The Book of Advertising and A New Generation of Superheroes

There is something quiteunique in the telling ofthe story of advertisingin Pakistan. Considerhow it started. A group of menseparately travelled to Karachifrom near and far… from Bhopal,Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Lahore,Lucknow… and other cities inIndia. Others were Karachi-bornand bred. They were poets, artists,art collectors, merchants, bonviveurs, writers, civil servants,musicians, raconteurs, bankers,philanthropists and gentlemenfarmers; one was a prince.

In Karachi, they set up offices –cramped and sparsely furnished:oddly-assorted tables and chairs,a few pens and pencils. A peon tomake the tea – the extent of theirstaff. But all eager to be part ofthe great nation-building effort thatPakistan awaited. Their resourceswere limited; their enthusiasmboundless. These extraordinarymen were the founding fathers ofPakistan’s advertising profession.Our industry’s first superheroes.

Looking back, the scale oftheir achievement is impressive.Karachi in 1947 was an outpostfar from British India’s centresof commerce located in Delhi,Bombay and Calcutta. Businesshad to be drummed up, stafffound, hired and trained, productsand services marketed, brandsbuilt and customers wooed. Thosewho moved to Karachi from theiragency headquarters in Indiawere better equipped (marginally);at least they had experience in thebusiness and a client base to buildupon. The others had to start fromscratch and hope for the best. Yetthey forged ahead and laid thefoundations of the profession.

When television came uponPakistan’s advertising scenein 1964, a new generation ofsuperheroes was ready to takeon the baton – and they did so,with a burst of original creativeexecutions that still remains theenvy of today’s generation ofpractitioners. The profession hadfound its foothold. It was a periodof buoyant creativity. It was also atime of consolidation.

Functions and systems were inplace, a few women were hired(almost entirely in the creativedepartments), the terms ofengagement with the media wereset and the foundations of someof our best-loved national brandswere laid. The culmination ofthis second phase in Pakistan’sadvertising history was markedby the AdAsia ’89 AdvertisingCongress in Lahore in February1989. Under the chairmanshipof Javed Jabbar, the entireindustry, including the media,coalesced (in a way not seenbefore or since) to present aprogramme that included a rosterof stellar speakers drawn from theinternational world of advertising.AdAsia ’89 put Pakistaniadvertising on the global map.

If, thus far, the story ofPakistani advertising was linear,what followed was a markedchange in tempo. As the worldwent global, Pakistani advertisingshed its insularity. The globalparadigm that governed therules of engagement betweenadvertising agencies and theirclients shifted, and marketingassumed a central position withinclient companies. The client wasnow in the driver’s seat.

In Pakistan, this changein paradigm found concreteexpression in the emergence of theaffiliated agency and the entry ofthe media buying houses. Formerly,clients appointed a single agency tohandle their entire brand portfolio.Now, the portfolios were splitamong agencies, and the brandbecame the sole client. Then, as themedia buying houses consolidatedtheir presence in an increasinglycompetitive media environment,the media function moved fromthe agency to become a separate,specialist function. The establishedmodel of agency commission wascompromised, and new businessmodels were introduced.

In the midst of these shifts, theinternet came along and rewroteall the rules. Time compressed,the media fragmented, brandsproliferated, consumersdemanded, and lifestyles wentinto transformation. Pakistaniadvertising agencies were forcedto reinvent themselves againand again; from full-service, tospecialisation, to hybrids; fromindependent to partial affiliates tofull-equity buyouts – and whateverelse worked in between. Alongwith adapting to global influences,the profession had to withstandthe peculiarities of Pakistan’s owntrajectory; the periods of economicboom and bust, cycles of instabilityand systemic uncertainties thatsuppress an innate optimismto do and think big. Thisnotwithstanding, ad spend inPakistan went from zero in 1947to approximately four millionrupees in 1966 (Gallup Pakistan).In 1983, it touched Rs 423 million(Marketing Review), by the endof 2017, the figure amounted toRs 87.7 billion (Aurora Fact File),(an increase of 20,632% since1983), and in FY 2023-24, despitea severe economic downturn,the figure stood at 114.63 billion(Aurora Fact File).

What happens next isanyone’s guess. AI is now uponus, and the world is about toexperience change as it hasnever before. Jobs are on theline, and the oft resorted tomantra of “AI won’t replacehumans, but humans who useAI will”, may just be a temporaryplacebo. Climate change is alsoupon us, with consequenceslikely to pose as big achallenge as AI. In the midst ofall this, a new generation hasemerged who, in advertisingterms, are much harder toreach and convince.

Today, the advertisingmessage has to be short, yettell a compelling story groundedin authenticity. Most of all,advertising must seek a higherpurpose; one that goes beyondstereotypes, and is bold enoughto envision the uncertain futurewe are heading towards.

This may not be the best timefor Aurora to pause. But pauseit must. Suffice it to say that thejourney has been a privilege. Tohave been part of the story ofan amazing industry. One thatre-imagines itself with everysuccessive change, builds solidbrands, provides employment toPakistan’s most talented youngpeople, and on a good day, bringsmagic and delight into our lives.The next chapters in theBook of Advertising now belongto yet another generation ofsuperheroes. I, for one, will beamong its most avid readers.

Mariam Ali Baig is Editor, Aurora.baigmariamali@gmail.com

Parts of this article were reprisedfrom the author’s article in The Dawnof Advertising in Pakistan, publishedin Dawn on March 31, 2018.