Ad firms scour for talent in other sectors

It's normal to find advertising professionals turning into brand managers. But increasingly, the advertising community is seeing the reverse happening.

"We want to hire people from other industries. Not just in planning but also in creative," said Tarun Rai, senior vice-president and general manager, JWT.

Govind Pandey, senior vice-president and general manager, McCann Erickson, said, "Advertising as an industry has been a destination for marketing professionals from other sectors."

Indian ad agencies claim that they are hiring professionals from the FMCG, banking and even IT sectors.

JWT has already hired some professionals from other sectors in its strategic planning team. Revised communication formats, increased penetration and new emerging media are some of the reasons that ad agencies attribute to this trend.

Internationally, healthcare is an area where one can see doctors becoming copywriters. But executives feel such trends will happen in India as the healthcare communication formats mature.

For agencies it is a win-win situation because the experts bring in the perspective, pressure and sensibility of the client industries, which is overlooked by advertising agencies (an in-house critic).

Sapna Srivastava, vice-president - HRD, JWT, said, "Communication experts with a background of other industries, make for a good strategic planning team."

It is easier for an expert from the marketing department of the sector to identify with advertising as a profession, she says.

Anju Kurien, general manager - HR, Grey Worldwide, said, "With years of experience, professionals with an interest in the communication industry are been encouraged." Depending on the acquired skills and knowledge, professionals are being hired for strategic planning, client servicing and copy writing departments.

Experts with 8-10 years of experience move to advertising, thus they bring value addition in terms of industry knowledge, client's problems and understanding, trends and international outlook.

"In case of specialised writing for a pharma or medicine company with help from qualified doctors or practitioners would provided an added edge," adds Kurien.

However, some advertising stalwarts do not agree that all changes are for the better.

Arvind Sharma, chairman and chief executive officer, Leo Burnett, said, "It would take an intelligent advertising professional to understand banking or a complex industry in a week, but not every banking expert can write a creative copy."