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AUTOMOTIVE Chrysler Motors Corp. General Motors Mercedes-Benz NA Mercedes-Benz USA Mitsubishi Motor Sales Nissan North America Volkswagen of America Harley-Davidson TECHNOLOGY ENTERTAINMENT CONSUMER PRODUCTS
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I read the other day in Ad Age about the recruiting crisis in the marketing and advertising industry. Get a load of this: "It's become a crippling Catch-22 for both marketers and their agencies. Marketing departments don't have enough people of the caliber to truly change and drive business, so they don't get the respect they want in the C-suite, so they can't attract and retain the caliber of talent to drive business and end up regarded as little more than a cost center, rather than a springboard for the very top jobs. Similarly, agencies want to rise above commodity by selling clients consultancy-level services such as ideation, strategic thinking, channel planning and digital savvy. But many don't have the depth of talent to turn these into meaningful offerings, so they become interchangeable vendors of communications collateral. In that penny-pinched position, they find themselves unable to attract or train the kind of talent that would enable them to elevate their offerings." Every time I hear about one of these so-called "crises" that is plaguing our so-called "industry" I have to control myself from breaking out into fits of uncontrollable laughter. Who in their right mind would want to work in a business where the people who empty the trash have a better grip on reality than the people who sign the checks? Doesn't anybody out there realize that advertising and the work product of advertising is one of the most annoying components of modern every day life? "Why yes. I'm proud to say I do those things that give you an opportunity to go take a dump during the play-offs." The upshot of the Ad Age article was that the advertising business is doing an abysmal job of marketing itself to prospective job candidates from other industries. Hell, the advertising industry is doing an abysmal job of marketing anything to anybody. Why should marketing itself prove any different? In the first place, anybody who does their homework before pursuing a career in advertising would find it to be a sunset industry on the brink of disaster or immense change (whichever pundit you choose to believe). If they did their homework on a career in Marketing they would find that the CMO (their ultimate boss) has a shelf life of little better than 26 months. In the retail business with the high profile ejections of Anne McDonald from Macy's and Julie Roehm from Wal-Mart, the rise and fall have been even swifter. Who wants to be on the outs before even get a chance to get in? Nobody with a decent GPA from any well-known MBA factory. So what does advertising and marketing get? Can you say bottom feeders, boys and girls? Besides, anybody can do advertising. Just ask the booty-ass CEO who fancies himself a better writer than anybody at the agency and sends their copy back with his "suggestions" that are basically worthless retreads of something from Darrin Stevens on "Bewitched." I can't really say I would recommend this business in its current state to a kid who was at the top of his class. But a seasoned corporate cut-throat with a fire in her belly and a "take-no-prisoners attitude?" I'd sign her up in a heartbeat. That's because there are millions to be made by the right folks with the right stuff to be able to reinvent this cesspool from the silt on up. The first thing a new hire needs to bring to this business is a fresh slap of reality. If there is one thing in short supply on Madison Avenue it's a sense of what is going on in the real world. One thing that is going on in the real world is that ad spending is down as much as 19.4% in certain key industry segments. But enough about the lack of confidence among advertisers. I don't want to wake up the barbarians at the gate. Let them sleep. More opportunities for me and mine.
Stay tuned. |
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