40 Under 40 2020: Hemant Shringy, BBDO

Hemant Shringy

Chief creative officer 
BBDO India, Mumbai
India

After the wash of hurrahs for his work on Ariel’s #ShareTheLoad campaign, Hemant Shringy did not kick back and relax. Appointed in 2019 as chief creative officer, he doubled down to help the agency win two large national businesses recently.

Shringy is the creative equivalent of a rubber band; the elasticity of his capabilities stretches from writing scripts and songs to activating and designing social movements for brands. Described by his colleagues as a “servant leader”, Shringy has proved adept at mobilising resources and boosting morale.

Shringy has bagged over 150 global, regional and local awards over the years. The list includes seven Grand Prix awards across Cannes, Spikes Asia, AdFest, APAC Effies, WARC, and India’s first White Pencil at D&AD Impact. Campaign Asia also named Shringy as the South Asia Creative Person of the Year for 2017.

Invited to the Facebook headquarters in California last year, Shringy hunkered down with 10 other creatives from BBDO Worldwide to crack WhatsApp’s first global campaign. What ensued was the ‘It’s Between You’ campaign, which saw the release of two films in July narrating the spectrum of communications among Indians on WhatsApp and the platform’s commitment to privacy. The films clearly struck a chord; the campaign was one of the highest-rated in India.

Another recent highlight among the award-winning creative’s greatest hits was helming Visa’s Contactless Payment Centre of Excellence (COE) in 16 markets. The regional workshop for clients and agency partners in Asia Pacific (APAC) created work for Visa’s contactless payment initiative, which Shringy led to run across multiple markets.

Sujatha Kumar, head of marketing for Visa India, South Asia, is all praise for Shringy, pointing out that he “possesses a rare combination of understanding [the] holistic trends of consumer behaviours and insights as well as nuances of individuals based on cultural influences.”