Pressure on agencies' margins has affected salary hikes, creating an opportunity for the burgeoning entertainment sector to poach on the limited talent pool.
India's advertising industry is facing a serious manpower shortage, especially on the creative side of the business. Pressure on agencies' earnings has affected salary hikes, creating an opportunity for the burgeoning entertainment sector (TV and films) to poach on the limited talent pool. The shortage is mostly among the junior and mid-level executives.
Prasoon Joshi, executive chairman and regional creative director Asia Pacific, McCann-Erickson India, says, "Our industry is people-driven but to meet their expectations of higher salaries is becoming difficult. Yet, we will have to do everything in our capacity to retain them because people are the key to our performance."
Ad industry sources say that a junior copyrighter gets a salary of about Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 in the beginning whereas a fresh television script-writer could make anywhere around Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 for writing a single episode, once he/she breaks into the writing circuit.
In advertising, money for creative people does not start flowing in till they are two to three years into the profession -- when they have done enough work to show and demand greater salary, says Rusell John, brand manager with Lowe Lintas.
Creative professionals expect a 15 to 25 per cent salary hike, which often leads agency head honchos to wonder whether to maintain their topline or bottomline. When clients expect greater returns for their ad spends, the agencies cut down on their margins and try to boost volumes through their key clients.
Sumanto Chattopadhyay, senior creative director, Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai, says: "Fifteen years ago, we did not have so many options and at that time advertising used to pay well. So I came into advertising."
However, post-globalisation, the young expect very high salaries. "Besides, talent is being wooed by other countries and industries. Advertising industry in India needs an awakening, to rethink the way it works," says Chattopadhyay.
Other than losing people to TV and films, ad agencies are losing their trained manpower to rival agencies as well.
Many youngsters get quick promotions because there is no mid-level person to handle that job and many of them are lured by other agencies for more money, observes the creative head of an agency.
At senior levels, though, advertising professionals usually don't leave the advertising industry for other sectors.
"When people change their jobs, they change it within the advertising industry as the format of making an ad is very different from other forms of creatives. At the most, people venture into films or television" says Angnello Dias, chief creative officer with ad firm JWT.
Fortunately, there are still some who join advertising not for money. A young copyrighter with O&M, just one year into the profession, claims he joined the industry for creative satisfaction and not for money.
Deep Mukherjee, vice- president of human resource consultancy Teamlease, explains how the nature of shortage of talent in creatives is very different from other sectors of the economy: "Journalism and advertising show similar behaviour when it comes to job changes. They are very close-knit communities, and talent flows depend on the relationships that people have with each other."
