Find Advertising, Marketing and PR expertise in Pakistan

Advertising, marketing and PR are developing industries in Pakistan which has reacted to media reforms with a surge in activity.

Some of the key associations in this area include the Pakistani Advertisers’ Society, which represents the advertising industry; and the Marketing Association of Pakistan (MAP), which represents the marketing industry.

It is possible to study for a Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) qualification through the University of Management and Technology in the Lahore region. Other non-affiliated qualifications are also available in different institutions around the country.

The PR industry is flourishing, with multinational companies such Publicis and Ketchum establishing arms in Pakistan. Both PR and marketing, as in most countries, predominantly remain in-house practices although a reflection of the developed state of the marketing and advertising industry in Pakistan is the presence of three global advertising firms, WPP, BBDO and Saatchi and Saatchi. WPP has some 26 subsidiary firms in the country; BBDO operates directly and has one subsidiary and IAL (International Advertising Ltd) Saatchi and Saatchi.

The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report (2012-2013) shows that the marketing industry and buyers sophistication is moderate in Pakistan. In extent of marketing where 1 indicates that advertisers make little use of sophisticated advertising tools and techniques and 7 that extensive use is made of them, Pakistan scores 3.8. This places it in 81^st position out of 144 countries worldwide and below the world mean of 4.1. In buyer sophistication where 1 means that buyers place more emphasis on price than on a sophisticated analysis of performance attributes which scores 7, Pakistan ranks 78^th. The country scores just below the world mean of 3.5 with 3.3 out of 7.

Recent reforms in the telecoms and broadcast media industry have offered advertisers greater exposure to the Pakistani public, and as a result, the advertising industry is booming. Spending by domestic advertising firms has risen four and a half times over 2000 to 2010, to a total of Rs28 billion.  Much of this rise in spending was in television advertising; however print media also attracted significant spending. The amount spent on newspaper advertising almost doubled between 2003 and 2008.

Social media uptake has risen with 100, 000 new Facebook users in the second half of 2012. Uptake is still low proportionally with only 4.25% of the population on Facebook but this represents 7 835 140 users in real terms. As a result social media marketing companies have developed to serve this niche demand.

Outdoor advertising in Pakistan is a widespread and competitive industry with firms operating all over the country.