Encouraging the northern belt: Leo Burnett's Portfolio Night 11

Every year since the past 11 years thousands of young creative’s, hundreds of creative directors, dozens of host agencies in cities around the world look forward to Portfolio Night (PN). At its core, PN is an event where aspiring young talent meet with several renowned advertising creative directors in a fast-paced evening of advice, networking and recruitment. While the evening has been jokingly called “speed-dating for creatives”, it’s really much more than that. In the eleven years since its inception, PN has grown to a global event, reaching creative hubs in every continent in an evening where the best of the present meets the best of the years to come.

The opening edition of Portfolio Night 11 was no different. Hosted by Leo Burnett in Delhi it saw a remarkable response from the northern belt. As if the entire fraternity was eagerly waiting for the event to happen and witness the talent from the northern belt. Around 60 young professionals from different fields like engineering, fashion designing etc got a chance to showcase their work portfolio to some of the most senior industry stalwarts.

The PN11 also announced the launch of Portfolio Night All-Stars, wherein one young creative from each PN event will get a chance to go to New York to witness the competition in August 2013.

On the eve of PN and after the event, Adgully spoke to several industry seniors and tried to gauge their response on the event and its significance. Speaking about the kind of talent that has come up from the northern belt and the kind of response they got from Delhi, KV Sridhar, Chief Creative Officer, India sub-continent Leo Burnett said, “The response has been quite encouraging and interesting. I am surprised to see the kind of access these young guns have to technology and knowledge about advertising. One of the portfolios I saw was of a mechanical engineer from BITS Pilani. Now that is something very interesting.”

He further added that the entire advertising fraternity has sort of evolved. After looking at the kind of innovation these young guns do, there is little doubt that the industry is attracting a different kind of talent. An opportunity like Portfolio Night is the best way to interact with the younger generation and guide them about our industry.

According to Rajiv Rao, National Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather, “the level of creativity is increasing year by year. The response has been really good. The best part is that the young talent is 

literally talented. It is quite interesting to know the fact that people even from the smaller places know the international standards, how to produce innovative work.” What we can do is bring events like PN more closely them which can enable the young and budding talent to make their presence felt in front of the creative directors. They can thus be guided, he added.

Rao feels that there should be more buzz around such events and so that a lot more participants can be a part of this. He says, “I came across some really good work and to know that the person does not have an advertising background is something amazing. This shows the passion that the young talent has for our industry.”

KS Chakravarthy, National Creative Director, Draft FCB Ulka said, “The response has been really amazing. There is no doubt about the fact that the standard of creativity and advertising is getting bigger and better Y-o-Y. The northern belt has really good potential. This year is quite better than the last year. The upcoming generation of the advertising fraternity is surely raising the standards. ”

Opined R Balki, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, Lowe Lintas said, “The work that I have witnessed as of now has been quite encouraging, amazing, thoughtful and perfectly executed. Yes, I feel there should have been more people but since this was the first time in Delhi, I am sure going forward the event will get bigger.”

Said Kartik Iyer and Praveen Das of Happy Creative Services stated, “The best part is to witness the passion of the young people who do not even belong to advertising industry. Giving a chance them is a positive thing and we all are eagerly waiting for them be a part of our fraternity.”

Agreeing to her peers Priti Nair, co-founder, Curry Nation said, “The emerging talent is literally encouraging. Events like PN are amazing initiatives and ideas that would help the emerging talent to witness the knowhow of the advertising industry.”

The encouraging event, PN took place in twenty-four other cities all over the world like Athens, Austin, Beijing, Boston, Budapest, etc. Many young creatives got a chance to meet some of the world’s top creative directors under one roof, which otherwise is really difficult.