Advertising as a Career

How has advertising as a career been viewed in the last 27 years?

AuroraUpdated 15 Aug, 2025 03:27pm

By the late nineties, Pakistan’s advertising industry had begun its transition from mid-sized, inward-looking local businesses to larger outfits with a wider international worldview. The entry of global affiliates (Ogilvy, JWT, BBDO), followed by multinational media buying agencies (Mindshare, Starcom) introduced global standards and structures, prompting local agencies to professionalise and redefine their leadership.

This evolution coincided with the launch of Aurora magazine in 1998, which became the industry’s mirror, documenting agency transformations, creative trends, and career trajectories. From profiling creative minds like Imran Mir, who transformed MCB’s design style, to highlighting issues such as brain drain, low salaries, and a lack of creative direction, Aurora didn’t just report on these changes; it pushed the industry to confront them.

In the 2000s, digital disruption entered the equation. As print lost ground, agencies started handing their digital work to their staff without much structure. Small digital agencies appeared, but most clients were slow to invest until the 2010s. Then social media took off, leading to a boom in media buying and creative hot shops that challenged the old full-service agency model.

The 2010s marked a turning point. New career paths opened in digital content, copywriting, strategy and media planning. Government initiatives like the National Freelance Training Programme began incorporating advertising as a core skill, signalling its value in the digital economy. Women increasingly took on creative leadership roles, with several earning ECD and CCO titles – breaking gender norms and expanding the industry’s talent pool. By the 2020s, many agencies had transformed into data-driven, strategy-led creative studios, offering services from content marketing to analytics. Advertising spend grew steadily, estimated at seven to 12% annually, fuelled by FMCGs, financial services and e-commerce.

Nevertheless, as Aurora’s career-focused features have repeatedly shown, structural challenges persist. There is still not enough focus on HR, university courses are outdated, and there is little connection between what schools teach and what the industry needs. Teachers in business schools often lack agency experience, and advertising is still treated as a fall-back option rather than a first-choice profession. Added to this was the opening up of private TV channels which opened up new opportunities for young people who otherwise may have ended up in advertising, particularly on the creative side. This trend has continued, especially with the growth of the freelance gig economy. In many respects, agency heads have failed to keep up with changing times, both in terms of the salary packages they offer and their expectations of their staff. In many ways, the entry of Gen Z as the workforce of the future has taken many agencies by surprise. The old ways of working late hours, being on constant call and expected to drudge on without mentoring, no longer cuts it with Gen Z, and agencies are being forced to revise their entire approach to their retention policies.

Today, modern advertising spans data science, brand strategy, and freelance digital marketing within agencies, in-house teams, and consultancies. But the shift isn’t just functional – it’s philosophical. As AI reshapes workflows and design becomes a prompt-based task, the value lies in the mindset. As Atiya Zaidi noted in her article Attitude Rather Than Grades, ‘learnability’ matters more than having the right degree; students must be taught to unlearn, adapt and question.

In 2025, advertising in Pakistan is no longer a stepping stone. It is a multifaceted, fast-evolving career path – creative, strategic, and globally relevant. With sustained investment in education, professional training, and workplace culture, it holds immense promise for the next generation of storytellers. The onus is on the agency heads to deliver on this promise.

From Aurora’s archives

INTERVIEW
Wasif Rizvi, President, Habib University