Forget AI and focus on humanity: DDB global creative chief

From TV, to ads, to AI: DDB Worldwide president & global chief creative officer Chaka Sobhani says human connections are always the answer to commercial success.

DDB Worldwide president and global chief creative officer Chaka Sobhani speaking at This Way Up Festival of Creativity in Sydney 2024.

Forget the concern about the bias in artificial intelligence, we need to fix the humans first, said DDB Worldwide president & global chief creative officer Chaka Sobhani.

Speaking to The Growth Agenda, while in Sydney for the Advertising Council of Australia’s annual This Way Up creative festival, Ms Sobhani said focusing on the bias in AI overlooks the much larger elephant in the room.

“I think we need to sort out our own shit before we ask technology to do it,” said Ms Sobhani. “And that starts with every person in this world.”

It is the sort of frank honesty that has helped propel the British creative, from her childhood in Exeter, South-West England as the child of immigrant Iranian parents, “I was literally the only brown person there”, to her current global role for DDB, one the most highly-regarded advertising agencies.

However, while her experiences as a kid in 1980s Devon are well behind her, the memories of not fitting in have clearly shaped her central belief that commercial success lies in the ability to create connections through human emotions.

“It’s not rocket science. I think sometimes the best things are actually the simplest things. I think we are hardwired, as human beings, to form connections and to connect with people. It’s something that we do from childhood. We try to find people that we have similarities to, that we have something in common with, to find our tribe, and we want to feel something.”

“But, and again this is not rocket science, even though the world has exploded from a technology point of view, what we have lost is a bit of focus on that need to connect and the way we build connections is ultimately making people feel something.”

It is Ms Sobhani’s belief that AI, like the technology that has come before it, and will come after it, is another tool that can help brands and businesses find new and innovative ways to connect with consumers.

“AI is not the answer,” she said. “It is a tool by which you can connect with people. But the only way you connect to people is by understanding emotion, feeling and heart. Ultimately we’re not in the game of advertising; we’re in the game of human psychology and truly understanding people.

“AI is brilliant, technology is brilliant because it will attract different audiences who want to interact in a different way. But if you just turn up and think AI is the answer, then you are buggered. It’s not about having some newfangled widget or bit of tech on your app, that’s not going to do it. You have to have wit and charm and all that good stuff.”

When it comes to wit and charm, Ms Sobhani has it by the bucketload and her whirlwind trip to Sydney has seen her charm audiences with her entertaining brand of self-deprecating wisdom seasoned with a colourful sprinkle of profanity.

Her early career in filmmaking and TV helped cement her affinity with understands

DDB Worldwide president and global chief creative officer Chaka Sobhani speaking at This Way Up Festival of Creativity in Sydney 2024.

ng the audience and while she playfully downplays it, Ms Sobhani was a key player behind global TV juggernauts such as The X Factor and Downton Abbey.

It’s not just audiences though, the award-winning filmmaker has a deep understanding of the commercial realities of creativity.

“I started off as a music video director, and then I went into telly shows and programs, and then came into advertising in 2013, so my starting point was always about creating stuff for audiences.

“The commercial measures were obvious in the fact that you needed successful shows, and obviously you could sell advertising around it, but the very clear goal was coming up with an idea that made people feel something in some shape or form, whether it was entertainment or drama or whatever the hell it was. And I think it’s still exactly the same principle.

“I do believe all creativity is the partnership between commerce and creativity. The Beatles couldn’t make Sergeant Pepper unless they’d sold a shitload of albums beforehand to give them the audience and the permission to go and do something more experimental.

“Obviously there’s so much money at stake when we’re talking about a brand and its success, but fundamentally the way to ignite it and the way to make it grow isn’t just through thinking with your head but it’s also about thinking with your heart and some of that stuff isn’t measurable. But just because it’s not quantifiable doesn’t mean you should ignore it,” she said.

Ms Sobhani believes that if more brands and agencies could remember to focus on what they want people to feel then the work will be better. She cites DDB client McDonald’s as a great example of this because she believes the strength of the work is rooted in the human emotion attached to it. She also attributes its success to the strong relationship between agency and client and the trust and understanding that underpins the business challenges and the work that aims to help the business grow.

“You have to start at the business challenge,” Ms Sobhani continues. “No matter what the problem is though, humans are going to be part of the answer and to engage humans, you have to engage the heart.

“I think the stuff that really moves brands is ultimately the stuff that really moves people.”