Igor Omilaev via Unsplash
(This article forms part of the AdNews mid-year update on the state of the market in Australia
Download the report HERE)
The advertising job market is a brutal fight to the finish, being overwhelmed with talent and not enough jobs, according to recruiters.
The year’s first six months had 30% fewer roles and 20% more applications, compared to last year, according to iknowho data.
One freelance digital marketing specialist role received 360 applicants in the first three days and none were successful as the job was filled by another contact of the recruiter.
And this is common practice now – iknowho fills more than 70% of roles through its database rather than applications. Meaning relationships are more important than ever.
Given the current state of the economy this is “not surprising” as redundancies and lower marketing budgets have made it harder for candidates to get noticed, Iknowho lead talent partner Sheryn Small told AdNews.
Luckily the market is getting better as recruiters say the June quarter has been an improvement on a difficult March quarter with a spike in activity across job briefs and placements.
Which could be a positive indicator for the remaining calendar year.
Although open roles are still skewed to freelance and fixed-term contracts instead of permanent opportunities for most recruiters.
Talent Run founder Amy Lee says the rising demand for freelancers is due to clients moving to more project based work rather than retainer.
“At a time when there’s an incredible number of pitches happening, freelancers are also being used to stave off burnout of current agency staff,” Lee told AdNews.
However at iknowho the proportion of freelancers to permanent roles has decreased this quarter “which is a shame as we have an increasing pool of freelancers,” Small said.
The volatility with budgets is also causing a hesitancy to commit to senior or long-term roles.
Junior roles are less risky to hire, Aquent Australia senior talent agent of marketing and analytics Jimmy Sutton said.
“Cost-cutting and the rise of [in-house] agency models have led to agencies losing their biggest clients and restricting hiring,” Sutton said.
“The upside to enterprise organisations creating internal agency models has been new opportunities for people looking to switch from agency to client-side. These have often been freelance roles to support the transformation without adding to the headcount.”
Iknowho is also seeing far greater numbers of senior level candidates, compared to junior to mid-level candidates, “which would indicate that the majority of cuts have been at the senior level,” Small said.
This past month saw a redundancy wave at most publishers which took out high profile executives including chief marketing officer Nikki Clarkson, chief revenue officer Kurt Burnette, CMO Melissa Hopkins, Michael Desiere and many more.
“Junior to mid-level account management roles are in greater demand than senior, with a far smaller talent pool to access and successful placements often coming from prior relationships, referrals and headhunting.
“Client-service teams are leaner and there is a greater emphasis on candidates being agile, savvy at spotting growth opportunities, and having a highly consultative approach.”
Interestingly as more agencies focus on a gender balance in creative departments, there’s also an influx of male creative directors/ECDs available for work.
“Female senior creatives with an outstanding book are definitely in demand and are often able to write their own job description around that holy grail of contemporary workplaces, flexibility,” Lee said.
The ‘rise of indie’ era has also seen a greater push for senior level candidates to be more hands-on than ever.
“Mid-tier still believes the lure of client side is the way out – and they may be right, however there isn’t enough of those roles or clients open minded enough,” DMCG Global executive Partner Simon Hadfield said.
“In most cases agency candidates flourish when they move to the dark side.”
Where there are opportunities the classic suit roles are in demand.
“Think old school account service skills: predicting what a client wants before they ask, jumping on the phone if there is even the sniff of a problem, managing multiple projects on time and on budget,” Lee said.
Growth marketing management is currently one of the fastest-growing titles in the industry.
“Marketers must stay ahead of the curve, continuously learning and adapting to new technologies and market trends to stand out,” Small said.
For Sutton the most in-demand roles are customer lifecycle marketing, CRM, marketing automation and digital analytics.
“This could be due to the tough financial climate forcing businesses to focus on optimisation and efficiency instead of growth, along with changing data privacy laws shifting the focus to first party data,” Sutton said.
What does the future bring?
There is optimism that the new financial year will bring stability and hopefully more permanent opportunities.
As new roles per month are continuing on a steady trajectory, which would indicate that the second half of this year will be similar to the first half.
But the market is predicted to remain conservative.
“Hiring managers making safer choices with local vs overseas hires, whilst candidates have started to temper their salary expectations. Clients will continue to be spoilt for choice, so it is an exciting time to make hires,” Small said.
Hadfield predicted that procurement will eat away at fees to a point where agencies need to hire more and more junior talent.
“Which will ultimately lead to pitches because the agency doesn’t have enough senior talent. We’ve been here before and we’ll be here again,” Hadfield said.
“Combine that with increasing project fees versus retainers and it is damn hard to retain a consistent team.”
“I feel like you’re more likely to see growth in small to medium-sized businesses that have some flexibility, as large corporates continue to cut costs and people, and are still heavily relying on contractors,” Sutton said.
Lee predicts there will be strong growth for indie agencies in the second half of the year, meaning greater opportunities for job seekers.
“As long as they’re willing to come into the office and have either a solid creative folio or strong suiting skills,” Lee said.
“Confident that work from home rules had changed forever, a large number of job seekers live regionally—think Byron Bay, Noosa, NSW’s Northern Rivers — and are now still seeking remote work.
“Given 80% of the agencies Talent Run works with are four days a week in the office, these job seekers will be hard to help.”
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Source: Senior talent out of work, leaner teams and freelancers rule – AdNews
