Creativity in advertising not rewarded in Pakistan: Velocity CEO
LAHORE: “The media and advertising agencies complement each other as ad agencies not only sell advertisement space but also secure the media payments, which amount to about 85 per cent of the advertisement bill.”
Velocity Marketing and Communications Chief Executive Officer, Jamal Mubtasim Malik made these observations while talking to The Post in an excusive interview.
He was of the view that the media should also play its role in safeguarding the 15 per cent commission of ad agencies because on several instances, it was observed that if the advertiser did not make payments, the ad agency had to pay from its own pocket. He said that it was unjust that the media always complained against ad agencies but never took the fraudulent advertisers to task.
He stressed that the APNS should blacklist fraudulent advertisers so that they never exploit the media or ad agencies again.
This would result in a win-win situation for both the media and the ad agencies, he maintained.
Sharing his views on branding, he said that Pakistani businessmen preferred to become partners or associates with foreign brands but they did not invest in the branding of their own products which is why international brands were replacing local products and no local brand had gained international recognition.
Responding to a query, Mr Malik said that advertising budgets had swelled up noticeably, owing to an increasing in the number of communication channels and the boom in the telecom sector. He, however, believed the quality was being compromised as the majority of advertising agencies and advertisers were not ready to spend on the creative side of advertising: “The creative side of the majority of advertisement campaigns is based on plagiarism for which ad agencies alone are not responsible.” He pointed out that except a few multinationals, advertisers were not willing to pay for creativity or design.
“They do not even give time for developing an original idea or design,” he maintained.
Answering another question, he said that several ad agencies were working on nominal commissions.
He said that advertisers should try to understand that an ad agency could not work on zero percent profit.
These agencies, he lamented, were not only wasting the money of advertisers but also earning a bad name for the industry.
He believed that if advertisers were looking towards neighboring countries, it was because of the weakness of the ad agencies.
He said that there was no dearth of talent in Pakistan but lack of training for human resources was one of the major problems faced by the country.
He said that the advertising industry was a sister industry of the film industry and without the development of the film industry, the advertisement industry could not flourish in the country. The ad industry required seasoned writers, models and artists who require proper training.
Mr Malik believed that media buying/selling would bring a lot of business to advertising agencies in the future, as there was no scope for agencies that banked on creativity in the future.
Commenting on the present scenario, he said that advertisers were not ready to pay for original work thus the role of ad agencies would be limited to media buying and ad releasing.
Source: The Post
Date:9/19/2007
” 
” 
” 
” 
