Adland wants young blood, but skips the very campuses where it flows

New Delhi: It sounded like an urgent call when Srinivasan Swamy, President of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), said that the industry needs more young talent. Along with a reasonable appeal, it was also a rallying cry in the advertising industry. 

Agencies have been talking about a shortage of fresh minds for years, and his words echoed what many veterans keep repeating.

But the reality on campuses is far from this rhetoric. Walk into placement drives at leading media schools, and you will not find agencies waiting at the front of the line. Students who want to enter advertising usually get there through internships, personal contacts or LinkedIn, not because agencies come looking for them.

Instead, the busiest stalls at these campuses belong to PR firms, digital companies, corporate communication teams and start-ups. These recruiters offer structured roles, competitive salaries and clear career paths, and they are the ones walking away with the largest share of fresh talent.

The irony is hard to miss. Agencies say young people are no longer choosing advertising. Media institutes and their placement heads point out that agencies themselves are not showing up where the talent is most accessible.

Placement without agencies

At the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, one of the country’s most prominent media schools, advertising agencies are conspicuous by their absence. Meeta Ujjain, Associate Professor at the institute, said that agencies simply do not participate in the placement process. “Not a single agency comes to campus,” she said. 

“Students who end up in agencies usually get there after internships they’ve found on their own, often through LinkedIn or mentors. Out of a batch of 75, only 10 to 15 opt for advertising roles. The majority go into corporate communications or PR, where the entry routes are more structured and stable,” she explained. 

Her description of how students navigate placements is telling. Agencies prefer a three-month internship filter before even considering a hire, making the formal placement cell redundant. The result: students interested in advertising have to find opportunities independently, while structured recruiters like PR firms and corporate houses dominate campus activity.

The situation is not very different at Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication in Bhopal. Placement Cell Head Kanchan Bhatia estimated that 30 to 40% of their graduates in recent years have gone into advertising, but agencies have not stepped onto campus for three years. “In the past three years, we haven't had a single advertising agency come for recruitment. Those who get into agencies do so outside the placement system. The sectors actively pulling talent are PR, digital marketing and e-commerce,” Bhatia said. 

According to Bhatia, the compass is shifting and is shifting fast. She said that students now increasingly look for roles away from traditional advertising. 

This sentiment was echoed by Kiran Desai, Director, School of Branding and Advertising, NMIMS, Mumbai. 

“Nearly 60–65% of our graduates prefer careers in digital marketing, PR, content creation, and corporate communications. This shift reflects industry realities: it doesn’t imply a decline in the branding and advertising sector. 

It reflects where the jobs are being created. Today, most growth is happening on the client side, with brands investing heavily in in-house creative, content, and digital teams. Students are naturally gravitating to these opportunities that align with growth trends,” she told BestMediaInfo.com. 

Students, she added, admire the legacy of advertising but are pragmatic. “They increasingly believe they can do meaningful brand work on the client side with better balance and ownership of brand narrative,” Desai said. 

For students, the perception of advertising has less to do with creativity and more to do with economics. At IIMC, Ujjain, admitted that only a small proportion actively choose agencies because corporate communications and PR jobs appear more stable. At NMIMS, Desai said students are concerned about the “modest pay and long working hours.” 

Pay and long hours

Advertising agencies, despite their rhetoric about creativity and legacy, are offering starting packages that fall behind PR firms, digital-first companies and brand marketing teams. Add to that the reputation for long hours, and the scales tilt quickly.

This is where the industry’s complaints ring hollow. While agencies say young people are not choosing them, students argue that the agencies simply do not compete strongly enough, either on campus presence or on compensation.

Shraddha Agarwal, CEO and Co-founder, Grapes Worldwide, admitted that young professionals weigh advertising carefully against other sectors. “Advertising still carries a perception of being more demanding in terms of hours and pace compared to PR or digital. Some young people weigh that against their personal priorities and hesitate. Salaries at entry level are another consideration, since other sectors occasionally position themselves as offering faster initial growth,” she said. 

Young talent inclining towards digital is very much evident from Grapes’ experience in the hiring process. “Over the last couple of years, we’ve consciously looked at young talent from mass communication institutes. They bring in not just academic learning but also a certain curiosity and energy that helps us stay sharp as an agency. Our entry-level hiring from these institutes has been steady, and we see them as an important recruitment base for the future of our business. Campus placements are a key part of this effort,” she shared. 

Another noticeable shift in the talent entering the advertising industry is the decline in MBA graduates. This shift was highlighted by Raj Kamble, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Famous Innovations. Kamble is also the director of Miami Ad School in India. 

Zooming in on this shift, Kamble said, “In the past, it was common to see MBA graduates working at advertising agencies. However, that has changed dramatically.” 

“Today, the starting salary for an MBA graduate is around Rs 35 lakhs per year. In contrast, advertising agencies typically offer starting salaries between Rs 4 lakhs and Rs 6 lakhs. This significant pay disparity has created a talent gap. For the last 10-15 years, it's been financially impractical for MBA graduates to join advertising agencies after investing so much in their education,” he added. 

Pointing out the reason, Kamble said, “The reason for this trend is clear. The advertising industry is less profitable than it used to be. The majority of profits are now made in media buying, not in the creative side of the business. When creative departments don't make money, they can't afford to pay employees competitive salaries.” 

To counter the prerequisite of ad agencies to have a compulsory internship before they hire new talent, Kamble’s M. Ad School of Ideas provides a year-long internship as part of the program. 

The bigger picture

Put together, the voices from campuses and agencies highlight a contradiction. Agencies say young people are no longer interested, but the evidence shows agencies are simply not present in the places where talent is available.

Institutes like IIMC and Makhanlal confirm that agencies rarely participate in placements. Even where they do, as at NMIMS, their offers do not compare with the competition. Students may still admire advertising, but admiration does not translate into career choice when other sectors offer better incentives.

The issue is not that advertising has lost its creative pull. Students continue to admire the campaigns that capture the public imagination. The issue is that agencies are not investing in recruitment, nor are they keeping up with the incentives offered elsewhere.

For the AAAI and its president, this is more than a seasonal concern. If agencies fail to fix their hiring practices, placement presence and compensation structures, the industry could lose its pipeline of talent altogether.