GENERAL ASSEMBLY WHITE PAPER THE TRUTH ABOUT 21ST CENTURY MARKETING TALENT
THE TRUTH ABOUT 21ST CENTURY MARKETING TALENT 7 Marketing Talent Myths Agencies Must Confront To Win Digital Business
GENERAL ASSEMBLY WHITE PAPER THE TRUTH ABOUT 21ST CENTURY MARKETING TALENT
INTRODUCTION
The transition from traditional to digital media occurred slowly and then all at once. Now, it’s here: we are on the Internet everywhere, always. Our eyeballs are shifting their gaze from the device on the wall to the device in our hand, and advertisers are rushing to get back in front of their customers. As they make the leap, brands are expecting more from their agency partners. Thorough, up to date comprehension of the rapidly evolving digital marketing landscape has become absolutely crucial for any agency looking to grow their business.
GLOBAL MEDIA CONSUMPTION TRENDS % Change in Daily Time Spent by Global Consumers with Media
Let’s look at some facts. The chart below illustrates how drastically media consumption has changed over the last 15 years. Digital has been the big winner in the war for people’s attention and print has been the big loser. Media
Total Change
Annual Change
Overall Media
5.1%
1.4%
TV
-6.0%
-1.6%
Internet
83.7%
9.8%
Print newspapers
-25.6%
-4.7%
Print magazines
-19%
-4.4%
Outdoor exposure
1.2%
0.2%
2010 – 2014
2014 – 2017
Source: mediapost.com/publications/article/251441/media-consumption-grows-enhanced-by-internet.html (June 11, 2015)
GENERAL ASSEMBLY WHITE PAPER THE TRUTH ABOUT 21ST CENTURY MARKETING TALENT
DIGITAL AD SPENDING WORLDWIDE (2012 – 2018) Billions, % Change and % of Total Media Ad Spending
Unsurprisingly, brands and advertisers have picked up on the changes in behavior and have begun to adjust their spend accordingly. Digital ad spend is predicted to increase at least 9% a year for the next three years and, as as a percentage of “total media ad spend,” is projected to rise from a quarter to a third. $213.89 $196.05 $178.45 $160.18 $140.15 $120.05 $104.57
2012
2013
2014
Digital Ad Spending
2015
2016
% Change
2017
2018
% of Total Media Ad Spending
Note: Includes advertising that appears on desktop and laptop computers as well as mobile phones and tablets, and includes all the various formats of advertising on those platforms; excludes SMS, MMS, and P2P messaging-based advertising. Source: emarketer (July 2014)
RISE IN THE NUMBER OF CDOS WORLDWIDE (2005 – 2015)
Beyond adjusting ad budgets, companies are also adapting to technological changes with big hires. The dramatic rise in the number of CDOs over the past few years demonstrates that companies — including advertisers — are striving to adapt to the new world order. 2000
Number of CDOs 1000
488 225 3
4
5
12
27
52
75
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Source: emarketer (May 2015)
2012
2013
2014
2015
GENERAL ASSEMBLY WHITE PAPER THE TRUTH ABOUT 21ST CENTURY MARKETING TALENT
7 MARKETING TALENT MYTHS MYTH #1 As a leading agency, our marketers are already leaders when it comes to the latest in digital marketing.
Like their clients, agencies understand their skills will have to change. This change is going to look different inside every agency, and it will not be easy. But there are several skill-development myths held by agencies that are causing them to miss the opportunity to lead their clients into the new age of digital marketing. The agencies who can see past these myths, and use the changing landscape to their advantage, will earn the respect of their clients, forward-thinking brands, and the digital marketing industry as a whole.
THE TRUTH IS... When it comes to digital marketing, agencies are less confident in their capabilities than they appear. Even for those who are confident today, the landscape is changing so quickly that nobody is an expert for long. The leading agencies of today cannot count on being the leading agencies of tomorrow unless they are constantly updating their skills. Last year, General Assembly surveyed 400 agency marketers and found that respondents rated their current digital marketing knowledge and experience as only a 2.3 out of 5.0. Considering their mandate to sell their expertise to advertisers, an opportunity exists for agencies to increase confidence and capabilities among their employees. In addition to the generally low confidence level, respondents lacked selfawareness of their own strengths and weaknesses: ~30% scored below average on topics that they self-designated as their area of greatest comfort. To their clients, agencies must position themselves as on the cutting edge, but it is clear that today that they are struggling to stay ahead. Brand advertisers are not in the dark about agency skills slipping. A June 2015 article in Forbes noted that in the past six months, 20 blue chips have called media agency reviews, amounting to $25 billion under review. At this rate, four times as much spending will be under review in 2015 than in 2014. Success for agencies today requires a shift in the way their marketers spend their time. Whereas they used to spend less time learning new skills, and more time executing learned skills, the marketers of the future will invest more time consistently updating their knowledge. Ongoing learning is a big commitment, but an important one for agencies going forward.
MYTH #2 A large, one-time digital transformation is sufficient to stay ahead.
THE TRUTH IS... The digital marketing landscape is constantly evolving and a one-time transformation initiative is not normally the best investment for an agency trying to maintain strong digital fluency. Instead, agencies must invest in ongoing education in order to stay ahead of their clients and the market. A 2013 Adobe survey found that 76% of marketers agreed with the statement: “Marketing has changed more in the last 2 years than in the last 50.” This sea change has left many agency marketers feeling like they’re swimming against a tide that won’t let up. At General Assembly, we ask agency marketers enrolled our online marketing training platform — the Essentials of Digital Marketing — to “name the biggest challenge(s) [they] currently face in digital marketing.”
GENERAL ASSEMBLY WHITE PAPER THE TRUTH ABOUT 21ST CENTURY MARKETING TALENT
Here are some of the challenges they responded with: • “Finding new methods of digital marketing that have not been seen or already activated by the client...thinking outside the box.” • “Finding the time to stay abreast and understand the complexity of everchanging trends and processes.” • “Keeping up with the constant evolution of channels available and a daunting amount of technical jargon.” We find these anecdotes representative of a deep-seated need for ongoing education: “new methods,” “staying abreast,” and “keeping up with the constant evolution”— none of these needs will be solved by one hire, one workshop, or one consultant’s assessment. Digital transformations are not a one-shot deal, nor are they a one-team project.
MYTH #3 It’s HR’s responsibility to ensure our agency’s digital skills are up to date.
THE TRUTH IS... Specific marketing teams (social, mobile, etc.) have the most insight into the pain points and skill deficiencies of an agency. By siloing learning initiatives within HR teams, agencies are cutting themselves off from their own best resource. Instead, agencies need to ensure that marketing teams are closely tied with HR functions to develop effective education. Michael Bassik, President of Global Digital Operations at MDC Partners recently told GA: “What’s become clear is that the skills necessary to succeed in a modern agency or marketing organization are changing rapidly. Training is an essential tool in the technology economy and must be driven from the chief executive and marketing functions, but implemented in partnership with HR and L&D functions.” Successful training should be built by all teams at an agency and should address all of its employees — despite age or level.
MYTH #4 Our junior talent is already fluent in digital. We need to focus education efforts on mid- and leadership-level employees.
THE TRUTH IS... More seasoned marketers are actually better at tackling digital campaigns. At its heart, digital marketing is still marketing and it requires the same skills that more experienced marketers have honed over years. While a millennial marketer may have had a Facebook page for the past 10 years, they do not necessarily know how to understand an audience and target them effectively, or craft a clear and consistent brand message. In a different survey of 1,200 agency marketers, General Assembly asked respondents to rate: 1. the importance of digital marketing to their organization and 2. their understanding of digital marketing.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY WHITE PAPER THE TRUTH ABOUT 21ST CENTURY MARKETING TALENT
Importance v. Understanding of Digital Marketing by Seniority 4.80
Executive
UNDERSTANDING
4.30
(CEO, President)
Senior
3.80
Mid-level Junior
3.30
2.80 3.50
4.00
4.50
5.00
IMPORTANCE
Note: Levels were self-designated among 4 options: Executive, Senior, Mid, Junior
Going in, we suspected that junior-level employees would rate digital marketing as more important than other groups. But the reality was that executive-level respondents rated highest in both categories. Based on the low ratings junior employees gave with regards to their understanding of digital marketing, training efforts must address the needs of junior employees just as much as senior ones. In addition to increasing their understanding, education about digital marketing should also help junior employees to see it as more significant to their futures. But even with the right stakeholders in the lead-up and the right students in the classroom, training efforts are often unsuccessful due to internal mismanagement or inexperience.
MYTH #5 Our internal digital marketing experts can effectively train our team.
THE TRUTH IS... Digital marketing veterans are extremely valuable for providing agency services and don’t have the (surprisingly large amount of) time required to successfully design and deliver training. Furthermore, while these people are experts in their craft (e.g., consumer data strategist), that does not imply that they are necessarily experts in designing and delivering training to their colleagues. Poorly designed training can quickly multiply wasted time by the number of employees who spend the time attending.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY WHITE PAPER THE TRUTH ABOUT 21ST CENTURY MARKETING TALENT
Some efficiencies are lost by hiring an external training provider—among them are procurement efforts and time spent providing agency context. But once this investment is made, external education providers can increase the quality of a program while decreasing the time agency employees have to put into it. Vendors will: • Know the right questions to ask to ensure that the training will achieve the desired learning and business objectives • Synthesize the knowledge of agency experts into curriculum that’s easily digestible by others • Supplement training content with best-in-class examples from outside the agency’s immediate worldview • Provide training that has been vetted by the market and capitalize on known training best practices • In ongoing education efforts, constantly iterate on content to ensure the most up to date, cutting-edge training To both increase quality of training and decrease time spent creating it, agencies should consider looking externally before committing to selfdesigned efforts. If an agency is looking to scale education, they may also consider online resources, which require substantially more time to develop, and where an external partner can be especially valuable.
MYTH #6 Online training isn’t as effective as in-person training.
THE TRUTH IS... Online training, when paired with the right engagement tactics, can be the most effective medium for delivering cutting-edge training at scale. IBM found that managers learned nearly five times more material when using an eLearning program than they did prior to the program, without increasing the amount of time spent on training. A Brandon-Hall study corroborated that eLearning typically requires 40% to 60% less employee time than the same material delivered in a traditional classroom setting. Online learning is effective and efficient, and companies are taking note: In 2014, 42% of global Fortune 500 Companies used technology during formal learning hours last year. Additionally, we’re happy to report that 85%+ of the agency marketers on General Assembly’s Essentials of Digital Marketing training platform agreed that the lessons were a valuable use of their time. Building a proprietary online learning platform can be extremely expensive, vary in quality, and require a substantial volume of development hours. On the other hand, purchasing online learning from an external provider allows agencies to get started immediately, educate their entire population at once, and outsource the effort it takes to keep content fresh. That being said, while online learning can be a useful tactic for training agency marketers, it cannot be approached with a “set it and forget it” mentality.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY WHITE PAPER THE TRUTH ABOUT 21ST CENTURY MARKETING TALENT
MYTH #7 Giving access to online resources on digital marketing is sufficient for maintaining relevant, digital skillsets.
THE TRUTH IS... Agency marketers are extremely busy. Simply providing them with online educational resources does not mean that they are going to take the time out of their busy day-to-day jobs to educate themselves, regardless of how high quality or relevant the content is. Vast, unguided online training resources are ineffective. A 2013 study at the University of Pennsylvania examined 1 million students of Massive Open Online Courses (or MOOCs) and found that 50% of those who signed up did not end up watching a single lecture and only 4% of students completed the course. This problem with engagement with online courses is no better in a corporate setting. The agency partners who subscribe to GA’s online digital marketing training platform—the Essentials of Digital Marketing—boast a 59% average monthly active user rate. This means that of all the agency marketers subscribed to the service, nearly two-thirds of them are taking a lesson at least once a month. Resources dedicated to lesson completion and online engagement are required in order to maintain strong lesson completion rates. Some engagement tactics that help bring online courses to life include live stream events, in-person study sessions, short-format interactive content, and email marketing campaigns from dedicated engagement managers. These engagement tactics enable agency marketers to make smaller, day-today commitments to their education.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY WHITE PAPER THE TRUTH ABOUT 21ST CENTURY MARKETING TALENT
CONCLUSION
Agencies have the opportunity to boldly lead their clients into the digital age, but they’ll struggle to get out ahead unless they face the realities behind these myths. When left to education experts, digital training, especially online, can be extremely valuable for agencies in their mission to stay ahead of the rapidly evolving digital marketing landscape. Online training is done right when it: »» is short, snappy, and can be fit into a busy work schedule »» includes constantly updated content »» is designed by combining digital marketing experts with instructional design experts »» has clear objectives based on an agency’s existing strengths and weaknesses and an individualized learning path for each marketer »» is supplemented by cutting edge engagement tactics Our online learning platform, the Essentials of Digital Marketing, has been leveraging these best practices for over a year and has taught over 1,500 marketers at agencies including FCB, IPG, Jack Morton, and more.
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General Assembly’s Corporate Training Team provides practical online and offline education for executives, marketers and sales teams to help large organizations succeed in the digital age. To find out more, visit generalassemb.ly/corporate-digital-training.