PETALING JAYA: Like the advertising industry, the media and communications landscape is also feeling the pinch in terms of talent shortage.
Due to the business complexities aided by the rapid usage of technologies like data and analytics, talents have become more specialised and competition has flared up. The migration of talents to neighbouring countries has also worsened the situation.
Commenting on talents in the media and communications industry, Media Specialists Association (MSA) new president Bala Pomaleh told StarBiz that the talent dynamics have shifted drastically compared with last year.
“We see a progressive integration of talents across industries, especially with the intersection of data, commerce, and tech industries.
“Talents are increasingly leveraging their opportunities to deliver their best value to clients through their digital and technology prowess, which in turn raises the value of the partnership that the client affords to media agencies,” he said.
Due to the talent crunch in the media and communications business, he said, among others, employer-branding is important to retain talents.
Employer-branding refers to a company’s reputation as a place to work.
In other words, the employer’s brand is how people perceive the company’s values and work environment.
“Our value proposition as employers is our brand. As such it is important for us to get our story out there for people to see what it is like to live and breathe in a media agency.”
Bala said there are no apparent gaps in Malaysia’s ad industry growth compared with neighbouring countries.
“The pandemic has rapidly shrunk our world, breaking borders, and boundaries. While we were working from home, the effort to brainstorm with someone as far apart as 9,000km or 9km was effectively the same.
“Most importantly, we are learning from each other and creating the opportunities for growth instead of playing catch up,” he added.
Established on Dec 19, 2003, the MSA aims to help and support those agencies that specialise in providing media research, strategic planning, media negotiation and placement services.
It has 20-plus members. The association also plays a significant role by providing a common platform to discuss and resolve current and future issues faced by the industry.
Elaborating on the prospect of the industry for the second half of the year, he said it is premature to project at this stage, adding that there are many uncertainties now that could affect the outlook.
The Russia-Ukraine war, disruptions in supply chains and higher inflationary pressures worldwide are seen as challenges that would impact the industry.
This weaker ringgit, he said, could also prove tricky for media owners using foreign content to generate ad and media spends.
The possibility of the 15th general election in the second half of the year is the other big event that would impact the industry.
Election years typically create more ad space demand, he said, noting that spending would likely rebound which is also good for the media industry.
Bala took over the reins from Chanchal Chakrabarty who completed his term as the president of the association.
Chanchal is currently the chief executive officer of GroupM Malaysia.
Bala will hold the MSA presidency for the 2022 to 2024 term.
Dheeraj Raina, who is the chief executive officer (CEO) of dentsu Malaysia (media), is now the association’s vice-president.
With 30 years in the industry, Bala was also recognised as South-East Asia’s agency head of 2021 with Campaign Asia.
Under his guidance, the Mediabrands network, of which he is the CEO of Mediabrands Malaysia, has gone from strength to strength.
Its agencies have won numerous local and regional awards including Campaign Asia Agency of the Year, Festival of Media Global & Asia, Malaysian Media Awards, Kancil and the Effie Awards, and maintained top scores across RECMA’s quantitative and qualitative evaluation and the global WARC Top Agency list.
WARC is a global marketing award.