Advertising industry not attracting enough talent

Advertising mogul and WPP group chief Martin Sorrell may firmly believe that there is a lot of advertising talent in India. But not all that talent is flowing into advertising. New avenues like digital marketing, design, movie companies and media software production houses are weaning new talent away from the advertising business.

"There's no dearth of good creative people in the country. As an industry, advertising has become less attractive than the other options young people have today," agrees Josy Paul, national creative director, JWT India.

"A lot more of creativity is happening out of advertising. The best talent will naturally go where the best work is happening," agrees Sajan Raj Kurup, founder Creativeland Asia, and former creative head of Grey India.

The big problem with the advertising industry is that agencies are taking on more work than they could possibly handle. Arvind Sharma, chairman, Leo Burnett, India sub-continent agrees that creative talent is burning out faster than before. And there is good reason for that. "Five years back, a campaign lasted two years. Now they change every three to four months. So, you are working six to eight times more on the same number of accounts you had five years ago," said Sharma.

Other industry experts point out that compensation for good creative work is also lacking in advertising. Some clients expect agencies to work on a retainer fee of Rs 35,000 a month or make an ad film for Rs 70,000. That is when the average rates for retainer fees range from Rs 3.5-6 lakh per month, while an ad film could cost upwards of Rs 20 lakh.

If an agency is compensated badly, it would obviously do the same to its workforce, said a senior industry executive, on condition of anonymity.

The problem will be solved if talent is groomed adequately, say creative honchos. Bobby Pawar, national creative director of ad agency, Mudra said, "Advertising agencies are not grooming young talent. They poach experienced people from other agencies. Hence fresh talent is not coming into top agencies."

Pawar agrees the possibility always remains that once an agency has spent time grooming raw talent, there is no guarantee that the talent will not be poached. "But this is a bullet that must be bit," he says. Paul feels it's time for action. "We only seem to be discussing the issue to death. No one is kicking the ball. We've done very little to reach out to the talent that India has and get these bright minds to think again about the creativity and growth in advertising," he says.

Subhash Kamath, chief executive, Bates David Enterprise says that advertising agencies in India have never really focused on training like information technology companies have done.

"We need to get beyond the top colleges in the metros and recruit creative talent from semi-urban or rural areas who are in sync with the cultural sensibilities of India. Although we have woken up late, we need to put a premium on training, both at a grassroot level and through the higher ranks as well," he adds.