Bhat’s Blog

Integrating to disintegrate

If recent articles and interviews are anything to go by, it’s clear that advertising industry veterans share two huge concerns: (a) lack of talent at the entry & middle levels in advertising agencies and (b) the prevalence of a buyer-vendor relationship with clients.

The concerns are real. Advertising is no longer the magnet that attracts talent. Two reasons why:

1. External: Salaries & opportunities at other sectors are bigger & better. Exciting opportunities in media and entertainment are attracting the kind of people who would have, earlier considered making a career in advertising.
2. Internal: With clients seeking more specialist inputs in planning, creative and media, the role of the account management person is itself getting foggier. Many have predicted the demise of the AE in her current avatar. Why then would the ‘best and brightest’ be interested in us?

We have heard all this before. Sadly, it is a situation where there is a lot of talk and very little action.

There’s nothing much one can do about Reason 1. But Reason 2 is the one we definitely need to do something about.

Let’s take a quick look at what we’ve allowed our ‘jobs’ to become. The average work experience of say, an Account Director today, is in the region of 7-10 years. The typical career path involves joining at the entry level after an MBA, spending an average of 2-3 years in an agency at virtually similar job functions. The scale of operations and pay packet may differ but it’s much the same thing really. Depending on the size of the agency and account there would have been exposure to ‘specialists’ like media planners and strategic planners. However, for a majority, the career path is one-dimensional: operations and more operations. The experience of planning communication is limited to this month’s new print campaign or this year’s new TVC. The basic knowledge of things beyond one’s purview (typically, operations) is pitifully inadequate.

There was a time when the average Account Executive on a large business was ‘hands on’ on all communication related activities. She was in the know of the media brief, the media plan, the direct mail programme and post-campaign evaluation. By default there was some exposure to media basics, Direct Marketing and so on.

As agencies separated the specialist teams, the Account Executive was increasingly only involved in operation-related issues of creating the 30-sec TVC. All the rest was left to the specialists who had a direct contact with the client. We now have a situation where the servicing team is clueless about the media plan, the viral activity and the DM plan. Rarely would you find the servicing team involved in media discussions or an internet campaign and adding value.

The attempt is not to trash the Account Management teams. Far from it. Is it their fault that their career paths have designed this way? They have been trained on the job to ‘manage’ the work flow and the good ones are doing a fantastic (but thankless!) job of it. The good ones get to handle more ‘complex’ clients as they get promoted. But it is essentially the same job.

Now compare the career path of a Group Brand Manager or Marketing Manager at the client side with similar experience. She has a far higher chance to interact with a lot more ‘specialists’ as she goes up the career path: R&D, packaging, strategic planners, creative heads, media planners & buyers, research, new media etc. Some clients who have a diversified portfolio put their brand managers through different categories (from staple food to soaps), even different roles (from Sales to Brand Management to HR).

In effect, we have bunch of senior people in account management whose exposure to holistic communications is far inferior to clients. Little wonder that the aforementioned interviews and articles talk about the buyer-vendor syndrome. In the context of every agency talking about ‘going beyond the 30-sec TVC’ and moving to a holistic communication solution, the situation is ironic. John Philip Jones, in his article, ‘Advertising: the Cinderella of business’ argues that ‘superior advertising cannot emerge without the close involvement of senior people’ – a point that heightens the need for imbuing senior people with superior knowledge.

The irony is doubled when we see that agencies have gone about hiving off ‘specialist’ divisions over the last 10 years. Just around the time our Account Directors joined the industry. And yet, as we ‘integrate’ we disintegrate. We are creating silos within an integrated structure.

What can the industry do?

Cross-discipline training: pick a leaf out of the book of brand managers going through different roles. How about an Account Management person being shifted to Interactive for 2 years? Or being put through the paces in media planning beyond just a workshop? There are practical issues (‘how can I shift him to Interactive? He is in the middle of the re-launch film! Or ‘Shift him now? I need him to chase billings for this quarter’?). But the industry has to come together to figure a way out. I realize that the problem is complex and the solution, not simple.

Cross category exposure: every large agency has category experts who can share their knowledge of what’s worked in their respective categories. I am sure what is being implemented on a CRM programme for a telecom client would be of great interest to the team on soaps who have only planned 30-sec TVCs all their lives.

Better agency remuneration: this really is the crux of the problem. Several companies think that they have got a good deal by offering rock bottom retainer fee (and artworks free). And several agencies think that they have met the quarter’s target by accepting it. It is a downward spiral which results from the fee being an impediment to recruit good talent. How about implementing a fee, based on overheads-plus-margin as a standard? Wishful thinking, but unless the agency gets paid fairly we will have the same problems for years on end.

Industry PR: Most of the advertising shows on TV are for the insiders. How about showcasing the ‘magic’ of creating advertising aimed at the potentials? How about a concerted PR campaign to highlight the creative work that happens before the creative work? Also, maybe somewhere down the line there is merit in looking at an industry-wide recruitment campaign, a la ‘Join the Army’. However, it would make sense only if concrete actions are taken and we make a genuine difference to those in the industry already. Just practicing what we preach – let the product deliver the promise made in advertising.

It is heartening to see that some agencies invest in prolonged training for the fresher’s where they are exposed to various functions. FCB ULKA’s Star One training for example, is a 2-month affair where the inductees have a mix of classroom training (with exercises) on media planning, strategic planning and creative development. It is followed by month-long in-market training with clients’ sales team.

If such executives continue to practice and hone their skills as they progress we will soon hopefully have a talent pool with a holistic approach to advertising. Only to be…er…poached. Sigh.