Advertising’s Missing Middle Will Haunt The Industry This Year
Why would grads join the back of a queue for a network grad scheme when @Aldi pays £44K and advertising starting salaries are between £22-24K?
Jon shares his views on why agencies need to change their practices and workplaces in 2023 to retain the best talent with @TheDrum. What’s your take?
(7-minute read with a large Americano and a couple of baclava)
Many a dewy-eyed memoir is filled with stories from the days of glory. The fast cars, the exotic shoots, the drugs, from post room to boardroom in the blink of an eye... you’ve heard them all. In much the same way that the ads themselves used to hold a special place in the hearts of the viewing public, advertising agencies were, in that unreconstructed moment in time, cool too. But to stretch the analogy, in much the same way that everyone is adblocking now, it’s not exactly top of anyone’s list as a career move any more.
There is a dangerous vacuum at the heart of the business, a net deficit caused by two seemingly unstoppable forces. Agencies can’t attract new talent. And the talent we did have has bailed out during the great resignation/recalibration.
Why? Well, would you join the back of a queue for a network grad scheme when Aldi’s pays £44,000 and advertising starting salaries are between £22,000 and £24,000? Or when McDonald’s is offering school leavers not only a decent salary but a business degree at Manchester Met?
More pertinently, why would you burn a 90-hour week in an agency when you could burn it at a young hungry startup that actually shares your values and where you get an equity stake so your graft actually comes back to you?
And then, during the pandemic, a whole lot of people left the industry. Fired, furloughed or just fundamentally disenchanted, most of them aren’t ever coming back. Less the big resignation, more the big recalibration.
We know from procurement data culled from RFIs that it wasn’t so much the expensive suits who left, or the cheap juniors. It was those in the middle. The hard-working talent who did all the work. And taught the juniors. That brings trouble now and in the future.
Agencies just haven’t tried very hard to update a culture that was cool in the 70s, 80s and 90s, but is absolutely not cool now. Oxford or Cambridge is about as divergent as some agency grads schemes get. They’re generally just not set up to accommodate young people from non-white, non-middle-class backgrounds. Even when agencies try to bring them on board, it’s not an easy enough ride. How do we make it smoother?
You need to ask someone smarter than me, for a start. I opened this up to Matt Wells, recruitment specialist and founder of Congregation, and James Hillhouse, founder of Commercial Break, a transformation agency focused on increasing working-class representation in the creative and marketing industries.
Their thought starters don’t have all the answers, but perhaps they are a start...
We need to create a sector that overlays people’s passions with commercial opportunities for business growth again. You want entrepreneurial souls? We should rewrite contracts to allow room and support for second businesses or side hustles. This isn’t just a good-to-have any more, it’s an expectation. And if you don’t allow space for it, people will either never come or they will just leave and go and do it anyway.
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
