ASSIGNMENT # 2

Advertising Agency
ADVERTISING, Summer 2011 Muhammad Saad Bhutta
8/1/2011

Submitted to: Mr. Ejaz Mian

INTRODUCTION
Interflow Communications is one of the top advertising agencies providing marketing communication services in Pakistan. It has its offices in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. It has professionals relating with creative, media and advertising management. It is a full service agency that provides solutions ranging from mass effectiveness of electronic, print and out of home media to the intimacy of new media

HISTORY
It is established in 1983 by Taher A. Khan. Interflow has built and re-built brands raised the bar on solution delivery and brought the spirit of custodianship to life over and over again. Over the years, Interflow has been intimately associated with successful brands such as Pepsi, Ufone and PTCL

LIST OF CLIENTS
Mountain Dew Cheetos

7up

PSO

Mirinda

PTCL

7up free

Skincare

Lays

Aqualyng

Ufone

Braclays

Augere

Kurkure

Bp

Save the children

Daihatus Coure

Singer plus

Himaliya herbal

Kisan foods

Nissan

Bubble gummers

Kitchen Secrets

Urban Sole

Samsung

FFC Sona

Manpasand

UNDP

Planta

TV 1

News1

FM91

AGENCY PAYMENT MODE

Interflow is getting paid on commission basis. It charges 16% as its commission. However, with growing competition, clients are now emphasizing on incentive-based mode. Interflow has regretted this option as interflow thinks that there is no mechanism developed in Pakistan which can measure true effectiveness of an ad. Also the old debate of linking advertisement with sales is bottleneck in the implementation of incentive based system

CLIENT-AGENCY RELATED PROBLEMS Increasing demand with fixed budget

Though the payment is commissioned based, still the clients generally have some ceiling point (budget) which they do not want to cross. However, clients often allocate budget for advertising and communicate to agency that the ad should remain within a specified amount. When both parties agree to some basic understanding, clients often keep changing their demands and do not allow for the cost to rise. This becomes the area of conflict and often resolved through a review of the whole process

Creativity vs. Message Communication

This is the old problem with this relationship. Agencies generally want to convey a message through some creative. Creative executives do not want to be interfered by clients during development process. Creativity may also reduce the efficiency of whole advertisement as less information may be transferred to viewers during a creative ad

Less Integration
With various communications channel and tendency of clients to use different agencies for different communication channel, often the integration of message becomes difficult. Variance in message may cause channels outcome to greatly affect each other. Interflow has responded to this problem by offering all the solutions under one roof

Urgency
Loyal and big customers know their position and often become too demanding. They shared a recent example of skin cares product FairMenz when they wanted to create an ad within 3 days as they were anticipating a campaign of Max Fair & Lovely

Outcomes
This problem may sound clich but is often the big issue for interflow. Clients most of the time held agency responsible for the outcomes of a campaign. And the problem becomes more difficult for a full service agency which interflow is.

ORGANIZATION CHART

Creative Manager Copywritting Creative Director Assistant Creative Director Creative Manager Storyboard Director Client Service CEO Interflow Director Finance Manager Finance (3) Fiance Executive (4) Account Managers (3) Account Executive (4)

Creative Executive (3) Creative Executive (3)

Manager Research Director Stratgeic Media Planning & Research Assistant Director Manager Media Planning

Research Executive (3) Executive Planning (3)

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SERVICES
Interflow offers all the services under one roof. It follows 360 Degree branding philosophy. It is also to reduce the area of conflict of integration where clients often find it difficult to communicate same message through all the communication channels of IMC. This also enables to have a greater control on overall campaign and reduces the conflict of shifting blames relating outcomes to result

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SWOT ANALYSIS

Strength
All solutions under one roof Talented retained professionals Large Customers database Loyal Customers (Like Pepsi Co.)

Weakness
Newly inducted services like market research is not up to the industry level

Opportunities
Industry still under developed, hence more room for improvement Brand development for many products is required Media is flourishing

Threats
Intense growing competition Globalization has impacted, as companies are trying to keep one agency world wide Regional ads are now becoming common. Covering two or more countries at a time Less advertising budgets and movement to other elements of IMC Audience is not as active in the process and hence advertising is becoming less attractive for clients

EQUIPMENT OWNED
Apple Macintosh For animation & effects Peoples meter For measuring rating Axon- Planning Tool

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