France Special: Alexander Kalchev

The son of a book publisher, Sofia-born Alexander Kalchev, ECD of DDB Paris, has a fondness for print and traditional forms, claiming ‘content’ is, after all, about telling stories. Yet he was drawn to DDB’s “nerdy” experimental culture and its adventures in digital and beyond. Whatever medium he turns to, he’s determined to keep surprising everybody with daring work

Apart from a preternaturally luxuriant, charcoal-black beard, which has a tendency to swallow the end of his sentences, there isn’t anything other-worldly about Alexander Kalchev. And yet, when he first set foot in DDB Paris, in 2007, along with then-partner Siavosh Zabeti, it was like being beamed in from outer space. As the agency’s only foreign creatives at the time, they were “like UFOs!” Kalchev chuckles. Eight years later, though, the 31-year-old Bulgarian has become such a part of what he calls – with an ironic smile – “the DDB family”, that he’s been handed its creative reins. 

Sitting in the chic, salon-like reception of the agency’s 75 Rue la Condamine offices, a mere four months since the departure of Alexandre Hervé for Omnicom boutique Romance, Kalchev is reflecting on his accession to the throne. “It feels like nothing has changed, because I’m still in the same place, but at the same time everything has changed, because all of a sudden I’m doing an entirely different thing,” he muses. “The reason I’m still here is that I feel like things are constantly evolving. This agency is nothing to do with the agency it was in 2007.”

This zest for new experiences and pioneering spirit has characterised much of Kalchev’s life. Born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria, his first exposure to advertising coincided with the fall of the Iron Curtain, which, along with new democratic ideals and a kind of “wild” capitalism, ushered in an “incredible influx” of Western culture. “I grew up with MTV and Reebok sneakers – I would have felt very much at home in San Diego,” Kalchev remembers.

Instead, aged 19, he headed for the chillier climes of Scotland to study philosophy and English literature at Edinburgh University. Two years in, realising his interests lay elsewhere, he dropped out and started looking round for design courses instead. A brochure for the Miami Ad School in Hamburg piqued his attention, bringing to mind a favourite childhood TVC – Nike’s seminal 2002 spot, Secret Tournament – and got him thinking that advertising might be fun. After a ‘clueless’ start, he smartened up his act – “I’ve never worked as hard in my professional career as I worked in that school,” – and landed a series of internships at big networks in Belgium, Russia and Germany.

Having joined forces with Zabeti, on graduation the duo set their sights on a job in France. At the time, TBWAParis was the agency du jour for international creatives; DDB Paris’s charms were more obscure. “For anyone that’s slightly nerdy about advertising, [DDB Paris] has always been one of those agencies that does great, surprising, sometimes awkward, sometimes downright weird, sometimes really successful creative work,” Kalchev explains. “It didn’t feel like a French agency, more like a mix between an English and an Argentinian agency.”   

#MakeAGrownUpRemember

Another big draw was the culture of experimentation and DDB’s “incredible fascination” with “non-traditional experiences, installations, stunts… Now they feel like curse words, but at the time, it felt like a good thing to do.” Wacky outdoor stunts such as wiring together 2,500 oranges to power a three-metre billboard (2011’s Natural Energy for Tropicana) certainly captured the zeitgeist, as well as a fair few creative trophies. Meanwhile, Kalchev’s early forays into the brave new digital world included Attraction, an anti-smoking PSA for the French Ministry of Health cleverly re-imagined as an interactive anime film.

However, having grown up surrounded by books as the son of a publisher, the “purity of print” always held a strong attraction for Kalchev and it was perhaps inevitable that, over time, he would gravitate back to more traditional channels. (He confesses, wryly, that he’d trade “any number of amazing digital experiences for one Economist ad”.) Happily, this personal evolution coincided with the briefs now coming through the agency door. 

“Ten years ago, we were all so much more excited about where we could go, and now it feels like we’re going back to the basics,” he says, pointing to the success of this year’s #MakeAChildCry poster campaign for Doctors Of The World as proof of the enduring power of print. “The public remember them. And we tend to forget in this job that 99 per cent of what we do is – pfff! – forgotten. Worse, people don’t even notice it.” As for film, they’re making more and more of it at DDB, albeit under a trendier label. “Yes, we might be calling it content, but in the end it’s still film. And a 30-second, one-minute commercial is perfect for today’s media landscape: it’s the easiest thing to share, the easiest way to tell a story, and to captivate an audience that is extremely restless.”

Cutting the directing mustard

In 2013, a similar restlessness inspired Kalchev to embark on a parallel career in directing, with an ambitious docu-style short for Honda. A Film silver Lion-winner, The Centaur laid bare – in all its sand-spitting, engine-roaring, heart-stopping glory – the twin terror and exhilaration of the annual Enduropale, one of the world’s biggest endurance motorbike races, in which around 2,000 riders carve up the beaches of Le Touquet in northern France. “It was done under crazy circumstances,” remembers Kalchev. “We had very little money and we went way beyond the call of duty to get it done. We got lucky: the client trusted us, so we had the kind of freedom which doesn’t happen in advertising – only when you shoot a music video, or a documentary, or a movie.” Subsequent work, such as 2015’s Memories for condiments giant Maille suggests he’s no one-trick pony: the still-life inspired dinner setting is tinged with an almost painterly quality.

Currently signed to Carnibird in Paris, Kalchev enjoys the hands-on contrast that directing provides to the theoretical nature of his day job. While promotion has brought more demands on his time (“Nowadays I’m a slave to my agenda,”) having a creative outlet is, he says, more important than ever. “As a creative director, you have to find a way to express yourself, and the worst thing is to try to do that through your creatives. You’re there to nurture them and support them… and ensure that great work comes through, not just your own ideas – I’ve seen a lot of people abuse the power that comes with the [ECD] title. Directing is my playground where I can experiment, so it’s beneficial for everyone.” 

Though he admits that former boss Hervé casts a long, illustrious shadow (“It’s an enormous responsibility and a great honour to follow one of the people I respect the most,”) Kalchev seems more than equal to the challenges of his new role. Does he have any radical plans in store for the agency? “I love the idea of opening up and expanding, it’s in my DNA, but I’m trying to stay lucid about the position of the advertising agency in today’s world,” he says. That’s easier said than done, when many big networks are scrambling to re-invent themselves – isn’t there the risk of being left behind? “Of course we’re putting effort into innovation and product design, but our strongest asset is that we understand people, and we know how to tell the stories that touch them,” he says robustly. “What is advertising these days? It is what it always was. Telling great stories.”

Expecting the unexpected

Great stories demand exceptional storytellers and Kalchev is eager to cast the net beyond France in his search for new talent, dispelling any preconceptions about his adoptive country’s language issues and lack of creativity. “Compared with 10 years ago, significantly more people speak English now, especially with the new wave of young creative directors, so you can easily work here without speaking French… There is some great work coming out of here, so I think it’s just a question of taking the jump. That’s what I did, and here I am now!”

He may have found a permanent roost at DDB Paris, but judging by several exciting projects in the pipeline, including a VR film for new client Hennessey XO with Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn, and a trip to Kazakhstan for a follow-up to The Centaur, Kalchev’s fortunes, and those of the agency, will doubtless continue to rise. “Sure, I’m running a massive agency, but I’d love to keep that spirit of experimentation, trying out new things and going on adventures,” he concludes. “I don’t have an objective beyond wanting to surprise myself, the clients… the world.”