Challenges of media buying in Pakistan
MAMUN M. ADIL: How has media buying changed since the establishment of Mindshare in 1999?
MUNIR AHMED QADRI: A lot of media buying houses have been established, but Mindshare continues to have an edge because of our access to advanced software which gives us an insight into audience viewership habits and enables us to place advertising accordingly. As a result we are responsible for approximately 70% of the media buying in Pakistan. The newer buying houses are still learning the business. For them, bulk buying [at discounted rates] remains the most important thing, yet this is not the case, because media buying is a 360-degree process that involves planning, strategy, research and placement, and it is all these elements combined that help us achieve our targets.
MMA: Given that you are head of print and cable buying, what is the scope of your work?
MAQ: Media buyers often brainstorm with planners after they have been briefed by the client, and sometime buyers brainstorm with clients to come up with creative solutions. However, usually it is the planners who do most of the work on that end; purchasing advertising space within a budget remains the primary function of the media buying department. Part of media buying also entails organising activities; for example, we organised ‘Paint masti’ – a successful initiative that resulted in a substantial increase in the consumption of Surf Excel.
MMA: What are your biggest challenges?
MAQ: One of our main challenges is a lack of research about print and cable. As far as publications (such as newspapers and magazines) are concerned, most lack circulation figures; this makes deciding which ones to place advertising in very challenging.
MMA: How are you planning to resolve this issue?
MAQ: We have asked APNS (All Pakistan Newspapers Society) to conduct a survey in order to gauge which newspapers were the most effective. We ran into a similar problem with TV, but this has been resolved to a large extent after Peoplemeters were installed. Mindshare also conducted a survey last year in which we asked 6,000 people across Pakistan about their reading habits, and we plan to conduct it again this year, perhaps with a larger sample size.
MMA: Has advertising in print decreased substantially?
MAQ: Yes, print advertising now constitutes approximately five percent of the total advertising spend for most brands, while electronic constitutes 70 to 80%, of which one to two percent is cable, while digital advertising constitutes two to three percent and is set to increase to 15 to 20%. However, this is not the case in, for example, the UAE, where, despite the increase in digital advertising, print commands nearly 80% of the total advertising spend. I think this is because the quality of the publications is better there – in terms of printing quality as well as content.
MMA: What about cable?
MAQ: Like print, there is no reliable measurement system in place; a lot of times, especially in the rural areas, we have to depend on the cable operators’ word which is not always reliable, and as a result the client’s money is sometimes wasted as cable cannot be monitored. However, this is changing slowly. Tracking solutions are now being introduced in the major cities but the numbers are very low. We have managed to track approximately 112 cable operators’ channels (the total number of cable channels is approximately 1,200) by collaborating with Ozone, a company that specialises in tracking cable. Our next objective is to introduce a holistic tracking service for all cable channels, but it will be an expensive proposition.
Mamun M. Adil is Manager, Business Development & Research, DAWN. mamun.adil@gmail.com