Local advertising industry has great potential

KARACHI: Pakistan as an emerging market and a consumer-based nation has high potential to explore opportunities and much can be done by the advertising industry, said the Chief Executive Officer of The Joined Up Media, UK, Glyn Harper.

“Media is much more sophisticated now and the people of Pakistan are hungry for more information,” he told The Express Tribune on the sidelines of a workshop organised by the Pakistan Advertisers Society at a local hotel here on Thursday.

In such an environment, it is easier to generate ideas and apply them to the masses, unlike the West, where people have pre-conceived ideas and therefore it is harder to reach out to them through the medium of advertising, he added.

Harper said that the single largest paradigm shift that has occurred in the advertising world today is the recognition of media planning by the industry.

Harper said that some 20 years ago, advertising had all been about creativity, while the image of the media was only to the extent of numbers and costs and prices.

Today, he said, the media budget has changed with time as have the priorities of what should be given out to the masses by the organisations.

He explained that media planning “is the way you achieve your media strategy”. The advertising expert said that advertisers should never assume that just because a competitor is doing something, it has to be right.

According to him, the role of advertising is to define the marketing target while also being able to understand the consumption and purchase habits of the target market. “Avoid being so general as to be meaningless” he advised.

This is where media planning comes in, he said.

In this age and time, advertisements in the form of brand ambassadors, branded entertainment (sponsored programs) and the internet and word of mouth are highly preferred by most organisations because they are most effective amongst the consumers, Harper informed.

“Even in Pakistan, this awareness and change in the consumers tastes has very much arrived and therefore both local advertising agencies and clients should work on this aspect” he said.

Harper also said that Pakistan has more ‘gifting seasons’ due to its local traditions, cultures and beliefs. Therefore, according to him, there are higher chances for organisations and advertisers here to target their market and create a brand loyalty.

He further said that in Pakistan, the memory decay (failing to remember an advertisement), is much faster as there is a higher number of advertisement clutter here.

Hence, in his opinion, advertisement campaigns are of a greater necessity in this part of the world, which, he concluded, is the strongest strength for the Pakistani advertising industry.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2010.