In the spotlight

What’s your story? 

If you mean my childhood, which is basically where all your creativity and resilience comes from, then I'm sorry to disappoint I had a very "generic" upbringing... (see how I placed the marketing term there). Yes I had a different experience cause I am a middle child, so I found my solace in cheap romantic novels and my friends. Because I've always had a visual memory, I could see everything I read in my mind. At that time I became a huge Jackie Collins fan - I have no idea why at that time but now it makes perfect sense, she had a strong female lead, someone who figured it all out by herself and was a badass boss babe. Sometimes when I sit in meetings and everyone turns to me for my opinion, advise, I get a flashback of seeing myself whenever I read that paragraph from Jackie Collins where the same thing happened to the female lead. 

For the longest time I felt misunderstood, I felt I was in the wrong no matter how hard I tried. I also didn't come across any mentors who could guide me, someone elder who understood me, a teacher, a family relative. None. It's when I reached NCA that I felt at home, for once I didn't have to overexplain myself - I had people around me that were as crazy as me, who were weird and comfortable about it. For the first time I felt HOME. I still joke about it NCA was what Hogwarts was to Harry Potter, a safe space. Here I gained confidence not only in myself but in my abilities and skillset to know I can do something, I am someone.

After NCA I started working and gaining confidence in my work, my first breakthrough was when I worked with Khadijah Shah - someone who I looked upto. She would pay heed to my ideas, and encourage me to do more, this is where we launched Sapphire and I felt extremely happy to do this with someone who understands creativity and has a very directed vision. BBDO was my longest tenure ever - 5 Years of mentoring by the Great Ali Rez, I now realised was truly a blessing, I don't think anyone can have that claim to work directly with the greatest creative mind, and get mentored unknowingly. We launched campaign after campaign - I learnt so much from him during the trips we made to execute those ideas and he encouraged me to truly be myself. After working with corporate for 10 years - I went forward and started my own independent agency, Contentory Inc. and we started in Feb 2020, and we all know what happened during those years. But thankfully due to the resilience of this middle child we not only survived Pandemic but also thrived, my firm became known, we'd give campaign after campaign with some social message and soon briefs were pouring in. After a couple of years I started falling into the same doom of GEN Z neon and graffiti BS. So I decided to teach the same Gen Z that we get so stereotypical about.
 

What is the best advice you’ve ever been given and by whom?

Ali Rez: If you don't ask, the answer will always be no.

Madonna Badger (Cannes Lions SIBI Organiser) : Huma, you're here for a reason, own your space, you need to be heard and for that you need to speak.

Arsalaan (my partner in life) : You've seen so many plot twists in your life, so just go for it!
 

If you weren’t in the creative industry, what would you be doing instead and why?

I'd be an economist, I was in LSE for a small stint and during that time I was told by one of the leading economist of the country, you're a born economist, arts main kuch nahi rakha (there’s no future in the arts).

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Out of all the campaigns you’ve worked on, from social impact projects like Truck Art Childfinder and #BridalUniform to commercial work, which one stands out as the most memorable and why?

God its like asking me which daughter of mine I love the most. TruckArt Child Finder and Waxing Lady Tutorials.

 

 

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Finding 8 missing children isn't an easy feat, okay? And we did with just simple creativity. Waxing lady tutorials ended up detecting a tumor, which is what the purpose of the campaign was - BREAST CANCER PREVENTION.

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Your “solo honeymoon” posts went viral. How did that experience and attention influence your career or approach to creativity?

During that time I was in BBDO, I was taken as a case study by Pepsi and every client that walked in would want a picture with me. As much as people would assume I love the attention, I actually prefer doing the work and getting recognition for that. It didn't influence my career but I understood the power of influence; use it to benefit the society, which I did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went on morning shows to talk about how great in-laws need to be the bear minimum to support daughter-in-laws, I talked about the curse of Green Passport and how one shouldn't amalgamate their identity after getting married, you can be married and still be your own person. 

As far as creativity goes, I have to give the credit to those pictures to my husband who is the OG creative director for the idea when he sent me the hand hovering sad picture when he went to Budapest after our engagement. So it was more of an inside joke that blew up on the internet.
 

Being one of Pakistan’s most awarded Creative Directors, which award has meant the most to you and which one do you aspire to achieve?

Creative Effectiveness Cannes Lions which we got for Truck Art Childfinder, that is just a mic drop moment. I want to now aim for Glass Lions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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What would your dream collaboration look like and with whom, dead or alive?

For the longest time it was my dream to work for Marvel Deadpool PR and Marketing, now its more centralised to work with Shoaib Mansoor.

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In terms of work created by others, which campaigns or pieces do you wish you had made and why?

Every work coming out of Talented agency in India, Binafer is a dear friend and I always add their work to showcase to my students. Their first campaign that caught my eye was John Jacobs Stay Seen.

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I love Tanishq ads - so empowering and how can I ever forget NIKE. Snickers, you're not you when you're hungry.

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Being one of the few Pakistani women selected for the Cannes Lions See It Be It program is remarkable. How have experiences like this and your journey as a woman in advertising shaped your view of creativity and leadership?

I've become more empathetic to my team and other women in the industry. You see in Pakistan there's a major issue with mentorship, I never got any growing up so whenever anyone reaches out to me I get into the mindset to teach them from all my learnings and wisdom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I mentor a couple of people on the side as well, it feeds my soul truly. When I was in Cannes Lions with 16 different women where all we could talk about were ideas and tell each other our stories I realised there is no space as such in Pakistan. For that I always try my best to give safe space for my students, my teams, anyone who reaches cause sometimes all you need is to be heard.

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What’s next for you? Which projects or ideas are you most excited to explore?

I'm working on a couple of socially impactful ideas focusing on women and children, hopefully you'll see it in the coming months! If the brand managers understand the power of impact.