Everyone acknowledges that Pakistan’s advertising industry is plagued with the menace of mediocrity. Watch a TVC and the chances are you will see the brand’s logo on the top right corner, the screen showing the product, and a VO declaiming a laundry list of features. How many of these ads do you even remember 30 seconds after they are over? Client logic is simple: “I have paid for the time; why shouldn’t I squeeze as much information into it as possible?”

Well, you may, but nothing will stick in the audience’s mind – if that is what you want. But then, if you are lucky to find a client who is open to ideas, the agency people will not be able to crack it and will do everything possible to sell a mediocre idea. Because that is what they tend to do.

Why is this so?

1 Risk-Averse Environments: A risk-averse client culture discourages agencies from proposing innovative ideas and fear of failure is leading to safe, uninspiring campaigns. Why are we risk-averse? Because of our inherent insecurities. “If my ad campaign does not work, I may lose my job or won’t be promoted,” the brand manager may think. And it is not just the brand manager. We are insecure as a nation. The widespread corruption in our society amply demonstrates this. Whoever finds a chance to grab money does so to secure a financial future for themselves and their families.

2 Education and Training: Advertising education in Pakistan is not keeping up with the evolving digital landscape. Traditional advertising principles are emphasised over new digital marketing strategies and data-driven approaches. A long time ago, the Pakistan Advertising Association announced an initiative to establish an advertising institute located near Gulshan Chowrangi in Karachi. I did see a signboard with these words on it, but nothing more. The project didn’t fly.

The business schools offer limited content on advertising in their curriculum – just one course in advertising in their BBA and MBA programmes – and even this one doesn’t offer enough opportunities for students to gain the practical experience of working on real-world campaigns, leading to a gap between theory and practice. Agencies do not invest enough in training their staff on the latest trends, tools and technologies, leading to outdated approaches and a lack of fresh ideas.

3 Lack of Insight: This reason alone would be sufficient to explain the level of mediocrity our advertising is delivering, even in the absence of other factors. We are failing to realise the importance of insights in the strategy and creative development process. Few in the industry realise that different types of insights are required to set the foundation of a sound strategy and creative execution. It is not uncommon to find expert strategists and creatives confusing the two, using one for the other.

Strategists use ‘observations’, such as those obtained from focus group discussions, to develop a brand strategy. Observations mostly describe an aspect of consumer behaviour rather than identifying the real motivation behind that behaviour. Strategists either do not know the difference or are unwilling to take the pain and dig deeper into their observation by using laddering or other techniques to uncover the motivations underlying a behaviour. Similarly, the insights that drive creative execution are those that relate to the expectations expressed by consumers in terms of a particular set of products; insights which then fall to creative execution to show how the product delivers on those expectations. Yet, how many creatives do this?

4 Lack of Structured Analysis: I have seen the planning papers presented by the strategists working at global agencies in Europe, America and East Asia, which depict an extensive use of frameworks, paradigms and theories to explain the motivations underlying the ‘observations’ obtained from research or real life.

Our strategists do not use them. Either because they are not aware of them or they are under pressure to deliver. This leads to superficial analysis, limiting the discussion to functional emotional polarities and resulting in stereotypical brand positions. I recently witnessed a strategy manager deleting slides from a pitch deck that used conceptual frameworks because she didn’t understand them. Furthermore, even if you do use analytical frameworks to explain reality, your boss or your client may dismiss your strategy, labelling it as conceptual or academic because they don’t want to delve into the analysis. Ignorance really is bliss in Pakistan’s advertising industry. Because if you do know, the chances are that you will not be understood and therefore undervalued. Our agencies are cultivating a culture of ‘Hi, Bye and Burgers,’ not intellect and creativity.

5 Work Culture and Politics: Our industry thrives on a culture of personal loyalties, clusters of influence and office politics. You need these informal support systems to further your career. But this creates a complex system of interactions where collaboration and friction co-exist, taking the attention away from the merits and demerits of ideas and favouring to whom and how they benefit. This web of collaboration and friction focused on personal aggrandisement and grabbing the limelight for a project that involves the strategy, account management, creative and design teams leads to disjointed campaigns that miss the mark. Campaign goals are misinterpreted and creative concepts are not aligned with the overall strategic direction.

6 Agency Role Models: The local offices of global multinational agencies are supposed to be role models for local agencies. They should act as thought leaders in the industry, showcase best practices and uplift industry standards. Yet, one hardly sees such initiative from them. Global agencies offer lucrative career opportunities and have become hotbeds of intense competition and office politics. And the cherry on top is that their regional leadership is more interested in their short-term bottom-line, rather than building their agency brand for the long run. Hence we see agencies avidly pursue new business, often violating their own global guidelines on transparency and fair practices.

7 Client-Agency Relationship: In our market, clients prioritise the lowest price over the quality of the creative work or the agency’s strategic expertise. This leads to a race to the bottom in terms of creativity and effectiveness. Lack of focus on measuring campaign performance and providing constructive feedback to agencies makes it difficult to learn from mistakes and improve future work.

8 Market and Competition: Pakistan’s ad industry is somewhat isolated from the latest global trends and best practices. A tendency to copy successful campaigns from other markets or local competitors stifles originality, leading to uninspired work.

Khalid Naseem is a brand and marketing strategy consultant and freelance writer. khalid.naseem.795@gmail.com