Evaluating the creative journey of Pakistan’s ad agencies needs to be seen from the vantage point of what has been justifiably termed the ‘Golden Age of agency creativity’ in the seventies.

This was the era that produced genuinely iconic advertising, including State Life’s ‘Aye Khuda Mere Abu Salamat Rahain’, Binaca’s ‘Subha Binaca, Shaam Binaca, Sehat Ka Paigam Binaca’, Peek Freans’ ‘Pied Piper’ and Lawrencepur’s ‘Lyla is a Lady’ to name a few. Rhythm of Unity was indeed produced in 1993 – but was essentially an extension of the advertising that came out of the seventies. What made the advertising of the seventies so exceptional was that it was a 100% Pakistani effort. This was the era when there was only one television channel in Pakistan – no satellite, no cable. There was no internet and global ad affiliations were still in the future. So no references; just Pakistani imagination and creativity.

Come 1998, the year Aurora appeared on the scene, this era was already a bygone one. Traditional agency models were fragmenting and brands (and consequently clients) reigned supreme. The process of globalisation, which began in the eighties, brought with it an influx of international brands to the market, now sustained by the exposure afforded to audiences through cable and satellite television. Consumers saw and wanted, and global brands were ready to oblige. To secure their share in an increasingly competitive market, global brands sought affiliations with local agencies to maintain the consistency of their communication across markets. Somewhat parallel to these developments, India emerged as a premier consumer market and in the process developed its own particular type of creative advertising communication.

In Pakistan, as agencies scrambled for global affiliations and new learning, creativity found itself caught between adapting regional communications developed by their global affiliate and pandering to the desire of local clients to create Indian ‘inspired’ advertising. Pakistani creativity was being stifled. Despondency set in. Not only was Pakistan conspicuously absent from international award shows, but by the turn of the Millennium, creativity was under severe critique by Pakistan’s own ad world for being mediocre, stereotypical and capable of only producing copycat (mainly Indian) inspired versions.

Then Covid struck. Budgets came under pressure and digital and social media marketing began to be embedded in the mix. Turnaround times became shorter, consumer expectations changed and brands started to look beyond their traditional service partners for their marketing solutions. And the gap was quickly filled by smaller, more agile outfits, willing to produce big work on small budgets. The larger agencies howled their indignation but clients were not listening. It was what Aurora termed the ‘big squeeze’ with agencies caught between a rock and a hard place. Yet, as Aurora predicted, the ‘squeeze’ became an opportunity, perhaps even a catalyst, in driving better creative output. Whatever the reasons, creativity rose to the challenge and the international awards started to come in.

Today, ‘creative’ is under transformation as the function itself splits into differentiated specialisations, most notably on the social media and marketing influencer fronts, and it now must gear itself up to meet the next big challenge, this one posed by AI.

INTERVIEWS Faraz Maqsood Hamidi, CCO and CEO, The D’Hamidi Partnership

PROFILES The Man From San Francisco: Ali Rez, Regional CCO, Middle East and Pakistan, BBDO Worldwide

ARTICLES Losing Shine – Javed Jabbar