Hard times ahead? Our outlook on marketing recruitment
The Q2 2008 Bellwether Report – a survey of marketing spend - has recently revealed that current marketing budgets have gone down for the third consecutive quarter and are being cut at the fastest rate since 9/11. With this in mind, you would be led to believe that job vacancy volumes within marketing must be plunging, and that there’s a surplus of (redundant) candidates to select from. Well, our reality is quite different. Judging from indicators within our own business as well as external factors, it seems that the marketing job market is still moving forward. We’ve seen more candidates registering week by week and many agencies and blue chips are still urgently seeking new talent. Perhaps then, the current nervousness about the job market could be attributed to the negative coverage of the economy in the media? Recession or media-created frenzy, everyone’s opinion of the current economic climate will differ but there’s definitely a shared sense of optimism about job prospects and job security from some of our candidates. The optimistic outlook could be attributed to the ‘candidate-driven’ market we’ve been seeing for a quite some time now where there seems to be an abundance of marketing and creative jobs available and good candidates are attracting multiple job offers. Great news for job seekers but something that’s been a real frustration for some of our clients. The latest Marketing Trends Survey by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (Spring 2008) also suggests that marketers are remaining upbeat despite the economic slowdown. The survey revealed that a surprisingly high 39 per cent of marketers are confident that business for their organisation will improve over the next 12 months.
Significantly, the CIM’s survey also highlights an air of confidence in marketers’ expectations about staffing levels over the current sales year. The survey revealed that 30 per cent of marketers expect to be adding staff, with only 10 per cent expecting a decrease in the size of their organisation’s marketing function. Sectors such as public relations and digital/online marketing are still suffering from a dearth of quality candidates and we are hearing about redundancies but many of our clients are also increasing their headcount, so it seems that the playing field hasn’t changed quite as dramatically as most will have expected.
We spoke to some our clients about the current climate and Dean Lovett, CEO at McCann-Erickson in Birmingham, told Big fish that he is also "seeing a different picture and is currently enjoying lots of success" amid signs that the credit crunch is starting to take hold for those in the marketing business.
“Unlike previous downturns in the UK economy, the prospect of a global recession is creating immediate and in many cases serious problems for the private sector, particularly for our clients in property-related and manufacturing businesses. A distinct lack of confidence, especially among those firms which are highly geared, is already resulting to cuts in PR activity while they prepare to ride out the storm, and several larger projects are being put on hold until next year at least. However, it appears that, for now, budgets in the public sector which are already committed are not being affected. As specialists in business-to-business public relations, we have definitely seen pressure on margins increasing as we seek to deliver tangible value for money – but decreasing levels of investment in benchmarking and monitoring shifts in attitude and perceptions is making this more difficult. Agencies will be seeking to streamline their operations and boost productivity while at the same time working with their clients through this difficult time in order to retain client relationships”. Grant also commented that “there will always be jobs for high calibre staff - especially in the digital arena where demand continues to outstrip supply.” Ian Halley, Client Services Director at Rees Bradley Hepburn also talked exclusively to Big fish and commented that he is “seeing several clients putting greater emphasis on generating sales, rather than longer term brand building, as they try to weather the upcoming storm. For agencies like RBH, which specialise in activating sales, this represents an opportunity - particularly in digital media where the incremental sales effect is so measurable”. Halley also commented that “RBH has always been able to attract the best digital talent but the current economic conditions, and greater focus on digital, will significantly increase competition for the best digital creatives, strategists and project managers”.
We have seen an increase in the in the number of middle-management marketing and creative vacancies and also a slowdown in the movement of junior level positions – something that is reflected by the new vacancies currently being advertised on the Big fish website. Some senior candidates may be concerned with moving jobs during a ‘pending UK recession’ and so are sticking with their organisation to help re-evaluate its marketing spend and move it forward in the current climate. On the flipside, other senior candidates could even be excited at the challenges a difficult market provides as clients seek to appoint senior personnel, who may have worked in previous market downturns, to bring fresh ideas and innovative marketing ideas. The slowdown in the number of junior positions could be attributed to the need for employers to make cut backs on the costs of training junior candidates and also the need for businesses to recruit more experienced candidates to make their brands work harder in tough times.
The uncertain economic environment could be actually turn out to be a great opportunity for candidates and the recruitment market in general. Does this idea seem a little controversial? Well, perhaps, but as business attitudes and measures of commercial success change, candidates (particularly marketers) will need to really demonstrate their worth and explore different approaches to convey their businesses competitive edge on tighter budgets. This could ultimately help to bring some cutting-edge candidates with innovative ideas onto the job market. And being an industry that prides itself on striving for originality and great ideas, this is surely a positive thought where businesses can still exceed expectations and make budgets count. I also suspect that digital will undoubtedly benefit from a rough economic period as companies look to spend more money on online marketing (such as Pay Per Click campaigns where every pound is accounted for) and cut back on more expensive offline marketing campaigns. PR could also perform well as investment in communications is essential in bad times as well as good. Companies will also probably be pushing more marketing spend into PR as its perceived as one of the most cost-effective options in the marketing mix So where does Big fish stand in all of this? Well, the market’s definitely a lot tougher than it was and people are a little less willing to spend money right now (whether its marketing or recruitment) but we still maintain that if you offer an excellent service at a reasonable price that adds value or saves money you will be able to sell it, no matter how tough the market gets. This is a philosophy that Big fish has shared even before all the talk of economic uncertainty. We’ve also learned that ultimately, Big fish could help to act as an important ‘shock absorber’ by cushioning employers and job seekers from increasing economic uncertainty by providing quality candidates and career opportunities in a tough market. Best wishes
Carl Freelove |
