recces, studies or research of craft but also the applications of all forms of crafts - like animation, typography, graphic design, cinematography, poetry, music, illustrations, lyrics writing, editing and more. And this led us to be the 3rd in Video Craft / Film Craft in the ONE SHOW Abby South Asia Creative Awards at Goafest this year.

All this has happened due to our consistent endeavours over a 13-year-long period.
After all, Rome wasn't built overnight.

On this love for craft being revealed now, and not earlier

Now that we are introspective, we realise we have a crush on craft.
Let's first confess it.
Express it like a young lover by not just whispering into the ears of our new muse but by proclaiming it single-mindedly and loudly.

Maybe like how some crazy Romeo sky writes I LOVE YOU to propose to his Juliet.

We would plaster the walls of Scarecrow office with the proposition:-

SCARECROW  ❤️  CRAFT
 

And we will patiently wait for the coming years to see our team's reactions and expressions using the best possible craft. We are sure that our love for craft will win the hearts of not just the consumers but even the hard-to-impress jurors in many more glorious shows.

On being grounded to craft in this era of moment marketing, and would we ever see any moment marketing campaigns from Scarecrow?

Of course, we do everything that is the functional and hygiene that is needed for communication by our clients.

But we sieve out KANKAR of novelty values from the REAL GRAINS of insightful, creative ideas that not just engage consumers momentarily but also build the brand in a long-lasting manner.

On making a choice between memes and craft – why wouldn't Scarecrow want to dabble with both?

The quick response has to be appropriate to the marketing tasks the client wants from us.

We have been doing overnight instant responses of moment marketing, social jokes, memes, stunts, pranks, and buzz-generating creative work for ages, far before all these advertising trends caught wildfire.

For example, our work for Quikr, Bed Bath and More, Spykar, yatra.com, and Only Vimal, among others, are proof of that.

On Scarecrow M&C Saatchi’s views on AI

When we are focusing on craft and human skills, it doesn't mean that we are enemies of technology-led solutions.

Otherwise, more than a decade ago, we wouldn't have created Digital-branded content Facebook innovations like - Reveal yourself for blu, or other concepts that competed with Coke Studio & Sound Trippin by MTV.