At a recent meeting with a multinational financial services company, Publicis India Managing Director Nakul Chopra realised that three of the five people representing the potential client were advertising men who had switched sides.
Advertising executives have been crossing over to the clients' side for some time. But what was a trickle is becoming a deluge. "That is the larger issue for the industry," says Rediffusion DY&R President Mahesh Chauhan.
However, the ad industry, weakened by eroding talent, shrinking margins and fleeing clients, has risen to the challenge and begun to draw talent from all pools. Aeronautical engineers, purchase managers and financial wizards are men-of-the-moment at numerous agencies.
Industries from retail and financial services to telecom and interactive companies -- even airlines -- are sucking talent out of advertising.
McCann Erickson President Santosh Desai has joined retailer Kishore Biyani's Future Group. Anil Ambani's Reliance ADG's A team includes Ajay Kakkar, the former head of Ogilvy Financial, Divya Gupta, former president of Rediffusion's media division, The Media Edge, and Sandip Tarkas, the former head of Media Direction.
"A junior account manager with less than five years of experience can expect his salary to double in financial services," says Govind Pandey, president, McCann Erickson.
Advertising executives slip easily into a customer-facing or product-management job. It has not helped that advertising as a profession is no longer at the top of the value chain. Less than 20 per cent of students from premier advertising institutes opt to become admen, compared with 70-80 per cent five years ago.
"The advertising industry is now taking some action," said Chauhan. For instance, Shyam Shanker, the head of India Media Exchange, the media buying entity announced last month by Publicis Groupe, is a rookie despite 25 years of experience, which were spent with luggage maker Blow Plast, consumer goods makers Marico and Dabur, and liquor company Shaw Wallace.
To head its human resources and training, ad agency Mudra has picked Ajit Menon, an aeronautical engineer who was with the hospitality industry.
Ashoke Sengupta, the finance head of India's largest media services company, Group M, has a CV that includes stints with Procter & Gamble and Reuters.
There is more to come. Says Mudra's Managing Director Madhukar Kamath, "The industry requires people with different skill sets. It could do with a lot more talent at the entry and mid-levels."