Umma Saini, Creative Director at BBDO Singapore, may be best known for P&G Ariel's #ShareTheLoad campaign which highlighted gender inequality in household work. Umma talked to us about her experience working on the campaign, her recent brush with mortality, and being a creative leader in Asia. 

 
Let’s talk about the #ShareTheLoad campaign — It won so many awards and inspired a huge global movement. Were there challenges in making it?
 
Actually, this may sound surprising, but we didn’t encounter many. We had a very inspiring client on our side. Our rep from Ariel, Sharat Verma, had actually set the benchmark. Both the client and the agency had experience in doing movements. BBDO India has this approach called “acts, not ads”. We had explored “acts” with the client, even prior to the campaign.

We had a client on our side with immense faith in this approach. In the case of #ShareTheLoad, it happened to be a lot of like-minded people with huge motivation to make change and do transformative work together. So for this campaign, I really can’t think of any challenges because it was just such an amazing experience being on this journey together. We were all aligned — and that made it great.

 
The theme for ADFEST 2018 is 'Transform'. What does that mean to you?
 
“Transform” is the most defining word in our lives. I think there couldn’t be a better theme for a festival that celebrates creativity. It’s such a small word — but in that word hides the seeds of change and the willingness to do better things. To me, it’s perfect.

 
Can you give us a preview of your talk tomorrow?
 
It's going to be an offbeat take on ‘Transform’. I made the move last year from Mumbai to Singapore and, when I got there, I had a near-death experience. It’s actually quite a miracle that I’m alive. When you go through a powerful experience like this, you tend to evaluate your life in a different way. There were a lot of realizations which really helped me in my work today — and helped me to look at my life in a different way.

My talk is about an understanding that work is a part of life and, when [I was] seeking a new perspective on life, how I found my own purpose in the process. I’m sharing this message because it's really helped me in my work. It’s a really personal and honest take in the hope that it can also help others.

 
As a leader, how do you encourage your team to go out and seek new perspectives on life that will enhance their work?
 
As a creative person, I know that all inspiration lies outside work. We are reflectors of what we learn and absorb from the world, which is then poured out into our work.

From experiences — the more I see, the more I learn. Another part of my message that is that, in my analysis of what the meaning of life is, I've found that there's no force stronger than love. We often take our loved ones for granted. As creative people, we get so engrossed in our work — but we need to also look at other aspects of our lives and always work on keeping it whole and fulfilling. Only then, will it be reflected in our work and help to make it better.

 
* Catch Umma Saini’s talk, This Is Your Last Brief, on Day 3 of ADFEST 2018, March 23 at 3:15pm.

 
- Story by Haniza Ramli