Pakistan's most innovative ad agency?

AURORA: Orient Advertising is in the process of restructuring. What exactly does this involve?

ARSALAN HASHMI: If you look at the direction the overall industry is moving in right now, advertising is becoming a very specialised field. Until a couple of years ago, one agency would do the media, PR, creative and events – everything. Now you have specialised agencies for each of these functions. We have tried to hold on to the concept of a full service agency for as long as we could, but the margins have come down exponentially and the requirement is to restructure according to those functions. We have a creative, media, PR and events wing and we will be opening a digital wing early next year. Now, they can all be under the same umbrella, but they have to be separate business units with their own clients, budgets and teams so that they can justify their cost. You cannot offer clients all these services at discounted rates anymore.

A: Will these functions be operating under the name of Orient Advertising?

AH: They will fall under the Orient Advertising umbrella, but they will have their own branding and personality. Initially, they will be separate units located in the same office. The way it will work is that Orient Advertising will do the creative, and clients will have separate contracts with Orient Media for media and with the digital arm for digital, but they will be managed by the same company. This will give us the opportunity to sell more services and convince our clients that working with one agency is more efficient rather than splitting the business

A: Where will the efficiencies come from?

AH: The advantage of working with a parent agency which offers media, digital, creative and event services is that the strategy team will make sure that the campaign is synergised. Rather than pay five different companies, if those services are consolidated under one roof it will be more effective for the client. Furthermore, the agency that has all the business will work 200% in order to keep the client satisfied, rather than settle for just a part of the business. The motivation on the agency side also increases; by earning more revenue the agency will be able to deploy better resources on a client. Over the years the human resource quality in advertising has declined because agencies are not earning what they used to. Hiring a foreign or LUMS or IBA graduate makes a big dent in the pocket. When your revenues decline, quality also declines and agencies are unable to invest in high quality people. Such people prefer to go to the brand side where they are paid better and gain better exposure. In my grandfather’s time, the client management people knew more about the brand than the client did. At one point when my father was heading the Coca-Cola account in Lahore, Coca-Cola had fired their entire brand team and it was Orient’s client management team who ran the client management department for Coca-Cola for two months, such was the quality of staff in the advertising profession then. It is not there anymore, finding a copywriter is literally like finding a needle in a haystack and by that I mean a genuine copywriter – a person who has the vision to create concepts is very hard to find.

A: Is Orient Advertising going to offer better salaries and incentive packages?

AH: We are already doing this. Also, rather than hire three mediocre people to do a job, we prefer hiring one person who is good.

A: When will the transition start taking shape?

AH: We are aiming for either June 30, which is the soonest we can do it; otherwise in the next quarter.

A: Why doesn’t Orient Advertising have an affiliation?

AH: Because all the good affiliations are already taken. Although I have been approached by three agencies, it depends on what sort of deal we can put together. We have equity in this market and working with an agency that does not have equity here and then receiving nothing in return but still having to pay a percentage or retainer doesn’t make sense.

I am not saying I don’t want an affiliation; I am open to it but I am going to wait for the right affiliation to come up.

A: Don’t network agencies have an inherent advantage in terms of the learnings they bring to clients?

AH: Yes, that is an advantage.

A: How do you counter this?

AH: With the service we provide. On the outside, network agencies are very professional but from the inside, when it comes to the work, we have the same resources and what differentiates us is our service. We take our client’s business seriously. After every meeting we don’t just write up how many hours we spent with the client. Here, the senior staff, including myself, we are all involved, whether the client is small or big. We don’t just bring in a client and let our juniors handle the account and make a cameo appearance once a year – we are involved throughout.

"I don’t want to be the biggest advertising agency; been there, done that. I want to be known as Pakistan’s most innovative advertising agency"

A: Going by the Aurora Fact File figures for 2012-13, Orient Advertising seems to have experienced a significant dip in billings across all media – print, electronic, radio.

AH: Correct.

A: Why did this happen?

AH: We had internal and external problems and I don’t want to go into the details, but we as management made the decision to step aside, restructure and then come back into the market rather than trying to fight the resistance. It was a conscious decision we took. I don’t know whether we executed it correctly or not; everybody has their own opinion about it. We used to be a four billion rupee agency and we will build up to that again. Sometimes you have to let something go in order to rebuild and it’s always better to do this rather than trying to cling on.

A: When you say you stepped out of media, do you mean Orient is no longer handling media for clients?

AH: Yes. We used to handle Mobilink, Shan Foods, Continental Biscuits, Nokia... we decided to put a stop to it and focus on the core business and build on it again.

A: Core business as in?

AH: Creative and media.

A: You still retain a large percentage of government clients?

AH: We have a decent percentage of government clients. However, in the past four or five years we have also pulled back from the government sector due to payment delays, etc. But we have a set of clients with whom we work with and who are good paymasters.

A: Do local clients form the majority of your portfolio?

AH: Yes.

A: What do you think of the recent trend whereby a couple of Pakistani clients have transferred their business to India-based agencies?

AH: I think that it is very unfortunate for our industry and a sign of danger. I mean brands actually think that Pakistani agencies are not good enough and they are prepared to pay triple the amount in India and not invest that money in Pakistan.

I have said this on numerous platforms that our entire industry is cannibalising itself.

A: Cannibalisation in terms of what?

AH: In terms of profits. Agencies used to earn a commission of 15%. Now this has dropped to one percent, even 0.5%. I recently lost a pitch to an agency which was prepared to work on media at 0.25%. If you keep cutting your margins, how long are you going to survive? For example, if a rival agency has a client who is paying a monthly retainer of, let’s say Rs 500,000, and I go in and say that I will give them the same services, in fact I will give them an extra resource and I will charge them Rs 400,000 – that is unethical and unprofessional. I mean how can I deliver on this promise?

A: Shouldn’t the industry come together and stop these trends?

AH: I have been saying this for a while, but nothing happens. Advertising agencies need a voice; they need to sit down on one table and make some ground rules.

A: But you have a voice in the shape of the Advertising Association of Pakistan (AAP), why don’t they take up these issues?

AH: Unfortunately they don’t have any ground rules in place. We need a voice; the industry should have one supreme body that has a representative from the electronic and the print media; the agencies, outdoor vendors, digital vendors and then regulate the bodies under them, so that everybody is heard and if there are internal issues at a lower level, there is a senior level in place to solve matters.

A: Isn’t part of the problem the fact that agencies like to complain but that no one is willing to take a stand and force the AAP to intervene?

AH: The people involved with the Association are very senior to me; they have been in the industry for a long time and it is their responsibility to get something going. I have been in this industry for about eight years and I have not attended one meeting. Yes, there are issues that need to be addressed but how to do it is another question altogether.

A: Another problem the industry is facing in terms of its creative potential are the multinational regional adaptations and the obsession among local clients to develop communication ‘inspired’ from Indian ads. Surely none of this is helping the industry?

AH: No it doesn’t. Instead of going forward we have gone backwards. When you compare the Indian industry to Pakistan, you have to keep in mind that India has a very big advantage with Bollywood. They have the resources and the infrastructure. Also, if you look at Indian ads, even the most basic ones, they are based on insights. How many clients in Pakistan give the agency the time and resources to conduct research before a campaign? How many times is copy tested in Pakistan? Everything takes time, planning, insight; you just can’t make a TVC in two days. It doesn’t work that way, but you are expected to do it. Of course, there are clients who understand and support you, and will discuss and give you their input, but then there is the other sort as well.

A: Given the current difficulties the industry is facing in terms of falling revenues and the fact that the agencies are, as you said, cannibalising themselves, what made you take up this position?

AH: I come from a family that has been in advertising for the last 60 years. Growing up I saw my mamoo, nana, dada, taya and father work in this industry and being the eldest child in my family it was a responsibility

I could not run away from, especially given the fact that the past two or three years have been rough. It would be very easy for me to walk away, but my father needs me; this organisation needs me, and if I can add value to it, I will. There is no other way I can look at it.

A: Orient has always been a well-respected agency with a solid portfolio of clients. However, it has never been able to overcome a perception that it is not the agency to go to if you want top quality innovative creative work. Would you agree that this perception has cemented itself over time?

AH: This is the challenge I am taking on. When I joined this business our media division was doing very well. It kept growing and no matter what we did on the creative side, it was always overshadowed by our media division. Now that the media is not there, our creative is showing through. I have always looked at advertising from a creative point of view. For me advertising is not media, it is about brand building, the voice we give brands and the communications we create. This is what I have instilled in the team I have hired and they share the same passion. But changing the perception will take time because this image, as you say, has been cemented over time.

A: You represent the third generation of your family and you are still very young. How will you motivate people to stay long term, if they feel that after a certain point they have no further prospect for career advancement?

AH: My team is young – the other day we went for a pitch and the feedback was that it was a brilliant pitch but they were all kids! But the fact is that some of them have about 10 years’ experience in the market and they are the kind of people who can think out of the box. It is the culture that I have created that makes people stay. As far as the senior staff is concerned, they know that regardless of my position, their growth doesn’t stop, because I believe in working in a professional organisation.

A: Where do you want to see Orient in the next three to four years?

AH: I don’t want to be the biggest advertising agency; been there, done that. I want to be known as Pakistan’s most innovative advertising agency, a place where clients can expect to find innovative, clutter breaking communication that is not inspired from anywhere else. Whether it is PR, events, media; we want Orient to be the agency that makes the difference and when someone looks at one of our ads they will see that difference and recognise it as an Orient ad.

Arsalan Hashmi was in conversation with Mariam Ali Baig.
For feedback, email aurora@dawn.com