Understanding Career Options

Career Tips | April 12, 2010 | Share

A career according to me should be decided not just for the sake of money earned, but the amount of satisfaction returned. My choice for today from the plenitude of options goes with the same logic and reason.

In this competitive world with a plethora of ‘me-too’ products to sell, Advertising is the only reliable option in the minds of the large global players to small local retailers. In economies such as ours, consumers are rapidly learning to rely on advertising and other promotional messages for information in making purchase decisions. With the advent of newer media and the latest tools and technologies for entertainment, the advertiser has plenty of options to utilize the potential from various mediums. Good advertising helps the consumer break through the clutter. So the field of advertising as a career opens the flood gates of infinite opportunities. The main career options can be classified as Client servicing, creative department, market research and account planning.

Advertising is the art of scientific salesmanship, the ability to observe and understand your target customer, and get them to behave as you wish. The thrill is different in advertising as there is no monotony in strategies and is fun to work with. The creation of a new advertisement is what creates the hype and the idea is to make the viewer or the audience hooked. The ability to empathize with diverse products, the passion and energy to continue is always required, because advertising more than any other profession is beset with rejections, day in and out.

The present society and the people are a lot skeptical about the future of the advertising arena and the prospects it has to offer. They are aware neither about the research involved behind the curtains nor about the effort involved in strategizing the 30 second advertisement. Analyzing and ascertaining only the output is what makes the public unaware of the research involved. But today people, even from the semi urban areas are getting enlightened on the industry, and the great future it has in the years ahead, thanks to the media penetration.

The ad industry proves to be convergent with advertising photography becoming a big buck business, acting as another option, big time directors getting involved and so comes big time glitz and glamour. Even big advertising names like Prasoon Joshi have proved his mettle as a lyricist in movies like Rang De Basanti and Taare Zameen Par.

With the Indian ad’s earning top awards in the bigger advertising contests like Cannes, the talent of the Indian Advertising Industry is getting recognized at a faster pace. The Ad industry has another advantage as an easy to start business with not much of an investment, but requiring enough of talent.

As per the Ficci – Pricewaterhousecoopers 2008 Report on Indian entertainment and media industry shows a sustained growth for Indian Entertainment & Media (E&M) Industry in 2007. Indian E&M Industry recorded a growth of 17% in 2007 over 2006 in an industry size estimated at Rs. 513 billion in 2007, up from Rs. 438 billion in 2006. The Advertising industry recorded a growth of 22% in 2007 over 2006 to reach Rs. 196 billion in 2007, which is a growth from Rs. 161 billion in 2006 and contributed to 38% of the industry’s revenues. While the Indian E&M Industry is projected to grow by 18% cumulatively over the next five years; it’s projected to reach Rs. 1.157 trillion by 2012.

Continuing with the trend of the previous years, the emergence of media conglomerates further intensified in 2007. Several media groups expanded beyond their traditional domains to leverage on the synergies of advertising, thus aiming to have a presence across all segments of the Indian E&M industry. In 2007, foreign investments in the E&M sector reached a record high of USD 211 million, approximately Rs. 8.5 billion. This was seen as a result of the extremely high number of investment deals announced in 2006 and the years before. The advertising industry is experiencing a paradigm shift with digital platforms enabling to reach the critical mass. This had resulted in consumers shifting from passive mediums to spending more time on digitally interactive mediums. Internet and mobile are two keys enablers for the same. Internet advertising is estimated at Rs 4.2 billion in 2008 growing at 32% CAGR, expected to touch Rs 11 billion in 2012.

The performance of the Indian entertainment and media (E&M) industry has surpassed the performance of the Indian economy as well as most other industries in 2007. These details couples with the unflagging interest justify a career in advertising to be one best bet in the days to come.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

Key data points:

	Size in 2007 (Rs. billion)	Growth 2007 over 2006	Size in 2012 (projected) (Rs. billion)	CAGR 2008-12	Growth in last 4 years 2004-07
Overall	513	17%	1,157	18%	19%
Television	226	18%	600	22%	21%
Filmed Entertainment	96	14%	176	13%	17%
Print Media	149	16%	281	14%	15%
Radio	6.2	24%	18.0	24%	37%
Music	7.3	1%	8.0	2%	3%
Animation & Gaming	13.0	24%	40.0	25%	-
OOH advertising	12.5	25%	24.0	14%	14%
Online advertising	2.7	69%	11.0	32%	65%

Global advertising expenditure by medium

	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Newspapers	122,795	125,030	126,327	127,583	130,070
Magazines	53,795	55,437	57,151	59,338	61,566
Television	161,633	171,823	184,212	193,673	204,559
Radio	35,834	37,251	38,587	39,927	41,246
Cinema	1,882	2,013	2,197	2,410	2,700
Outdoor	26,802	28,952	31,676	34,475	37,330
Internet	28,818	37,795	47,544	57,106	66,903
Total *	431,561	458,301	487,695	514,512	544,375