THE EXODUS

The advertising industry is facing a severe people crunch as the bright are being lured away. This, discover the agencies, is actually their own doing.

There’s a new job function in ad agencies today that would have been a joke even five years back: the human resource department. Time was when the advertising industry was the coolest place to park your creative ponytail. But the last five years have witnessed a gradual decline in the quality of people who are attracted to this business. This trend is now picking up pace and it has agency heads running helter-skelter to save a complete erosion.
Suddenly they are realizing the significance of doing what marketing companies have done for decades. Work on retaining the right people. Now agencies like O&M have full fledged HR departments. Others like Bates Enterprise are undergoing structural changes to accommodate people and their ambitions while those like Grey are hiring people from technical backgrounds to support the creative function.

So why has all this happened?
First the pull: A lot of more lucrative avenues that offer equal creative satisfaction have opened up for the creative people. TV has opened up an entire new world. Apart from that feature films, film production, radio, Internet gaming are attractive avenues.
Those in account management and planning are lured to cross over to the clients’ side. This year apparently three fourths of the graduates from MICA, India’s first advertising school opted for marketing assignments.

“Agencies have brought this plight upon themselves,” says Preeti Vyas Gianetti, CEO, Vyas Gianetti Creatives. Once upon a time, in the glorious 15-per cent agency commission days, the industry rewarded talent generously. But agencies have been undercutting each other to grab business. This has put a tremendous pressure on the bottom line and hence there is little room to increase salaries.

Subhash Kamath, CEO, Bates Enterprise, feels that “The blame is squarely on the shoulders of the industry heads. We have spent no time in making the profession attractive to youngsters.” Nurturing and training talent have been alien terms to the industry and no one thought that such a time would come where people would need to be told why they should come to advertising.

And then there is the new generation. “They prefer to explore the Amazon than build a monument”, explains Kamath. Both are exciting roads to success but the fresh talent is far more adventurous and comfortable with professional risk. Loyalty to an organization is no virtue. They work hard but expect fulfillment earlier than the previous generations. They are not afraid or embarrassed to ask for more money or a higher designation. It is for the heads to understand the new value system and show them that they care.

And they have identified the solution. First: Bring back the passion with good quality mentoring. Also reward talent. Grey has started giving away monthly and even weekly prizes to good work besides the annual recognitions. Singh sees a drop in attrition with such initiatives.
Two, agencies have started taking training and nurturing more seriously, not the old way but in the new format of talent management. If the industry is not naturally attracting the people it needs it has to learn to hunt better. Agencies like Grey for instance are looking at fresh graduates from top end colleges like St Stephen’s.
Three: A lesson can be learnt from marketing companies such as Unilever that has deconstructed the brand management structure according to skill sets in the innovation and activation areas. Agencies need to learn this quickly to accommodate young ambition.

Traditional skill-based training now needs to be complemented by attitude-based training. It becomes essential when people have to work in groups at a short notice if for instance a 360-degree solution has to be presented to a client. Typically then people are pulled out to form a group for a short term. Success now will depend on not the traditional team building skills but managing a coalition. “If you’ve 12 days to complete a project how do you bring together a group than can quickly adapt and present a solution is key to success today”, explains Kamath.
Nirvik Singh, CEO, Grey has initiated a process of hiring talent from outside the creative fields. The most prominent recruit has been Brinda Gupta who heads the Deutsche Bank account and comes with years of experience in banking communication. “Now my people can talk the client’s language and we have the ear of the top guns at agency meetings than earlier.”

Says Kalpana Rao, HR Head, O&M, “People issues are being addressed far more consciously by the top management.” Earlier training budgets lapsed, unused. Now O&M spends 1.5 per cent of its revenues towards it. Attrition hasn’t gone down but hasn’t gone up either. “Our employee satisfaction surveys are getting the same response as our other global offices”, says Rao.

The agencies are moving fast now. Chances are the damage will be curtailed before the slip starts showing.

(This article appeared as the lead in Billboard, the weekly advertising and marketing page in Hindstan Times in June `06)