For the world at large, advertising is a profession that parties round the year. But when this writer called up a host of ad professionals for this year-end roundup, expecting them to be away at some exotic location, most said they were at work.
“They might be in office. But don’t believe them if they say they are working,” said the chairman of a mid-sized agency who’s away on vacation.
That statement is probably to assuage his guilt, rather than reflect business reality. After all, life has not been one long party for advertising for most of 2013.
When the pre-Diwali festival advertising happened in October, Ashish Bhasin, Chairman-India and CEO-South East Asia, Aegis Media, said the month had probably saved the year for the sector.
Others like Arvind Sharma, formerly of Leo Burnett, agree that the industry has fallen short of forecasts. But there have been green shoots of growth even while the overall economic scenario has not been too encouraging.
Even as clients shied away from traditional forms of media, they were getting increasingly comfortable with newer ad media like digital and mobile. That itself sets up advertising for a whole new set of challenges.
“The scenario emerging is the advent of newer and rapidly changing means of content consumption. Newer delivery formats in the digital and mobile space, and changing media habits will warrant a new bunch of skills. Therefore, newer kinds of talent will be required and at the same time, existing talent would need to relevantly update and append skill sets,” said Arijit Ray, CEO, Dentsu Communications.
Vserv.mobi, a mobile advertising services provider, said that in mobile media, brands have started focusing on audience targeting and engagement rather than just on the medium at large.
The issues confronting the TV medium reared their head time and again. Key among these was regulator TRAI’s guidelines to cap commercial time on channels to 12 minutes an hour.
Agencies locked horns with channels on billing issues and audience measurement. Nakul Chopra, CEO, Publicis, South Asia, said: “What might not be seen as good today may be good in the future. In the interest of business economics, media owners, agencies and other stakeholders must unite.”
Many transitions Sharma of Leo Burnett added: “We are a world, a society and an economy in the middle of many transitions. I believe that dialogue involving all constituencies to build consensus is the only answer that will work. Unilateral approaches lead to confrontation without progress.”
One of the most anticipated changes in the TV advertising scenario, as M.G. Parameswaran, who heads Draftfcb Ulka, pointed out, is digitisation. “Digitisation of TV will have a long-term impact on the industry. It will help us measure viewership a lot more accurately.”
He added that with industry bodies like BARC setting up larger panels, it will lead to a steady increase in TV ad rates in a country that’s currently amongst the lowest priced markets in the world. Clearly, 2014 seems to hold much promise.