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Why are Agencies Failing Miserably at Retaining Talent?

Sameen Rashid
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Why are Agencies Failing Miserably at Retaining Talent?

You reap what you sow is a very mindful piece of advice. Planting a seed into the ground is not enough. You have to nurture it to help it grow into a beautiful tree. You can expect a healthy plant only if you provide it with the right amount of water, sunlight, and protection from the creepy crawlies.

What would happen if no one took care of the plant? Well, it will either lack in its growth or it will die due to deficiency. It is our responsibility to provide it with an environment where it can thrive and unveil its true capacity.

Similarly, when an individual with a creative flair takes a step into the advertising field, whether as an associate, executive, or a manager, they require the agency which has decided to take them on board to provide them with an environment where they can excel and grow. The person to who that particular creative is reporting should act as a mentor and help him/her identify their strengths and polish them. This way, the creative can learn and utilize their knowledge to create new and better ideas which would help the industry grow as they are the upcoming generation who will take over.

The focal point where the problem rests at the moment is the toxic environment that exists at advertising agencies. This lowers productivity and demotivates an employee from taking initiative for the company. Something is definitely amiss when a creative is not excited to go to work. Yes, every place has a few problems but these seem to have increased rapidly in the current time. Let’s look into some of the things that an agency might be doing wrong which has resulted in people opting out of agency life.

We all must have heard that there are ‘no timings’ while working in advertising or any other form of media. As true as this is, this phrase is now being exploited into making creatives and other employees do unpaid overtime. Why are there no policies for overtime? When a creative joins an agency, they have been hired for a set number of hours; so why isn’t he/she given a return for the extra hours that they are investing in the company?

Read More: Being Human

Working for such long hours has a significant impact on both the mental and physical health of any creative leading to loss of interest, creative block, frustration and a wide gap within the team itself. When a creative is constantly grinding, they naturally reach a point of exhaustion from which they need time to recover, but in most cases, this does not happen, as the creative will not receive the proper amount of time off required.

Not having a work-life balance may cause a disconnect with friends and family which often leads to negative feelings and a very harmful impact on the mental health of creatives. In order to combat this, agencies should start taking active steps towards this. Agencies should value productivity instead of late hours. A creative should be expected to finish their work within the office hours and discourage late sittings and over time. A boss should not expect a creative to “look busy” by being glued to their seats and typing away on their laptops.

Unlocking a creative idea takes time, sometimes hours, days or even weeks. A good creative idea cannot be available on demand. One good idea may come out of twenty bad idea, and this requires time. Of course, there are deadlines but agreeing to unrealistic ones and expecting a creative to deliver them is not entirely fair.

Everyone wants to produce their best work, but if such limitations are placed on a creative then the agency is making it impossible for them to deliver what he/ she is truly capable of. As a wise mentor once said, “If a creative is staring at an empty wall, you cannot accuse them of not working because you do not know what is going on in their mind.” A creative is always working, you never know when an idea might strike, even from something very irrelevant or peculiar.

For a creative to flourish, you need to create a happy and, obviously, creative environment for them. It would be very helpful if agencies give their creatives the liberty to play music, have comfy sofas or bean bags, have an array of leisure activities and the interior of the agency should be lively enough to turn a frown upside down. The vibe of the room should be exhilarating the moment a person steps in. The agency will then be able to retain more creatives as the energy itself would be addictive.

It doesn’t hurt to take a chance, once in a while. We need to quit using the old “inside the box” ideas when every client brief always contains the phrase, “out of the box ideas”. What if young and upcoming creatives were able to take chances and create new beginnings. Agencies should take chances to potentially hit a new mark in the wall.

Now, because of all the above reasons, agencies have seen a sharp decline in the creatives available in the market. Either an agency is unable to retain the creatives they hire or are unable to find any new ones willing to come on board. This is happening because the younger lot of creatives value their mental health more than succumbing to the toxic ways of a company. A creative does join an agency but as soon as they realize that they do not see themselves working long term there, they bail.

At times, it is the fault of the creative as they are the kind of person who finds it difficult to stick to a place or they might be performing poorly. Unfortunately, a few of the younger lot has mastered the art of acing an interview. They know all the right things to say which gets them the job but when it’s time to perform, they are unable to deliver. On the other hand, some agencies are unable to retain creatives due to the uncanny pressure and hours.

This is a generation that believes in working for itself if they don’t find themselves being valued, and well, can you blame them? A creative requires their freedom to bring their best to the table. Confiding them into a system that might seem the best may be doing the most damage. If you wish for a creative to remain at your company while producing good work then you have to provide them with the environment which they require to grow into their complete potential. A creative mind needs to surround itself in an environment which elevate its capacity and helps in finding solutions.

And I think it is safe to say, that seeing the current fiasco through which different advertising agencies in Pakistan are going through, it is time to change. We can either mend our ways and welcome the talent which flourishes in our land or we can keep up the existing ways and continue scouting for new creatives in the market as there is a shortage. If you know what I mean!

Being Human

Muhammad Ali Khan
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Being Human

Ever since I entered advertising, I still hear the one fact about consumers that’s reiterated over and over again – that they are constantly evolving. They have evolved to become smart and see through many of the marketing and advertising tactics we showmen are always cooking up for them. But that doesn’t change the fact that advertising is still very effective if done right. Gone are the days when we could assume things about consumers and build narratives for brands based on our gut feeling; today, it’s all about representing the right kind of values and saying the right kind of things, while seamlessly integrating the brand in those narratives.

However, it doesn’t just stop there. When consumers interact with a brand, they expect to be heard and given due attention on an individual level. That’s why it’s usually advised that ad copy should refer to the customers in the second person. Brands aren’t unreachable anymore; they now have an inherent responsibility towards their customers when it comes to building a connection with them.

Since it’s about connecting with them on a much deeper level now, brands cannot just talk down at customers anymore; they must speak with them and expect the conversation to continue if customers connect with their message. In order to ensure that everything goes smooth and a strong relationship is to be created with them, brands need to show consumers that they’re not just a faceless voice that can be heard on media platforms, but rather humans like all of us, who do not just embody the brand but actually speak with them on behalf of the brand.

Say It Like You Mean It

Brands talk to people. All the communication we as marketers and advertising professionals develop for brands are actually the voices we are giving them in speaking with their customers. That’s why brands spend time strategizing their positioning, messages, tone and essence. However, if those strategic decisions get translated into robotic messages advertising speak these days, then those brand building efforts risk falling flat on their faces. Brands need to embody various personas and, in their communications, need to constantly reinforce those personas to maintain a healthy connection with consumers. This is simply because people respond better to people; audiences are not just looking to understand the ‘why’ behind what your brand is doing, but they also want to get to know your brand better as well as the people behind it. Taking this route makes it easier for your brand to become relatable, interesting and most importantly personal to consumers.

An example can be drawn from brands such as Harley Davidson, a brand which comes across as a rebel. While its communication embodies rebellious connotations, its tone of voice, and even human elements have a specific representation that people can relate to. When you think Harley, you think leather jackets, big tattoos, a long beard and a badass attitude. People with affinities towards such a personality have the potential to connect better with the brand.

Read More: CULTURE VULTURE — The Alchemy of Learning

Personifying Your Brand

One of the best ways to personify your brand is by using a simple but important Brand Archetype tool, that lets you choose between twelve types of identities that you can assign to your brand. Each identity represents a specific tone of voice, motivations, strengths, fears and associations. Attaching your brand with an archetype is the first step in making an effort towards humanizing your brand.

Another way to make your brand human is by assigning it a certain type of personality. Ask yourself one question every time you are in the process of building a brand – who would my brand be if it were a human? By imagining your brand as one specific individual, you have given the brand enough context to breathe some life into it. Then, start delving into the details – what is the framework of this person? Is it a man or a woman? Is he or she so professional and formal or laid back and playful? No matter how you personify your brand, you will always find a group of audiences ready to connect with you.

Share Your Story With Transparency

Just like humans have stories, brands do too. However, rather than talk about a ‘legacy’ and ‘origins’, talk about the things and people behind the brand and be transparent about it. Staying relevant and tying your story with the motivations and stories that push the brand to move further allows for better relationship building with the audience.

If It Talks Like a Human and Walks Like a Human


Then it’s a human! Some of the most successful brands these days speak with their consumers, especially on social and digital platforms, like people would. This ensures that the interactions that take place between them are real and interesting. The way Wendy’s tweets about its thoughts, as well as the famous ‘National Roast Day’ allows for people to connect with the brand just like they would with a cheeky friend. Coca-Cola, KFC and others take the time to actually respond to audiences online just like a human would, when they are mentioned. In fact, many brands even go the extra mile to have a say in many subjects to show audiences that they, like humans, have an opinion too – which they aren’t afraid to voice. An excellent example is how Nike stood by Colin Kaepernick and launched a campaign featuring him, during a time when it was most controversial, even though a lot of people ended up burning Nike shoes.

Consistency is Key

While it is easy to build a brand and attribute human qualities to it, the bigger challenge is to stay consistent with that voice and attitude. Imagine a friend who is a certain type, and if he acts out of character one day, it would make you suspicious. The same is the case with brands. Staying true to your character and representing the right kind of associations is what helps brands win, and truly make themselves matter not to ‘target audiences’, but to the people that matter to them.

CULTURE VULTURE — The Alchemy of Learning

Omair Faizullah
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CULTURE VULTURE — The Alchemy of Learning

In a world where there is peace amongst the many nations, where there is no poverty, where no one has to work, where there are no lies, where there are no people being enslaved, where there is no disease, where there are no power outages, fuel hikes, crumbling economies or fluctuating governments – there is the absolute knowledge of creation. A place such as that, the perfect utopia is a thing of the imagination. An ideal that emerges perhaps only when one is tired (or bored) of the world that surrounds us and wonders about the inanity of all the senselessness we are surrounded by. One starts creating fantasies that lead to or form the idea of a utopic existence where everything is in an existential or empirically designed harmo­ny. Thus also, arrives the idea and the need to educate, to inform and to extend knowl­edge through exploration and eventually, experimentation.

When we talk about design or the ideas that it can represent, we tend to mostly think of it as only to be created towards addressing functionality. If it’s not serving to “solve” something it becomes difficult to call it design and it starts gradually falling into the realm of “art”.

This is a fundamental disagreement I have had with some of my artistically-inclined peers during my time spent teaching. Where my understanding of design or art for that matter, starts to overlap their understanding of design or art, things become nebulous and the perfectly isolated utopia that’s been built around either of the disciplines starts to crumble into abstraction. Disciplines become fluid, and to give it a visual metaphor, it becomes like liquid blue, purple or green of one viscosity being mixed with a red, yellow or pink of another viscosity creating a strange marbling visible in a million new forms and colors. It is an input, with the intent of creating an output without really knowing what the result will be. And the resulting creation is an oddly harmonic cacophony of forms and colors. If you haven’t, look-up “acrylic pouring” on YouTube, and you will see what I mean. The thing I find most interesting about the whole process is that no matter what, the end result always – literally always – looks amazing. The best part is watching the paint as it moves, it slides over the surface, mixing, blending and always creating something unforeseen. Watch it, it’s beautiful.

As you watch, you will think – hey, even I could do it! And believe me, you can. It really is that easy to pull-off. But it will be very different when you do it. The paint will always move and mix in interesting ways but it will not always work the way you would like it to. Then, you will start to work towards making it into something that you want and eventually you will start making it work for you. And that my friend, will be your glimpse into your personal functional or nonfunctional utopia.

The question that pops up then, is how do you incorporate the idea of that formless becoming into the minds of students? Where their mind becomes unconcerned with the function of a utopic state but ends up focusing on nothing but boundless creation. Utopia is not necessary, creation is.

The way design is being presently being taught in Pakistan is for the most part limited to its having students make pretty pictures that must always serve a purpose. Nothing wrong with that, sure, everything must have a purpose. But to limit it to being a problem and then coming up with solutions, in my mind this approach reduces the discipline into limited functionality and creates a distinct division between expression and the lack of it thereof. Where art becomes humanely expressive, and design becomes limited to catering to audiences and creating facilitative experiences only, which are essentially inexpressive and detached from emotion, we like to call it “user experience”. The boundary between the disciplines of design and art becomes stark and does not allow for the disciplines to converse, placing art on an imaginary pedestal that not only does not exist but is also exclusionary by nature. The equation has no alchemy and so, limited reason to either experiment or evolve. Design must always serve, and art does not have to. A hierarchic and dated notion, as far as I am concerned.

CULTURE VULTURE 8. The Alchemy of Learning
Designed by Walter Gropius for Bauhaus, 1922

The diagram above was designed for the Bauhaus by Walter Gropius in 1922 and illustrates the principles and curriculum for teaching and learning. This can serve as both a reminder and parallel to the design of a curriculum that develops a holistic understanding of design (eventually, art) and its application. Interestingly enough, nowhere does it stress functionality or the provision of solutions on a structural level. It would be impossible to detail all the intricacies that come into play over the course of teaching and will have multiple variables determining the eventual product. But the illustration remains devoid of bias towards any discipline and all the elements are housed within a circular mandala that encourages the transmutation of the disciple or student into something utopic.

In an oddly opposing manner, the resulting work from this model laid the foundation for what we now tend to associate towards form and function – albeit in isolation – while overlooking the fact that function and the lack of it thereof are not the objectives of education, but the nullification of them. The moment any binding is applied to the creation and dissemination of knowledge, it stops evolving. And we start visual dystopias lacking context.

Read More: Bionic Films Rebrands

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. Alchemy, in the many forms that it is practiced, is meant to create transmutative experiences whether they are on a philosophical or physical level.

CULTURE VULTURE 8. The Alchemy of Learning
The great chain from God to nature and from nature to man. Taken from: Robert Fludd, Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet…1617-1618

The illustration above, although much more complex than the former, does have some fascinating parallels. One, it has its origins in alchemy and alludes to transcendence. Second, it includes the study of elements and materials – concepts essential to the transmutative process. Third, it establishes an idea of stages that become progressively concentric. And last but perhaps most importantly; it is a designed visualization of the process that can enact the philosophy embedded at its core.

Both diagrams are vastly different but essentially work on the principle of developing a holistic understanding of the elements within the student.

The process of learning and implementing knowledge is obviously much more complex than the simplifications I have posed above. But it is ultimately governed by the systems being practiced by instructors. Who, in our case, are either limited by their fear of not being able to cater to the needs of the industry or by the illusions of their own limits.

Over the course of my teaching in Pakistan, I came to realize that the education landscape of design focuses on transformation and function more than creating opportunities within the learners to evolve and experiment.

Design does not always need a client, it does not need an audience and more than anything, it does not always need to have any function. It can sometimes, just be. And that is where it starts gaining an expression of influence that is not bound by an externalized need that must always be justified, but by the visualization of an expression that can be as abstract as the mind that produced it.

In the end, you may agree or disagree with my dismissal of the fact that design is limited to creating usable and functional utopias only. Yet the reality however remains that the teaching of design must not be limited to what it is, but what it can potentially be.

Bionic Films Rebrands

Anusha Zahid
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Bionic Films Rebrands

Bionic Films, a Karachi-based, full-service production house that has created several advertising/commercial films for leading agencies recently announced its new brand identity – reflected by their new logo – with an aim to expand its range of services and operations to other cities in Pakistan and foreign markets.

According to Salman Farooqi, CEO, Bionic Films, after having worked over the past seven years on several projects within and outside Pakistan and establishing a credible reputation with clients, it was time the company redefined its vision and goals. “We spent the initial years just ensuring the smooth running of operations and consolidating the business, usually focusing on TVCs only, but now, I think our production house is well-equipped in terms of the skill set, competence and experience to take on bigger projects and venture into other segments such as documentaries, cooking, shows, travelogues, short films etc., and not just locally but for international markets as well,” he says.

Also, in the long-run Farooqi wants to build Bionic Films into a proper corporate organization where people can come and make a career for themselves. “We now want to be more aggressive and professional. We are trying to make some noise in the industry and working diligently to become the preferred brand for clients in the country.

Bionic Films Rebrands

Farooqi, who has earlier worked as a financial planner at Engro, and later as chief financial officer at Lowe & Rauf for eight years, says there came a point in his career where the pace at which he wanted to work did not match with that of his workplace. Hence the idea of starting a production house came about. “I wanted to try out new things and ideas and I was confident that if I worked hard enough, I would be successful. He adds that his financial experience combined with the production knowledge gained at the agency enabled him to provide clients with better solutions.

Bionic Films was established in 2015, when other major production houses such as SEEME Productions, Stimulus Production, Ambiance Films and The Vision Factory had already built a reputation for themselves. Farooqi says he is proud of the fact that within a span of six to seven years, his production house had earned the same stature and credibility as that of his competitors.

Starting out with little investment and working with minimum resources, Farooqi built Bionic Films into what it is today through hard work. According to him, today, Bionic Films is the only production house that has earned 11 Effie Awards in one year (2021) and for major clients such as EasyPaisa, Telenor and Unilever. However, he regrets the fact that production houses in Pakistan are not given their due credit. “Whenever an award is won, it’s the agency and the client that take the credit. What about the production house that executed the winning concept?” he questions.

Bionic Films Rebrands

Bionic Films’ immediate future plans include expanding into Lahore since there is more business coming from the city. However, their first international market will be the Middle-East, and this is because Farooqi believes ‘the region has gaps’. “You cannot operate in Europe or Turkey because their work is done by their own teams, but in Saudia or Middle-East, there are no production houses and most of the work is outsourced. We did it for one company and they were interested in working with us again, so we thought this market would be good to start with. He however adds that the major portion of the business will be generated from the local market, and about 25% of the business share will constitute international projects.

Although Bionic Films is doing well in terms of business, as well as other production houses in Pakistan, Farooqi believes there is still a long way to go if production houses in the country want to grow at par with international production houses and reach their potential.

Read More: Procuring Creative Services from Abroad, Justified or Not?

In Farooqi’s opinion, the biggest challenge today for production houses is the lack of good resources. “The nature of our work is such that we do not have a nine-to-five routine and we work at times for three to four days in a go; hence people do not stick around,” he says. He further adds that fresh graduates, who have studied filmmaking come into the market thinking they would right away be hired as directors and are reluctant to go through the drill; they have no idea of how a production house is run because there is no practical education given to them. “This is what we need to work on.”

Bionic Films Rebrands

Furthermore, he says these days, a lot of work is given to freelancers as they offer cheap services, but “clients and brands should realise that these freelancers can only do one project at a time and cannot offer after-services.”

“If you have expertise in a certain field, obviously you will charge a little extra for it and you cannot compare us with someone who started two years ago. We never tell our clients that we will give them the cheapest option, instead, we try and provide them the best solutions within their budgets,” he adds.

Lastly, he says it is also extremely important to follow international practices, which includes, directors being part of the production houses as opposed to running the production houses entirely on their own. “India has Dharma Productions, Salman Films, Yash Raj Films, Balaji Films and if a film does well, you perhaps will not remember the directors name but you would know the name of the production house.”

Bionic Films Rebrands

Unfortunately in Pakistan, he says the entire show is run by directors, and this has been going on for 25 years and it is about time that this practice comes to an end. “Production is a science of management whereas a director is a creative; it is not his job to see where the cars or food or wardrobe would come from.”

Farooqi believes the reason why this has been happening is because as a society, we like to maximise our profits, when instead the focus should be on improving their directorial abilities. To fix this, he says it is important for directors to be willing and have bigger hearts, and they will observe that in the long-run, their profits will not shrink. “Instead it will help us set prices. If my director is taking five lacs per project, I could tell him now that his fee should be eight lacs, why?… because his work is exclusive and exclusiveness has a higher price tag.”

“But for this to eventually happen, directors and production houses will have to collaborate and work together for the great good,” he says.

Procuring Creative Services from Abroad, Justified or Not?

Fatima Zakir
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Procuring Creative Services from Abroad, Justified or Not?

Advertising has been a continuously thriving industry in Pakistan. The demand for advertisements is increasing every day and the industry is functioning at full potential. However, where advertising has grown by leaps and bounds, a skepticism surrounds it as well, and the question arises: ‘Is our advertising ‘completely’ Pakistani?’, because for over two decades now, we have been viewing significant foreign content in our advertising.

In 2019, when Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) banned featuring Indian actors in Pakistani advertisements, we had to replace Indian faces with Pakistani ones for ongoing ads and the industry stopped using celebrities from across the border, which paved way for Pakistani talent to shine on our screens. We no longer have Kareena Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Arjun Kapoor, Nargis Fakhri endorsing our brands and products. However, the use of foreign creative elements in terms of production or post-production is still a dominant part of our advertising.

According to Aly Mustansir, CEO, Medialogic Pakistan, brand consultant, and trainer, if the production of advertisements is being done outside Pakistan for superior quality, it should not be criticized. “They (Far-Easterns, Indians etc.) are undoubtedly more skillful and have a better sense of videography and editing since their industries are larger and market bigger. Their knowledge of camera, sound, light is deeper, hence, there is no harm in getting them onboard for better results,” he remarks.

The film industries of countries like India, Thailand, Korea, etc. are well-developed and their markets larger. Any country where the film industry flourishes, the advertising industry is benefited as well as a consequence. With vibrant and booming film industries, these countries churn out trained actors, directors, editors, dancers, cameramen, etc. every year. This, in turn, leads to competitive market space and brings in variety. Pakistan, on the other hand, has remained an anomaly where the advertising industry has been supporting films and other media. Our films have only gained popularity in the past two decades.

Though creating waves, our advertising has also been working on redoing old jingles and repackaging them in a fresher way to connect with both old and new viewers; Lipton, Tapal, and even Tullo are examples of brands that have managed to stay relevant even after four or five decades. Moreover, from healthcare to footwear, from stationary to telecommunication, and from beauty products to fast moving consumers goods and hot-selling lawn, the industry is becoming more and more competitive as brands and products want to create memorable advertisements to stay in their audience’s minds and become the first choice when picking up products off the market. To stay on top is a priority and it is for this very reason that advertising budgets have gone up. The 30-second to a one-minute movie needs to impact viewers and touch their hearts – from storytelling to execution to performances to even the budget, every brand wants to beat the other.

However, there are certain ideas and concepts which need expertise and which are currently unavailable in Pakistan. For instance, if it is a dance-based advertisement, or the product is related to hair or food, then our industry does not have the right equipment and the skill to shoot it.

A marketing executive from a cab-hailing service who wishes to stay anonymous shared his experience. “We recently shot a dance-based advertisement. The concept was entirely done in Pakistan. However, we hired a choreographer from across the border.” He is of the view that choreography is not an established industry in Pakistan, while India is a huge market when it comes to dance. “Although we do not have a variety of choreographers in the country, yet our people know what a good dance act is. Hence, we had to sign up people outside Pakistan for the results we required,” he says.

Furthermore, the equipment to shoot for a food brand or hair product is extremely expensive, since it’s a different genre altogether and needs specialized skills. If you need an advertisement for these categories, then our brands have to get support from creatives in Thailand, Malaysia, or elsewhere. These specialized tasks have experts who can do mock shots and create items as per the needs, where we still lag behind.

Investing in international standard equipment or training our own people for the required skill is a feat that seems far, far away. People would not invest in such heavy equipment when they can get it done from somewhere else at a cheaper price. It seems like an ideal situation but who will take the first step? As far as training our workforce is concerned, the international experts doesn’t have the time to train others. They work on shift basis and gets done with a shoot in 10-12 hours to move onto a new project. They don’t have the time to coach others for months as learning these skills take time. As a result, it becomes more convenient for advertisers in Pakistan to hire someone from outside, complete a day’s work and move on.

In the 90s, Singapore was the hub for post-production. Most of the shoots were completed in Pakistan and then sent to Singapore for post-production as we did not have film processing labs here. However, during 2000s, Thailand became a cheaper option for quality post-production. We usually believe that the costs attached to shooting on a foreign location with foreign creatives must be exorbitantly high, it is actually the other way around.

“In a foreign country when you engage with a production house, it provides you a one-stop solution to all your production needs,” says Aly Mustansir. “They offer their crew, their equipment, their location, spaces to erect sets, editing, colour correction, etc. With a slightly higher cost, you get high quality work.”

Convenience is another factor. In Pakistan, it is more difficult to get permissions for shoot, the kind of locations like malls, parks, roads that you need, the professionalism in mounting and dismantling of sets, the law-and-order situation, power outages and multiple payouts to administrative organizations; all this leads to expenses and hassle. Shooting outside Pakistan relieves the ad makers of all the additional stress and helps them get the best output of their ideas.

In all fairness, everything depends upon the client. For simple indoor shoots, it is more convenient to complete it within the country, but when you need to shoot in exotic locations or expansive sets, shooting it on a foreign location seems more feasible. The brief from the client really counts. If a client’s brief is uninspiring, bland and is restricted, the end product will yield the same results. On the contrary, if a client is experimental and likes to work on unique concepts, the advertisement will resonate with the audiences too, and for this, they don’t mind using foreign services if it serves their purpose.

“When a client wants a certain quality output for his concepts, you can’t really blame him for wanting the best,” expresses Aly Mustansir. “It’s not that we don’t have good directors in Pakistan, we do. But yes, we only have a few outstanding DOPs (Director of Photography). Also, cameras are not an issue for us, it’s the colour correction and sometimes graphics during post-production where we lack expertise. So, if we send our ads to foreign processing labs for refining our product, there shouldn’t be an issue. We only do it in instances where we don’t have the capacity to produce the required results. Our focus should be on the final output which in turn helps our advertising industry grow and prosper.”

Advertising is all about connecting with the audiences. The brands and clients need results. They have certain ideas and concepts in mind which they believe will harvest the desired results and if they need to work with foreign creative services to achieve their goals, so be it
 until and unless, of course, we don’t get the international standard equipment and top-notch expertise in each and every aspect of production in our homeland.

Augmenting The Image of The Image-Makers — Ahmed Jamal Mir

Sanna Malik
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Augmenting The Image of The Image-Makers — Ahmed Jamal Mir

SANNA MALIK: As Chairman of PAA, what are the main objectives that you are working towards?

JAMAL MIR: Let me be unequivocal in saying that we, at the PAA, need to put our own house in order first. As a priority, I feel that the PAA Secretariat needs a tremendous upgradation to enable it to become more effective. At the heart of every industry body, whether trade bodies like the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI), Pakistan Business Council (PBC), American Business Council (ABC), or organizations more related to our own industry such as the Pakistan Advertisers’ Society (PAS), All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), or the Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) lies a strong secretariat. It must be noted that the members of the Executive Committee operate on a purely voluntary basis with their own time constraints, so it is up to the Secretariat to implement and drive the agenda and vision of the Association.

Some quick wins towards this aim include an effective Secretary General, well acquainted with advertising professionals and PAA stakeholders as well as other industry associations – someone who would be able to put our issues on the table and our stake on the ground. The other priority is to develop a team that is robust, responsible, and responsive: meaning, we need the right members on board; we need a diverse representation from traditional, digital, and media agencies; we need a team that can pull its weight in terms of knowledge, experience, ideas and policy proposals towards driving a larger vision for this industry.

At the same time, I believe we do need to define some rules and regulations that all of us will follow in terms of our working structure, and then perhaps divide responsibilities or assign specific committees so that we can be more focused on the end output. Stepping back a bit, it is also important to develop selection criteria for PAA member agencies. In its earlier years, PAA had a very specific requirement that every agency that wants to become a PAA member must have five credible clients in their portfolio. Currently, there are no such criteria and we have to develop clear guidelines if we want to be taken seriously as an association.

SANNA MALIK: PAA was resurrected to act as a representative of Pakistan’s advertising industry. What are the key challenges that need to be resolved in the industry in your opinion? What part can PAA play in these?

JAMAL MIR: The advertising business is still somewhat in its infancy in Pakistan, but it is growing and it is dynamic. However, it has grown in a somewhat vacuum without all the checks and balances in place and hence is buffeted by a number of problems and changing patterns. I would put our problems in four main categories: people, perception, partnerships, and policies/practices.

Let’s start with people – the industry is seriously concerned about attracting and retaining talent at all levels. The inflow and outflow of people, men, and women in the industry is fairly rapid, which undermines learning and talent development both at the employee and employer ends.

The industry also has a perception issue – its contribution to the national economy, to employment, to the development of new media skills and technologies, and providing a talent pipeline that feeds into marketing departments in local and international businesses is often undervalued and unrecognized. We have failed to build on our expertise, contribution, and success stories.

This leads to the biggest issue and that is around partnership – or more aptly the lack of partnership between agency and client. Some years ago, agencies and clients enjoyed a more symbiotic and partnership-based relationship. But now there is a stark inequality in the dealings between both parties. In fact, the industry has in part allowed itself to be demoted and discounted, thus lending clients an upper hand. Constant pitching, delayed payments, unsuitable pricing and commissions, inadequate briefs or clarity on projects, and an unwarranted high-handedness that goes well beyond the axiom ‘the client is always right’.

Partnership with Government clients is non-existent. There is an abyss of unregulated practices and a lack of any transparency or merit-based decision-making. Despite the fact that the role of communication is becoming more critical for the political process, the Government has a poor understanding of this industry and its workings.

Furthermore, with the advent of digital advertising, recent years have also seen a shift from full-service agencies to a more fragmented landscape – digital agencies, media agencies, PR agencies, e-commerce, etc. leading to a splintering of both marketing and advertising budgets. The pie may have grown, but everyone is getting a smaller share. From retainer models to project-based engagements means the fabric of long-term partnerships is undermined and the stability and certainty of a retainer agreement mean agencies cannot predict revenues, allocate resources, and invest in talent in the same way as before.

In all fairness, there are a number of reasons for this emanating from the agencies’ as well as the clients’ end. One major reason for this is business practices in the advertising industry: we lack quality and consistency in our work. As an industry, we need to standardize our practices and get the basics in order if we want to deal with clients professionally. We need to put value into our work and then we also deserve the right price for that.

SANNA MALIK: What is your opinion on what needs to be done to upskill the industry?

JAMAL MIR: I would say this is a multi-tiered effort; we need to upskill and educate our advertising professionals as well as people from the marketing and brand sides, including their procurement departments. We need to have more joint workshops with other bodies or cross-functional collaborations, where there can be discussions and engagement with advertising and branding professionals, especially those who have had international exposure; to inspire and inform those new to the field and those wanting to learn more.

Similarly, we need to educate the brand side on ad agency processes; otherwise, our business models will keep getting disrupted. We also need to clear other misconceptions about advertising agencies that get embedded in the client-agency interface and become a mindset issue.

SANNA MALIK: We have MNC companies and advertising agencies as well as affiliated advertising agencies. Don’t they already have international exposure?

JAMAL MIR: In this market, internationally affiliated agencies may carry a big-name tag, but often they have an advantage in terms of predesigned global or regional concepts and templates that simply need translating into the local market. So yes, the affiliations may have a captured market or client base, but in terms of work, creativity, or strategy I don’t believe there is much of a difference between affiliated and non-affiliated agencies.

Moreover, in Pakistan, the interface with the regional/global agency is not a very high engagement one, and nor is the investment – that kind of investment does not exist or is not earmarked for the Pakistani market. You don’t have regional or global people flying in for workshops or market visits etc. so the ‘exposure’ is not of the quantum one perceives.

Read More: MARKETING MATADORS – The Success Story of Bulls Eye DDB

SANNA MALIK: The traditional ad agency business model is destined to fail. What are your comments on this?

JAMAL MIR: There are two things happening here. As I said earlier, with digitization there has also been a fragmentation of the industry – from 3600 agencies we are moving towards more niche areas or specialist agencies – media, digital, events, PR, etc.

Another issue is that with Zoom, remote working (especially post-pandemic) and digital communications, etc., the new players on the block are freelancers, one-man operations, or very small teams. Since they charge on a project basis, much less than what an ad agency might charge in terms of commission or retainer, their appeal and effectiveness has become more potent. What clients don’t realize is that agencies act as their advisors 12 months of the year, adding value to their brand, and too often, the decision to release and allocate budgets is left to procurement teams, who naturally are only concerned about monetary savings and not necessarily quality or relationship building or long-term brand building. In the recent atmosphere of recession, economic downturn, and financial gloom, our industry has become extremely price-sensitive. Most local brands find it expensive to work with advertising agencies and stay focused on building sales rather than fully appreciating the value that comes from brand building and its impact on sales in the long term.

SANNA MALIK: How can we improve the perception of our advertising industry?

JAMAL MIR: That’s a tricky one because as they say ‘perception precedes reality’ or ‘perception also creates your reality’ – we are somewhere between both paradigms. I’ve already talked about our perception issue. To start with, the institutions and educational programs that cater to the advertising industry in our Country do not have student counselors who may have any experience of the advertising industry. Students in these institutions find themselves discouraged from working in ad agencies, citing the work environment and late sittings. So the problem starts at a very seminal stage. Therefore, as members of PAA, we have discussed that there is a need for ad agency heads and professionals going to business and art institutes and conducting interactive sessions and workshops with students to address false/negative perceptions about the advertising industry. These engagements would also be an opportunity to build a rapport with students, inspire some hopefully, and give them a better understanding of the nature of the beast – all the exciting opportunities and options that do exist and can be explored. Secondly, we have a huge industry on our hands; we have people working in it, yet we don’t have people to run it at senior levels. The majority of the people in our ad industry don’t have the required exposure and even though our industry has talent, it needs to be streamlined and honed properly.

MARKETING MATADORS – The Success Story of Bulls Eye DDB

Shoaib Qureshy
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MARKETING MATADORS – The Success Story of Bulls Eye DDB

It’s been 20 years and I have been asked to write on the milestone moment and share the underpinning reasons for the success of Bulls Eye; what’s in my mind, heart, and soul today, and what it was like when I first began. As I start to write, I want this article to be different from the one I had written some time back, titled the Bulls Eye Bibliography – The 15-year story, which can still be retrieved online and read by those who want to find more inspiration and learnings.

This insider story article will give you a peep into me as a person, my beliefs, values, principles, and thinking as it’s very important to understand me if you want to understand Bulls Eye. It is the human touch that shapes any company, especially an entrepreneurial one.

Be Brave

People who know me well, like my IBA friends, my family, my team, and my clients know that I have always been the brave one. Not at all fearful and afraid of any situation, which will freeze most others. Brave in thought, brave in speech, brave in action, and brave in work. Always ready to take the plunge into any challenge and try my best to do bold and brave work that can ruffle a few feathers and make an impact.

Entrepreneurship needs bravery. I know many people who still talk about starting their own business at age 40 or 50 but do not have the guts to do it. Most people talk, only some do it. I left a great Procter and Gamble job at age 26 to move to the advertising business as I believed and knew it was the right type of work for me where I will find more happiness and success.

So how could Bulls Eye not be a brave agency?

Our bravery has been on display in the fresh and bold work we have done consistently over these past 20 years. Also, we have braved a lot of tough competition from the long-standing, 50-year-old Goliaths of the Pakistan advertising industry to rise above and stand alongside them as the youngest challenger agency that continues to make its mark on the advertising scene and make its presence felt.

Be Different

In a country whereby all the agencies were generally advertising agencies, we started different as the ‘non-advertising’ agency – an agency that was willing to take on any and all other marketing briefs that found little attention at advertising agencies, who just loved the TV and Print ad briefs
 and this really has made all the difference in our success.

Again, here it’s important to understand me as a person. I have always been the different one in terms of what I liked, believed, wore, ate, said, and did. I never followed the crowd or the trend. I did what I wanted to do and it was always different. Entrepreneurship and business need a point of difference.

I brought the word strategy as a function into the advertising industry here. I put strategy at the heart of this business and I made strategy the most important function at my own agency in an industry that always and still puts client service or creative first. This again has been a key difference versus other agencies which just pay lip service to strategy.

MARKETING MATADORS – The Success Story of Bulls Eye DDB

Be honest and hard-working

When I started getting more interested in marketing and advertising during the late 1990s, the advertising industry here had little reputation and respect for its talent, quality of work, business principles, and ethics. This was a time when advertising was one of the least trusted professions. These issues are still around us and overall, a lot still needs to be done to rise above on honesty of purpose, ethics, and genuine scientific and artistic marketing and advertising hard work, as we in Pakistan, are still sub-standard compared to the region and the world.

As I began to pay more attention to the ads I saw on TV, I realized most of them were bad. They lacked creativity, missed the point or the target audience, and were sloppily executed or downright confusing. But every once in a while, a really interesting TV spot did pop up. I knew it was simply either because of the lack of good talent or hard work that required guidance and application.

So when I started my advertising career, I was told by many that you are the wrong man for this business. It’s not for you. It needs the other kind of people as you see mostly around you. And I always smiled and questioned how honesty, ethics, and hard work as a personal philosophy and principle could be bad for any business, even if it was an agency. So I started with a sense of purpose and mission as I always believed that we need to be honest with our profession and work hard to make a mark. Also, we need to do these with the highest ethical standards. For me, there were no other substitutes for success, regardless of how bad the world around me was.

Be An All-Rounder

I love sports and have been a great sportsman in my younger days at both college and university level. All-rounder is a term that is often used in cricket and it is someone who can both bat and ball. I was always an all-rounder in cricket and liked to single-handedly win matches for my team. All-rounders are almost always more valued than specialists. Wasim Akram and Shahid Afridi will always be bigger stars than Waqar Younis or Shoaib Akhtar.

Same applies to business as well, especially, if you want to be a successful entrepreneur. If you don’t know and cannot do the entire job and everything yourself, you will struggle or can be taken for a ride by others.

So, when it came to my agency, I always put the seeds of it being an all-rounder agency and not a specialist in any one type of marketing. This was at a time when the clients were forcing agencies and slicing and dicing them into specialist units/companies as they wanted to work with specialists in every field. But I still chose to be an all-rounder with one agency that could take on any brand challenge and brief, as it genuinely had the capability to do so at the heart of it.

Some clients thought we were a marketing consultant or branding agency, some said we are an activation agency, some said we are an advertising agency and some said we are a content agency or a digital agency. It was just what we wanted, as we only looked at ourselves as an all-rounder marketing agency that took a ‘solution neutral’ stance and we really had genuine marketing talents and skills to do different types of work, unlike other agencies around us.

Be Classic

Everyone will give you the advice to be current or futuristic. But I have always believed in being classic. Classic is timeless. It always is relevant, whether today or in the future.

In my personal life, I get a daily dose of classic, as I always have, and find time for classic cars. It’s my passion and my hobby and I actively indulge in it despite my full-time professional advertising business. I am a classic car collector, I restore and keep them running, I also run a ‘car guys lunch community’ and I recently founded Pakistan’s First Online Antique Cars Museum as well. I only have classic cars and no modern-day cars despite the rat race I see around me to buy the latest new car or SV or jeep. It’s simply because my love for all things is classic.

So what does being classic have to do with marketing and advertising? Well, I believe in classic marketing principles and thinking as these have stood the test of time and they still deliver results. I don’t chase fancy new marketing fads and gimmicks. I have always practised classic old school textbook marketing as that’s what I believe in and this has really made all the difference. As genuinely true marketing icons, role models and thought leaders are no more like they once used to be, I really value their thinking and ideologies and have held them as my agency’s guiding light.

MARKETING MATADORS – The Success Story of Bulls Eye DDB

Be DDB

Ever since I became interested in marketing and advertising and started to read about all the great global advertising practitioners, I started to become a fan of Bill Bernbach, the founder of the DDB advertising agency. I really liked and could relate to his humility and competence who just let his work do all the talking for him, unlike other big names of advertising at that time who were flashy, loud mouths, and pompous. His two sayings made a lasting impression on me at a very early stage and shaped my marketing thinking.

  1. 1. Nothing is so powerful as an insight into human nature, what compulsions drive a man, what instincts dominate his action, even though his language so often camouflages what really motivates him.”
  2. 2. “Merely to let your imagination run riot, to dream unrelated dreams, to indulge in graphic acrobatics and verbal gymnastics in not being creative. The creative person has harnessed his imagination. He has disciplined it so that every thought, every idea, every word he puts down, every line he draws, every light and shadow in every photograph he takes, makes more vivid, more believable, more persuasive the original theme or product advantage he has decided he must convey.”

I never knew that one day I would get a chance to represent DDB in my country and be a part of their global network. This was like a dream come true for me and when DDB approached me in 2011 to be their local partner as they wanted to change for the better here, and they found in me and my agency the right fit in thinking and principles as DDB had. Little did they know that I was already DDB in my mind, soul, and heart for all my professional life; this was just a formal stamp of it.

Be Hungry

I have always been a slim guy. I eat just to give me the energy to keep me going, not to fill me up and then be lazy and not feel like doing anything. I like to stay a little hungry all the time and prefer to have 6 to 7 snacks or short meals throughout the day rather than having 3 lavish meals like most I see around me.

Hunger is a great thing for business and professional life too. It’s this hunger that keeps you going always, even after 20 years. I still love my work and I still love the brand challenges that come our way as an agency. As I look ahead to the next decade, it’s this hunger that keeps you motivated and committed to your profession and keeps you moving ahead. So, look out for more from us as we enter a new decade of our organisation’s life.

Tracking Client-Agency Relationship

Sanna Malik
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Tracking Client-Agency Relationship

SANNA MALIK: You have devised a game-changing tool for the creative communication industry. Could you tell us about Aprais and the PAS Relationship Tracker?

SUNIL GUPTA: The Aprais system is being used successfully by marketing companies and their communication agencies for over 20 years now. The ‘PAS-Relationship Tracker powered by Aprais’ is a new initiative by Aprais and PAS to assist companies and agencies in the emerging markets (in this case Pakistan) to access the benefits of a structured and professional relationship evaluation system in a ‘pilot’ manner. Though naturally limited in scope and detail compared to the ’Full Aprais’ system, it is a relatively inexpensive method to allow them to get a deeper and more objective understanding of their relationship as a prelude to adopting the ‘Full’ Aprais system used in more developed markets. The Aprais relationship evaluation system is supported by a robust and comprehensive database collated over 20 years, spanning the width and depth of marketing companies, agency networks, and global markets. It tells us that the top scoring clients achieve up to 16% better creative performance and +21% media planning from their agencies, and overall, up to 37% more value.

SANNA MALIK: How does Aprais benefit agencies and clients?

SUNIL GUPTA: On almost daily basis, we see the clients calling for competitive pitches from other agencies. This is unsettling for both parties, because agencies cannot survive without their clients’ business, while for clients, the enormous time and effort to induct a new agency into their system is often a task and a half. What is always left unsaid is how come the agency they selected (presumably through a rigorous process) some time ago has failed. The question that arises then is how can pitches be minimised and current relationships be optimised.

To answer this, we first have to understand the principles behind Aprais and client-agency relationship. The first one basic and underlying principle is that the client-agency relationship is an equal partnership since both parties bring specific skills to the task and have an equal role in the success. The second principle is that both partners should work towards a common objective – the success of the brand. Third principle is that the client drives the relationship, in as much as the agency cannot operate without directions from the client. Unclear, unfocused, changing briefs lead to unclear, unfocused and muddled thinking and work.

Underlying all these principles is a fundamental truth – all human endeavour is the result of one partnership or another, sometimes even multiple partnerships or teams. If they are strong and synergistic, they will make beautiful music. If they are dysfunctional, the satellite will not be launched successfully. For one ‘team’ to succeed over the other, the ‘teamwork’ has to be superior (the second Aprais principle).

In our sector, we are concerned about our ‘team’ (read brand) to be successful in the marketplace and the brand’s success depends not just on the marketing team, but the production, procurement, distribution, sales and communication teams all working in sync and toward the same objective. But for our purposes reference Aprais, we will confine ourselves to the marketing and communication teams. Today, companies (or brands) mostly operate in highly competitive markets wherein the functional, distributional and technological differences between brands are negligible or even non-existent. When there are no ‘rational’ reasons available for customers to choose between brands, they must find variable reasons to attract customers. These variables are almost always ‘emotional’ and subjective considerations based on factors such as brand image and ‘emotional connect’, which are used by customers to help them make choices. There is ample empirical evidence to demonstrate how the right or wrong brand image was the difference between success and failure in the marketplace.

The creation of a most subjective variable such as brand image through communication is a highly specialised function, requiring expertise that is the domain of specialist marketing (brand) communication agencies
 or else the marketing companies would do it themselves. Since they do not, and entrust it to specialists, it follows that marketing companies regard (or should) the process of creating and managing brand image as being of paramount importance. Since the process is almost solely the domain of human beings (on both sides), not machines, the outcome is ‘ideas’ and it is an on-going, constant and iterative process. Common sense tells us that the subjectivity that is generated by factoring the intrinsic idiosyncrasies of human beings, the ephemeral nature of creativity and ideas (not everyone likes the ‘Mona Lisa’ but most will probably agree it is a masterpiece), and the constant pressure of having to create effective ‘ideas’, into the world of competitive marketing is a daunting task, requiring care, maturity and open minds.

Since there is so much riding on this, it should again follow that there needs to be a system in place to bring as much objectivity as possible into the process and its outcomes, without compromising the essential soul and character of creativity and this is where Aprais comes in – a proprietary tool which helps measure, evaluate, decode and if conducted regularly, continuously improve the performance of the client-agency partnership.

Why regularly? Because a client-agency relationship (like any relationship) is like a river; some smooth passages, some rocky, some definitely dangerous, some fresh, some polluted, often with changing contours but hopefully continuously flowing, because when a river stagnates, it is dead. It is important to gauge the health of the river, then, at all times, so that bottlenecks are removed, courses corrected if needed and full advantage taken of the smooth flows when they occur. White water rafting is fun, but you don’t want to be doing it every day! This is because unlike a marriage (to which the client-agency relationship has often been –incorrectly- compared), the client-agency relationship is –

  • Comprised of many different personnel working at different levels and on different aspects and who, importantly, can and do keep changing over the course of time; many of them work at the real coal face, where things can get tough and dirty, unlike the pleasant confines of board rooms; thus, one person’s view, however senior he or she may be, should not be the basis of assessing the relationship; in fact, the rot often starts below;
  • A commercial one with hard and measurable commercial objectives.
    (Most importantly) Just like any other relationship, ultimately dependent on the behaviour and performance of both parties. It has now been proven with 99.99% statistical confidence based on over 21,000 client-agency relationship evaluations across the globe that David Ogilvy was indeed correct when he said “Clients get the advertising they deserve”. So, if everyone wants the best outcomes from the relationship, an open and honest dialogue of feedback needs to flow in both directions.

Now, a dipstick in the river may not (and usually does not) give us a representative picture of how it is evolving, and what is happening along its course. It is akin to the marketing process, which also needs constant and fresh information to enable successful decision-making, planning and execution on a dynamic basis. Marketing information collection is never only annual or limited to a single report, as it would become dated and unusable. The same holds true for the C-A relationship. It should also be evaluated and information collected on a regular basis, to allow for early warning if there are rocky passages coming up, or stagnation setting in, and to ensure that benefits of the smooth passages are maximised. An analysis of Aprais-evaluated relationships shows a clear correlation between the longevity of C-A relationships, because the process and system are transparent, objective and definitive, and accepted by both parties prior to being conducted.

SANNA MALIK: On what quantitative and qualitative parameters does the Relationship Tracker gauge the client-agency relationship?

SUNIL GUPTA: APRAIS understood right from its inception that both qualitative and quantitative parameters are required to evaluate a commercial relationship, and therefore set up a system which has those as its foundation.

Because unlike other commercial relationships between corporate entities, which may be transient/project-based (e.g. legal/medical), mechanical and repetitive (e.g. financial compliance), transactional (e.g. manufacturer-wholesaler-distributor-retailer), or with finite delivery parameters (e.g. manufacturing), the marketing company’s relationship with its communication agency/agencies is unique because it is based on an organic, fluid, constant-action dynamic and its fundamental parameters are mostly subjective. Furthermore, the commercial and human ramifications of this relationship are immense, in that it can often be the key to success or failure of companies in the marketplace, as well as make or break careers.

Today, the marketing/communication/branding sector is even more complex because of the different strands that comprise brand communication in the marketplace: besides the ubiquitous broadcast and print media, there are digital, PR, social, design, in-shop, on-premise, direct-to-customer, interactive and OOH media which are used to reach consumers, all require specialised skills. So a marketing company will probably be working with multiple agencies including production houses.

The ROI on a client-agency relationship depends on more than just quantitative parameters, because of the subjectivity in the relationships, their multiplicity and the need for synergy between all the ‘moving parts’, as one might term them.

Therefore, if there is one thing that all of us should agree on, it is that diligent, professional, objective and regular data-driven analysis and feedback based on agreed metrics, and then following-up regularly on the feedback is the only correct method for ensuring and maintaining the effectiveness and longevity of the client-agency relationship.

As to how can one effectively and objectively gauge where the relationships stand, and where are they headed? By simply ascertaining whether there are ‘gaps’ in the perception of both partners on the same variables, and if there are, how should they be minimised, if not eliminated altogether. The expression ‘being on the same page’ is reflective of this.

Thus the Aprais relationship evaluation system encompasses the following three:

  1. QUANTITATIVE
  • A quantitative methodology to measure the scores based on questionnaires specifically related to the areas of agency expertise, as well as the client performance in their areas of responsibility.
  • These questionnaires are tailored by agency type: Creative, PR, Media, etc.

Everyone who is working in that relationship is encouraged to participate. Each of the agency types will have multiple questions based on the disciplines they bring to bear; e.g. for a creative agency, the disciplines could be Account Management, Strategic Planning, Creative Development and Ideating, Financial Management, Production Management, Partnering and Collaborating etc. The client section would have multiple questions related to briefing, approvals and decision-making, partnering and collaborating, leading etc. There are multiple questions by individual discipline.

Thus, the questionnaires are comprehensive and cover every aspect of the relationship, and are a equitable barometer of the health of the relationship.

  • In each questionnaire, both the client and the agency personnel score, on a scale of 100, the same questions about themselves and each other. The scale of 100 is divided into 20-point sections, each with its own denominator: Never, Seldom, Sometimes, Often, Always. Thus each question demands a specific answer and encourages the participant to think about the score he/she is giving.

Scoring Box

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. QUALITATIVE

It is necessary, however, that the participant also gives reasons for why that score has been given. Thus, after each question/discipline, the participant is required to write verbatim in a ‘Comment Box’ why that score has been given. This provides an essential insight into the thinking of the participant and gives a clear idea of the softer side of the relationship.

The Comment Box

Both the qualitative and quantitative sections provide a holistic picture of the relationship, when the scores and comments given by all participants are collated into a full Relationship Report, which will have an overall score of both sidses of the relationship on a scale of 100. A score under 70 means that there are issues that need to be addressed. There are also scores by individual question and discipline.   These overall scores are benchmarked against best practice in relevant areas, such as global, marketing sector, marketing company network, agency sector, region, agency network etc., which are culled from the database mentioned earlier.

3. STRUCTURE OF THE SURVEY

It must be emphasised that the evaluation system is completely online and confidential, with the structured questionnaire which has been agreed by both partners beforehand. Both the performance of the agency and the performance of the client team are evaluated. Participants of agency and client team receive a personalized invitation by email with a link to the questionnaire.

The Survey Results Report is provided in PowerPoint format and shows the results anonymously and separately for agency and client teams. It includes the unique industry benchmarks from the global Aprais database. Praise, but also opportunities to improve are clearly shown for both teams, agency and client.

The results and the feedback provided are to be discussed with both teams, and an appropriate action plan to address issues is also presented (if the partners request Aprais to moderate and facilitate the discussion), for a continuous, partnership-based relationship and cooperation that makes everyone happier and thus creates the best ongoing working relationship. (‘Full Aprais’ also provides insights into the ‘softer values’ or ‘behaviours’ of the relationship, such as accountability, trust and resilience.)

SANNA MALIK: Pakistan is a price-sensitive industry, where accounts are won on the basis of low-cost solutions by the majority of local agencies. The agency depends on the competence of a small team versus an adequately staffed team, which makes deliverables challenging to execute. Similarly, local clients may not be well-versed in briefing creative agencies on deliverables. How does the Relationship Tracker fit into such a culture?

SUNIL GUPTA: There are a few points to be noted here. Firstly, the ‘PAS Relationship Tracker powered by Aprais’ is an introductory version of ‘Full Aprais’, developed specifically for use in developing, price-sensitive markets. The issues of ‘low price’ driving agency selection and ‘master-servant’ relationships are not new or confined to Pakistan. They are prevalent across the globe, as we have witnessed, and I personally have experienced when I was in the advertising industry. So yes, maturity is required, but so is common sense. As John Ruskin, an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era, famously said: “There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price alone are that person’s lawful prey. It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money — that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot — it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

  • In the marketing sector context, if the client thinks how much he is spending on brand communications, what his brand is worth, how important it is for him and his company for the brand to succeed and how dependent the brand is on the quality of brand communications, settling for a low-cost agency cannot make common or business sense! It will simply not be able to afford quality personnel to craft the work. That is the basic rule of economics. So you are jeopardising millions of rupees in ad costs, billions perhaps in brand value, to save thousands in agency fee. What sort of businessperson are you?
  • Furthermore, many clients do not make use of Aprais’ services because they say it is expensive. The fact of the matter is that Aprais actually costs less than 0.1% of the budgets that the marketer has allocated to advertising. Why would you not spend that little to ensure that 99.9% of the ad budgets are being optimally utilised?
  • 9% is also the level of statistical confidence, proven from our database, with which APRAIS can attest to what David Ogilvy said many years ago: “Clients get the advertising they deserve.” It relates not just to costs, but the quality of briefing, decision-making and professional respect Clients give their Agencies.
  • Lastly, let me tell you a personal story to illustrate what should be done if a client wants to move his business because of pricing. It may help illustrate that unless you yourself have pride in your work, and self-respect, why would anyone else respect you?

This story is from many years ago when I was leading one of India’s largest agencies in Delhi. I was informed that this client wanted to give his business (a relatively new brand) to another agency, so I went to meet him. It was not an MNC, but a medium-sized indigenous company. He met me with his whole team, including his family. What do you think (and I’m sure he thought) I was going to say/request? Not to take his business away and that I personally would ensure better work etc. etc.? Actually I said quite the opposite: that it was his prerogative to take his business where he chose, but after he did, to keep the brands with that agency for a period of time because brands are like children who need constant and consistent nurturing if they are to grow strong and successful.

That client is still with my ex-agency after 25 years. I recount this not for any other reason except to point out that agencies need to show spine, and clients need to show maturity. More than myself, I must commend that client on the maturity he displayed, because it is not easy for a business tycoon to accept what was effectively a strong riposte from someone he’s hired to do something, and in front of his team.

SANNA MALIK: How can we evaluate the effectiveness of the Tracker and what should be the next step for clients and agencies in case the tracker does not solve the identified challenges?

SUNIL GUPTA: APRAIS does not provide ‘solutions’. It provides a guide and insights into what needs to be improved/strengthened/nurtured, because it does not only identify the weak spots but also the strong areas of a relationship. At best APRAIS can only suggest actions to be undertaken, but the solutions and actions need to come from the partners themselves. They need to agree on how, when and who will undertake the actions suggested by APRAIS, and indeed may also come up with their own ideas and actions. And then they need to follow up to monitor those actions.

There is a mechanism to gauge whether APRAIS has been effective, and it is simply called ‘regular evaluation’. As said before, you need to keep ensuring that the actions identified have been carried out, so that the next time (we suggest every 6 months) the survey is undertaken, you can compare the previous scores with the new ones on exactly the same parameters. Only if done regularly will you get continuous improvement.

SANNA MALIK: What has been PAS’ role in establishing the Aprais Tracker in Pakistan?

SUNIL GUPTA: PAS has been a pioneer in bringing best practice and systems to the Pakistan marketing and communication sector for many years, especially since the dynamic and far-sighted Qamar Abbas took over as Executive Director in 2006. He has been responsible in bringing world-class professional training programs, seminars, awards and interactions with global leaders to Pakistan. He has always seen the potential of APRAIS for helping improve Client-Agency relationships, so when we introduced the Tracker, he immediately recognised it could be a game-changer in the price-sensitive market, and we have been working closely together with our offices in the UK and Germany to launch the Tracker in Pakistan. PAS is therefore a torch-bearer for more professional business practices in Pakistan, and we see it being the driving force of the Tracker as well.

Leading by Example — Sabene Saigol

Sanna Malik
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Leading by Example — Sabene Saigol

SANNA MALIK: What prompted you to start RED Communication Arts?

SABENE SAIGOL: RED was started with a very clear vision, to be a full-service advertising agency that would fill the gap that existed in the market – the creativity gap. Back in 1996, it wasn’t just an opportunity that presented itself, rather it was also the drive to bring global practices of disruptive creative work to Pakistan that further ignited my interest in this field. Since then, what a journey it has been!

SANNA MALIK: RED Publicis was recently awarded the Best Companies Award at the Marketing 2.0 Conference, while you were presented with the Outstanding Leadership Award. What, in your opinion, stood out about how you are leading RED that got you the award and made RED standout amongst 12 Pakistani companies also competing in the same category?

SABENE SAIGOL: The Marketing 2.0 Conference spotlights the latest innovations and breakthroughs in the marketing and advertising industry. RED Communication Arts has held a strong belief in disruptive and innovative creative solutions for over 26 years. My efforts as a strategic leader have always encouraged my team to turn this belief into RED’s mantra that has set us apart. Making quick decisions, nurturing empathy for team and leading by example have led us on a journey that we are proud of.

SANNA MALIK: Human resource development is a major area that Pakistan’s creative communications industry needs to attend to. What do you think is required to be done in this area at an industry level?

SABENE SAIGOL: Absolutely! It is pivotal to look at the deeper concerns that this industry faces, human resource wise. Having a standardized criterion and a set structure of selection of resources will aid in bringing fresh talent to the industry who are well-aware of the expectations. I am proud to say that RED has always encouraged training young energetic talent through its Management Trainee Program. It’s okay if they make a shift within the industry; at the end of the day, they are adding value to the advertising acumen of the whole field or returning to RED.

Moreover, there are fantastic candidates who dedicate their time and effort unconditionally to their work. What matters is that as an industry, their efforts should be recognized and their talents be fostered with care so that their motivation to work does not fluctuate.

SANNA MALIK: How has RED worked at training and developing their employees, considering that people here in Pakistan learn just enough to be able to perform on-the-job, and may not always be inclined to put in effort in their long-term or future-oriented personal development?

SABENE SAIGOL: A lot of learning in the field of advertising comes with experience. But what matters is to nurture a culture of constant learning and growth. RED Communication Arts has always encouraged to break the silos and help all resources to adapt to this culture. Be it about collaboration, experimenting with new media or striking partnerships, RED has always focused on evolution of skills.

The key is to be open to innovation and show a path of growth within the structure of an agency. Recently, RED has worked very diligently in investing brain power towards digital first ideas and campaigns. This has in return worked out for us by pushing the team out of their comfort zones and providing them with new challenges that excite them towards positive evolution of not only skill but also the hierarchy.

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SANNA MALIK: How has the affiliation with Publicis helped RED Communication Arts? Has it helped in terms of training and development of employees?

SABENE SAIGOL: Global exposure has evolved the industry a lot! Affiliating with Publicis Groupe has opened doors to exposure and learnings that have helped pave the path to creating more relevant work. We receive updates and connect often on many global brands and case studies that help us get a broader insight into doing work that’s not just creative, but offers creativity that proves to be successful in different markets.

SANNA MALIK: How has your agency safeguarded itself from a lack of industry mechanism for payment default issues from clients, lack of structure in the industry etc.? Also, internationally, advertising associations help creative help agencies grow and become independent. What challenges did you come across while trying to get registered with PAA and what in your opinion are some of the areas the association needs to work on?

SABENE SAIGOL: All agencies in Pakistan, can truly benefit from a larger collective by setting up a benchmark for credible industry mechanisms. In my opinion, Lahore shouldn’t be marginalized like it has been in the past specially when the work and billings have shown exponential growth. RED is one of Pakistan’s top agencies and does more business than the majority of Karachi agencies. However, the industry is still Karachi focused – including advertising events and associations. Industry organizations should avidly look at opportunities that can add value, especially through human resource development.

Moreover, more women are coming in positions of leadership and doing phenomenal work. They should be deemed equal to their male counterparts in credibility, professional integrity and strategic thinking.

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