The Creative Triad of Pakistan: Understanding Work-Life Dynamics between Advertising Agencies, Design Team and Clients

The advertising industry in Pakistan is a dynamic and evolving sector that solely prospers on creativity, innovation and its associated challenges. Initially print media was the primary platform for promoting creative content but then the industry gradually expanded over time. The introduction of television in the 1960s marked a significant shift offering a new medium for creative expression and mass communication. The subsequent era of private TV channels further encouraged the development of innovative advertising techniques to reach broader audiences which was then followed by the rapid growth of digital media.

Today, the advertising landscape in Pakistan has seen a notable shift from traditional Above-The-Line (ATL) and Below-The-Line (BTL) advertising to digital marketing and social media marketing. Digital platforms have emerged as the preferred medium due to their cost-effectiveness, higher Return-on-Investment (ROI), precise targeting, and extensive reach.

The industry now encompasses a wide range of entities that include advertising agencies, media companies, media buying houses, digital marketing agencies, production houses, media research firms, event management companies, outdoor advertising companies, and public relations (PR) agencies. Despite this growth, the core task of creativity still remains largely within the domain of advertising agencies and their creative and design teams.

Creativity and innovation have always been at the heart of advertising agencies, driven by their creative and design staff, agency owners and agency’s clients. It would not be inaccurate to state that “Today advertising agencies are the only entities that are truly carrying out the actual marketing function.”

However, the persistent pursuit of creativity and innovation has taken a toll on the work-life balance especially for creative and design teams. The constant demands from clients and agency owners for fresh ideas, quick turnarounds and high-quality output often lead to extended working hours and increased stress levels. This pressure has made it challenging for many professionals in the industry to maintain a healthy balance between their personal and professional lives.

This article will focus specifically on the complex work relationships between advertising agencies and their clients in Pakistan and will also focus on the impact of their relationship on the work-life balance of the creative and design staff of the advertising agencies.

?Advertising Agencies

Advertising agencies are the backbone of the industry because they are specialized and have the ability and resources to create, plan and manage different types of advertising campaigns and marketing collaterals for the brands or products. These creative campaigns are then promoted using Above-The-Line (ATL) & Below-The-Line (BTL) vehicles.

?Advertising agencies range from full service large scale that provide 360 degrees solutions to smaller ones with limited scope and then there are specialized design houses and freelance boutique setups as well that are catering to specific client/brand needs and specific market segments.

Advertising Agency: Creative and Design Staff

The creative and design staff of every advertising agencies is the essence of the entire industry and its creativity. This includes copywriters, visualizers, graphic designers and art directors etc. who develop the concepts, visuals and messages that become core of advertising campaigns. Their work is driven by creativity, innovation, brand guidelines and a deep understanding of consumer behavior. They are responsible for creating entire marketing and digital marketing collateral that is needed to promote the product or the service through integrated marketing campaigns.

Advertising Agency: Owners

Advertising agency ownership is of many types 100% ownership, subsidiary, affiliate or franchise etc. All agency owners play a crucial role in managing the direction of their agency. They are primarily responsible for business development, client relationships and overall requirements of their clients. They are usually busy searching for new business and new prospect pitches. Additionally their role also includes keeping in mind welfare of their staff which is a no doubt a very significant responsibility of their role. Their role is mostly stuck in a fight between financial stability and ethical leadership. Unfortunately it’s mostly the financial stability that exerts more pressure on their roles and it wins.

The Clients: Representing Products and Services

There is a diverse range of clients that require services of advertising agencies ranging from multinational corporations to local businesses. The clients represent various sectors including FMCGs, telecommunications, fashion, home appliances, airlines, banking, petroleum, education etc. They all rely on advertising agencies for strategy development, advertising ideas, creative visual /copy content development, media planning/buying, digital marketing and public relations (PR) etc. Advertising agencies develop thematic and tactical advertising campaigns to promote the products or services, enhance image perceptions and engage with their well-defined target audiences timely and effectively etc.

?The clients usually exert and exercise significant authority in their relationships with their appointed advertising agencies. The client end employees think that advertising agency employees are mere service providers and will always be on standby mode and are bound to cater to their every whim and demand without question. Thus the client over burdens the agency staff and its team thinking they are paid to do this. Clients view agency staff as dispensable, driving them to work long hours, including off-hours and weekends to meet tight deadlines. This attitude can be attributed to a high-pressure business work environment where rapid turnaround times and last-minute changes are common. The reason is economic dependence of advertising agency on client’s business and advertising agency staff’s economic dependence on advertising agency’s job.

Catch-22 of Creative and Design Staff: Demand for Quality Vs. Unrealistic Deadlines

The creative and design staff at advertising agencies being the backbone of creativity render their talents and expertise from idea to creating persuasive integrated marketing and advertising campaigns, outstanding visuals and innovative concepts. However they face tremendous pressure from clients which leads to significant mental strains and much extended working hours. The high unemployment rates in Pakistan worsen this situation as many creative fear losing their jobs if they do not comply with demanding schedules of the agency owner and clients. This fear leads them to accept the “Hustle-Culture” and compromise in their personal lives.

Many of them are struggling to maintain a work-life balance and spending limited time with their families. They work extended hours in fear of losing the job. This situation is further exploited by the owners who in order to satisfy their clients bait their own employees with consideration of promotions and pay raises. On the other hand the agency staff suppress their desire to speak-up on the matter of deadlines with the management as the management prefers the pressured demands from the clients over the job of their own employee.

?This leads to a high employee turnover and less loyal staff and usually Creative and Design Staff is on a constant look-out for opportunities in the market to switch jobs to find a better place that offers better working hours within the same salary package. Some even switch on lower salary package so that they can spend time with their families too.

?Conflicting Pressures for Agency Owners: Client Retention Vs. Employee Well-Being

The advertising Agency owners in Pakistan face a serious dilemma and are always busy in a delicate balancing act. On one hand they need to satisfy their clients to ensure that they can retain them and enjoy a steady stream of revenue. On the other hand they must think of the well-being of their staff. They always believe in talk-the-talk saying soon this pressure zone will be over but it never gets over and they never walk-the-talk at all. They fail to support their staff when it comes to extended hours. They do not invest in employee well-being initiatives as regards to maintaining a healthy work-life balance environment. They worry more about losing big contracts therefore they become overly accommodating to please clients at the cost of their employee’s sufferings.

?Due to higher unemployment rates and more people seeking jobs the owners prefer new employees over their current ones when it comes to extended hours. They know that they can easily replace those who refuse to work overtime or long extended hours with a new resource at a lesser salary than their current staff.

??This "spineless approach” driven by financial concerns provides very lucrative opportunity to the clients to take extreme advantage of the mind-set of the agency owners. This unnecessary advantage leads to the following consequences for advertising agency :

?-????????? Underpayment: Clients push for lower prices knowing that agency is desperate to retain their business

-????????? Changes in scope but no price increase: knowing mind-set that owner will agree to maintain relationship

-????????? Even more pressured deadlines: ?knowing that the owner will pressure their employees

-????????? Excessive revisions: leads to affecting employee morale, productivity and creativity.

-????????? Burned-out and unhappy staff: leading to high employee turn-over

-????????? Agency reputation: as continuous replacement of employees is less likely to produce high quality work.

?Advertising Agency: Client Service Over-commitments and Over-promises

The client service department within every advertising agencies plays a very crucial role in handling and developing client relationships. However in order to do this they take unnecessary steps to please clients and secure business, they often overcommit, overpromise the deliverable’s and commit unrealistic timelines. These commitments create enormous pressure on the agency design teams. They have to meet the deadlines without compromising quality. This commitment is not occasional it has now become a regular cycle of stress due to over-commitment and pressure which leads to stress and lower morale at creative team’s end.

?In most of the instances client service staff don’t have the understanding of the capacity and limitation of the creative teams and also most of the time they do not have the understanding of the creative process for a specific job as well but they are compelled to make these commitments. They also feel in secured and reluctantly commit to avoid displeasure of both agency owners and clients.

?The agencies should conduct in-house workshops so that creative teams can educate client service teams on creative processes, typical timeframes and resource requirements for each job requirement. There is an immense need for more realistic planning and an honest communication within the agency teams and also between agencies and their clients.

?It is also very crucial for the clients to realize the impact of their demands on agency staff. They need to plan campaigns well in advance and try to cultivate a culture that values quality over speed. They need to set realistic timelines that can significantly reduce the unnecessary pressure on their advertising agency employees that will lead to best quality outcome.

?There are forward-thinking clients who invest time in strategizing their design needs long before the future campaigns not only keep a buffer time in project plans to accommodate unexpected delays that can cause pressure both at agency and client’s end. Similarly the advertising agencies should communicate transparently with clients about what is possible, feasible within given timelines and budgets.? The client and agency should encourage a culture of continuous improvement for a better mutual collaboration.

??Conclusion

The advertising industry in Pakistan is at a crossroad and maintaining balance between work and personal life has become impossible for the professionals. The factor that has brought everything to this point can be attributed to a single word “insecurity” or “fear” that often drives our actions for example fear of missed deadlines, fear of losing client or fear of losing job etc. This sentiment of “insecurity” prevails among clients, advertising agency staff and advertising agency owners. Each is struggling with the fear of losing. ?

?It’s time for a paradigm shift a collective call for change that prioritizes work, well-being, collaboration and practices. This is only possible through mutual respect and realistic planning to benefit all stakeholders involved.

?At the client’s end there needs to be a shift in how they perceive and interact with their advertising agencies. They should realize that quality work takes time and they should value quality over quantity. In order to strengthen working relationship and to achieve higher quality outcomes they need to adopt forward-thinking and planning long before time. They should communicate realistic deadlines to their advertising agencies. This will provide a planning mechanism at the agency end and their staff will not feel pressured and will deliver the desired quality and also avail a better work-life balance.

?Agency owners must also stand firm in protecting their staff’s well-being while maintaining professional standards. They need to adopt a culture where overtime is the exception not a norm. A rested mind is more creative. They should learn to say “NO” and make their client’s realize and force client’s team to prioritize the requirements and timelines so that they do not create unnecessary pressures.

?The relationship should not be on spend and revenue basis instead it should be based on uplifting the advertising industry, its teams and also creating memorable advertising campaigns. Rest assured that by changing the attitudes towards each other the Pakistani advertising industry will definitely flourish without compromising the welfare of its talented professionals.

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