On My Radar: Harsh Kapadia

What’s the best ad campaign you’ve seen recently?

Budweiser’s Tagwords. It didn’t try to tell you everything. It just let history tell you why. Such a good use of celebrity endorsement without blowing the brand’s budget. 

What website(s) do you use most regularly and why?

Does anyone go to websites anymore? I find and follow interesting people / brands on social and then link out from there. 

What’s the most recent piece of tech that you’ve bought and why?

I picked up an Alexa in the hope that someone will build the laundry skill soon. No? Maybe a dog walking skill? I did just order a diffuser with Alexa skills. 

Facebook, Instagram or Twitter?

Instagram.

What’s your favourite app on your phone and why?

Marsbot. Well, actually, it’s a bot but you need to install the app in the background. It knows where you are, and recommends the best food, drink or dessert off that menu. Over time it learns your preferences and gets even better suggestions. Unfortunately, it works in the US not yet in the UK.

What’s your favourite TV show and why?

Seinfeld. It’s not just a sitcom. It is a sitcom on REAL life.

What film do you think everyone should have seen?

Dangal - a very inspiring Bollywood production. We live in a world where gender bias is a conversation, this is the story of a man who, in a small village in India, acts on it rather than just joining the conversation.

Where were you when inspiration last struck?

On a nursery tour for my son earlier this morning. 

What’s the most significant change you’ve witnessed in the industry since you started working in it?

Swim lanes. Swim lanes. And more swim lanes. We don’t need swim lanes. We need more people and agencies with the right attitude and knowledge to strategise and ideate across all channels; so brands don’t look schizophrenics or forced to create what I call matching luggage.

If there was one thing you could change about the advertising industry, what would it be?

The ad industry needs to evolve as fast as we preach, or I’d say even faster. We still divide the work as above the line, below the line, creative, digital, etc. Let’s get real. People don’t think that way. It is about how best we can connect the client’s brand to people. Connecting with the right person, at the right place and time. If the context is wrong, we just interrupt people. Digital in particular isn’t a discipline, it’s a mindset, it’s the world we live in. Big ideas can live across any channel using the right behaviours of those channels. 

What or who has most influenced your career and why?

My mum influenced my career the most. I come from a family of lawyers. Many lawyers. My mum (also a lawyer) pushed me towards Arts as a kid and she let me pursue 3D animation, which was really forward thinking in 2001, it then led to an internship at JWT in Mumbai and I’d like to think that the rest is history.

Beyond my mum, I have been lucky to have been mentored by some great people like Ravi Deshpande, Aniruddha Biswas, Keith Nicolas and Fernando Vega Olmos to name a few. It was their belief in me and their encouragement to keep pushing that made the difference. And now, I love that I have the opportunity to work alongside a British advertising legend, Mark Roalfe. 

Tell us one thing about yourself that most people won’t know…

Rather than won’t know, it is more like won’t notice. I am left handed.