Her first job was at BITS (Beyond Information Technology Solutions), which was founded by Zaheer Alam Kidwai and Sabeen Mahmud, both of whom Jawed loves as her own.
“They embraced me at a very young age and they had a lot to do with who I am today.”
Her first break in advertising presented itself in 2004 with an offer from Prestige Grey.
She considers both Jamal and Kamal Mir to be “fantastic people”.
Although she found the environment strict, she learned much about advertising.
“Production was a big thing and being part of any shoot was a big deal. If you were allowed to be on set, you thought, wow, I must have done something right!”
A year later she moved to Contract Advertising as Creative Group Head. She started with a small team of 10 and according to her it was thanks to the team’s hard work that within four months, they had expanded to 65 people. During her time at Contract, she launched brands such as Mothercare, TPL and LG.
The same year Jawed got married to actor-cum-marketing and advertising professional, Faris Khalid, whom she met when she was part of the comedy troupe ‘Black Fish’ and by the end of 2005, the couple left for Dubai.
It was when working for SixG Consultants (a marketing consultancy firm in Dubai), as Creative Manager that she learned a major lesson. During a meeting, her boss bluntly told her that in a place like Dubai, there was no such thing as a creative.
“If you can read, write and observe, it’s a given that you are creative. But can you sell; take risks and be the person behind and in front? In Dubai, this is what matters.”
It was this comment that changed her attitude towards work.
She eventually became Business Director at SixG and worked there for three years
A brief stint at an advertising agency was followed by a year of unemployment, which for Jawed was nothing short of a nightmare. Desperate to work, she began selling real estate and did financially very well as a result.
“The only disadvantage to working in real estate is that you do not earn all the time. Real estate is a bubble; you can earn very well while the boom lasts, but when there is a dip, there is nothing.”
A job opportunity for her husband brought the couple back to Pakistan in 2012. Before she could even settle in a new house, she received an offer from Prestige.
“Did you join as a creative?”
I ask her.
“Jamal asked me if I wanted to go into creative or client services.” She gave him the same spiel she had got from her boss at SixG. She told Jamal: “Creativity is a given… let’s see how much better we can make the business…” And so she joined as Account Director.
However, a year later she left Prestige to join Green Man’s Ark (Adcom Leo Burnett’s digital agency).
And then a year later, Mansoor Karim, who had offered her a job at Contract, asked her to join JWT Pakistan as Group Account Director. Then a year later, Karim resigned from JWT and asked her if she would join him at Interflow.
To this, Jawed remembers laughing out loud: “Who would want to go to Interflow?’I’m TOO COOL for Interflow.”
Karim asked her to think it over. In his view, Interflow needed a boost and it would be a good challenge.
Jawed knew that leaving an exciting, fun and safe job at JWT for Interflow would be stupid. Yet, at the same time she also knew it was still too early in her career to play it safe and not take risks.
When not playing the amazing Amazon at Interflow, Jawed loves to cook, listen to music (especially qawwalis) and travelling. With brothers and sisters living in London and Dubai, both cities are a second home for her.
“I have never parted with anyone on bitter terms. It’s always been amicable. So I took the gamble, because I knew if it didn’t work out, I could always go back to the places I worked at earlier.”
Playing safe is not something Jawed believes in.
As it turned out, Interflow’s challenges were multiple; bad financials, employee retention issues, salaries not paid on time... Two years of hard work and Jawed says that none of these problems exist anymore.
Interflow has no affiliations now and is going back to a full-service model where everything will be done in-house within divisions; IC Films (production), IC Newton (media), IC Life (digital) and IC Wellness (health communications).
Although Jawed says it was fun working in multinational agencies, one of the issues is that most of the work revolves around adaptations. Interflow, she says, is focusing on local clients and: “there is nothing better than working for local clients and one must never underestimate the strength of local brands.”
In her view, if by the end of this year all goes according to plan, nothing will stop Interflow from becoming the best ad agency in Pakistan.
When not playing the amazing Amazon at Interflow, Jawed loves to cook, listen to music (especially qawwalis) and travelling. With brothers and sisters living in London and Dubai, both cities are a second home for her.