Working at Grey Global for two decades, Per Pederson has been honing the craft of creative advertising worldwide and is renowned throughout the globe for his relentless drive towards the attainment of creative perfection.

In his recent visit to Bangladesh, Pederson talks about GREY Dhaka’s tremendous success and shares his remarks about the agency in an interview with Bangladesh Brand Forum. According to him Grey Dhaka is one of top agencies in Grey Network having the best potentials.

BBF:  Not too many experts of your level from advertising arena have visited Bangladesh. What made you think about a tour to Bangladesh?  

Per Pederson: Grey Dhaka has a special place in Grey. Grey Dhaka has proven that you do not need to have international clients to be a successful agency. This agency depends on local clients, has a very strong profile in the local industry.

I am here for two purposes; to learn what they are doing so that I can teach other agencies in the network about how Grey Dhaka is doing and to teach Dhaka how to become better, especially in creative sector.

BBF: What is your opinion about the works done by Grey Bangladesh? Can you mention some works that drew your attention?

Per Pederson: This year I worked with Grey Dhaka on telling the story about men urinating on the street. It is very important for me to work on the local culture when I try to help our local agencies in the network.

Here is an insight that Arab language is considered holy and even if anyone cannot understand what is written, being a Muslim they will always respect it. To put the signs that say, “Don’t pee on the street, use the public toilet” and working with the honorable Ministry of Religion on that, was a brilliant idea. It’s fun! It shows Islam in a very positive way.

I enjoyed the latest ice-cream campaign for bloop that makes fun of advertisements. I think Grey Dhaka is one of the first agencies in the country that started using humor in the advertisements. Thus strategies made Grey Dhaka such a special agency.

BBF: Grey Dhaka is one of the top creative agencies in the country. Where do you want to see it reach next? 

Per Pederson: We have other agencies having smaller markets but Grey Dhaka is something different. This year Grey Dhaka has won 13 Lions. Taking on something that is unexpected: humors and non-advertising ideas have been the key ingredients behind Grey Dhaka’s tremendous success. We all want Bangladesh to be the next country that wins at Cannes, moreover I made it my personal ambition.

Grey Dhaka inspires the other agencies in the country to do good stuffs. They always came up with something that is even non-traditional but works only in Bangladesh. I believe, this will be the recipe to win more Lions.

BBF: Recently we have seen representation of our neighboring countries in global creative council. How far is Bangladesh from achieving such glory?

Per Pederson: Very very close! In our network, Grey Dhaka is one of the top agencies. It is ranked between 12 and 15 right now as our last corporate creative council started a ranking of our agencies. So, Grey is really very close, because you will automatically get a seat in global creative council if you are in the top 10. The previous two rounds of the creative council were debated and there is a possibility of adding a few countries in the council because we think they are improving continuously. So, Grey Dhaka is just on the verge.

 Interviewed and Compiled by 

Raiyan Rumman