Hiring top talent into agencies to drive success in an ‘open goal’ world

The demand for a new breed of operators has never been so important, writes OMD’s Nikki Mendonça. So as the media landscape shifts, how can agencies hire the right talent?

Everyone is aware that the seismic changes in today’s dynamic media landscape are causing disruption in every single area of business within the ad industry. All legacy definitions, structures and processes have come crashing down and we all have a-once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to craft a new manifesto for a new world.

In many ways the digital revolution has accelerated rather than disintermediated the role of the ‘media’ agency, as it has put data at the centre of everything we do, driving our insight generation, idea creation and business results.

For the first time ever we are being actively encouraged by our clients to take on a greater, more expanded role with an ‘open goal’ opportunity to drive their integrated marketing agenda, becoming a key contributor to their corporate ambition.

Marketing in a digital world has thrown open a cornucopia of consumer touchpoints that have rapidly evolved our role from ‘one-to-many’ storytelling into creating differentiated and ownable conversations, experiences and long-term relationships between brands and people.

In this new ecosystem, our role has transformed from ‘advertising’ to ‘real-time marketing’ and has forced us to ‘pivot’ from a reliance on transacting media to offering the full spectrum of marketing services. Never before have agencies been confronted with such an open landscape to conquer.

However, this shift is also creating an acute ‘war for talent’ as all agencies compete for a select number of ‘A-players’ who can operate successfully in this complex and competitive marketing ecosystem.

As agencies start to turn products into services, create new marketing models and develop more bespoke, seamless structures around client businesses, the demand for a new breed of operators has never been so important or urgent.

The need for agencies to be fast, agile, open-minded and adaptable is now mandatory and the talent we hire will make the difference. Only people with the highest IQ, EQ (emotional quotient) and TQ (tech quotient) will be fit for the job and all agencies are preparing their arsenal in this new war for talent.

Imperatives include a) building a powerful and attractive corporate brand to become a magnet for the ‘drivers of change’, b) investing in learning and development programmes that accelerate commercial acumen and leadership skills, c) fast tracking the high achievers to create a reward culture, d) creating an inspiring physical and digital ‘home’ environment that nurtures creativity and innovation, and e) designing more flexibility around the individual to support their other passions in life besides work(!).

All agencies are having to take a fresh look at their hiring approach, searching in completely new talent pools to hand-pick the leaders of tomorrow. Agency talent heads both locally and internationally are working 24/7 to mine thousands of LinkedIn profiles and canvas word-of-mouth opinion on who the stars really are.

Social media is now driving the brand equity of companies, totally re-writing the rules of talent management and forcing an authenticity and transparency of corporate communication that the industry has not seen before.

Indeed, how a corporate brand and their people communicate in the social sphere is now a critical component of whether or not an individual would choose to work there – and the decision is theirs. Any negativity is now fully transparent and will be picked upon and shared instantly.

However, the challenge is not purely in recruitment but also in retention of top talent. Staff turnover in the industry is already exceptionally high at 30% a year (20% higher than British industry as a whole), which is very costly and contradicts the pan-industry movement towards building longer-term, more profitable partnerships with clients.

We all know that ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’ but agencies have historically been quite poor in creating a culture that attracts a wide cross section of talent. This is indeed changing.

As the agency role evolves and the commercial contribution grows, so too does the focus on how ‘human capital’ can make the difference. If an individual has the knowledge, expertise and influence to deliver client growth and success, then they automatically fast track themselves to the cream of the crop.

The sheer number of marketing challenges and plethora of communication opportunities we are now dealing with has automatically created a very furtive ground for young talent to show their bosses exactly what they can do.

Once performance is delivered, extra volume is given to the individual’s voice and a bigger landscape opens up within which they can apply their thinking to create greater influence across the network.

In this way, the seismic change we are all experiencing is also creating a highly intense ‘meritocracy’ for young talent at agencies which has benefits to all stakeholders. And yes, because we at OMD manage our people like ‘corporate entrepreneurs’ we do sometimes ‘lose’ them to our clients – but where better to unleash your A-players and ensure they remain passionate advocates?

We often say at OMD that business is synonymous with team sport. Like professional sportspeople, employees need to be fit for purpose, base skills should be shared across the board, and every employee needs to understand the role of their colleagues almost as much as their own to drive effective collaboration. Individual excellence and collective responsibility has become the new mantra.

I have worked in this industry for over 20 years and I genuinely believe this is one of the most exciting times to join. Yes, you have to work hard, often burning the candle at both ends, but the hard and soft rewards are worth it.

Marketing-led growth will always be a key pillar of any business and if you can hone your skills in delivering that through building integrated solutions for brands then that can pretty much set you up for life.

Nikki Mendonça is President of OMD EMEA