Leo Burnett’s world renowned Anthony Chelvanathan shares...
Sri Lankan born Anthony Chelvanathan, Group Creative Director at Leo Burnett Toronto is one of the most prolific internationally recognised creative designers in Canada. Mirror Business sat with him recently for an exclusive interview during his visit to
Can you describe the inception of your journey?
I remember my dad drawing a coconut tree and I would copy it again and again. Then I realised during my school days that I have an interest in drawing. Then in high school I was told that I should do graphic designing. Well my parents wanted me to do well in my studies. My two sisters became doctors eventually.
I had to move to Canada with the start of the war in Sri Lanka. Life was quite hard where I had to do three multiple jobs to support the family. Then somehow I got into advertising. From there the journey goes on. I have being at Leo Burnett since 2003.
Without doubt, your campaigns have proven to be top-tier. Can you elaborate on the ideology behind your strategy in successful persuasion of the audience?
The king of this business is insightful thoughts. You have to be honest and true. By going deeper in to the feelings you can communicate and craft a great idea. Crafting is the work you do after work. Then you can improve a lot on working on your thoughts.
Can you share some of your major achievements that you think would inspire others?
Ikea, P&G are some of the major brands that I have worked for. It is all about I believed in myself and got it done. Again, the latest one was for Ikea. Then we have done so many campaigns with zero budgets. That is the main issue in this part of the world. Where in one instance we told a client don’t buy billboards, share the billboards. Then we got tonnes of submissions which helped us to take the brand to millions of consumers.
Coming back to Sri Lanka, what is the reason behind your visit?
I just want to help people, which is my purpose in life. As a human being I want to help others. If you are able to help others to change their lives is very much rewarding than getting an award. Ranil De Silva asked me to visit and help after I met him at Cannes where I asked him for a Sri Lankan flag which moved him a lot.
What is you view on the current status of the creative landscape in Sri Lanka?
We got the talent but what is not right is the process. I can easily pick 50 things that we could work and improve. This is from the learning that I have gone through. There aren’t any processes; their broken like how to think from start to the end. One example is that the mindset that I have is that I am lucky to go to work where I have a job that I get paid for. No need to think of deadlines, just think of the work you have done and sit down with the client to discuss how things could be improved. Radio is one area where we could improve a lot. Prior to the brief bring everyone and discuss, after that go to the brief. Then an agency can achieve their goals and fix things. Also don’t look at clients as clients but look at them as partners where both parties are working to build the brand.
How do you think the local industry can improve?
A: We have to get more on to the international stage and in order to get there, there is a way to work and by getting rid of office politics, staying positive, wearing multiple hats and not relying on others will pave way for us to go there. What frustrates me is that when I hear we don’t have budgets but we should know how to get there.
What advise do you want to give to aspiring creative designers in terms of ‘making it’ in this industry?
I would say focus, which is the hardest thing to do. Focus on what needs to be done and staying super hungry and also don’t stop when the idea hits the road block. Try to look at different perspectives to produce results.
One example when we hit the roadblocks, back in the early stage in my career at Leo Burnett Toronto, we realised that 80 percent was broadcast and 20 percent was films. So what we did was instead of going to the print producer we went to film producer and asked can you help us produce this print. Then we used their set and did the shoot and started creating ads. It is all about how you get that thing done when you hit the road block.