by Adrian Hewlett (@adrianhewlett) It’s time for the advertising and marketing communications industry to bring back apprenticeships and save us from ourselves.
The advertising industry faces a tough time, both locally and internationally. We are faced with huge client challenges, the ever-increasing role of the procurement department, internalisation of agency functions in large blue chips, and a general lessening of value associated with what agencies bring to the table. If we then consider what is going on within agencies and, especially, the huge rate of staff churn coupled with a general juniorisation of our people, particularly at a management level, we realise that these problems are related. So they can be fixed.
Let me explain
The local advertising industry has exploded over the past two decades, with the proliferation of media channels necessitating the development of new, often-specialised agencies to help clients negotiate the complexity of the modern communications environment. This massive growth has brought with it a huge staffing requirement; creating a demand that has far outweighed the skills available in the market.
Because the barriers to entry in the advertising arena are relatively low, the result is an industry dominated by a young workforce that has grown used to moving quickly up the ranks within their own agencies, as well as through the ranks of other agencies, as promising individuals are poached, promoted and — more often than not — paid well above their experience level.
The ramifications will ring true to many
Agencies appear top-heavy, with too many in leadership positions who are not really truly ready to fulfil the duties and obligations that come with such responsibility. They are under-experienced, forcing them to rely heavily on the few real senior staff members who have earned their place at the leadership table through decades of hard work. The senior team spends too much time supporting staff prematurely catapulted into senior positions, and too little time focusing on bigger picture issues — such as running their agencies and, far more importantly, looking after and helping their clients’ business grow.
Why should our next generation of leaders spend a lot of their time feeling under-qualified, and undermined, impacting negatively on their confidence levels and often leading them to look for greener pastures?
Staff churn is at an all-time high, which impacts negatively on morale, as it is virtually impossible to build up an agency culture without staff stability; and, last but certainly not least, the quality of agency output suffers, as employees seldom spend enough time at one agency to really get to grips with specific brands, earn their clients’ trust or see the fruits of their labours and run accounts that produce business-changing work.
The sad truth of the matter is that we have allowed, even enabled, the development of an under-skilled, inexperienced and overentitled workforce — to the detriment of the industry at large.
It’s time to stop the madness
The industry needs to stand together to create a set of industry-wide and industry-endorsed guidelines that standardise entry-level (including post-graduate) employment in the communications sector. It’s time to bring back The Apprentice.
Let’s look at two other industries that sell IP and time: law and accountancy. Both have an advanced set of post-graduate work criteria that involve up to three years of work within one firm in order to gain full accreditation — without which they cannot operate as a professional in the industry. If lawyers and accountants can do it, so can we!
The advertising apprenticeship, for example, could entail two years of full-time work at one agency in the position of ‘apprentice’(not intern; we do that already), after which he or she could sign on for an additional year at the same agency in a junior position, or move onto a one-year stint at another agency, also at a junior level. Over the course of three years, the apprentices would not only gain a more-thorough understanding of how agencies work but also the respect of their peers — which is too often in short supply these days.
Upward momentum
Salaries, that offer fair reward for work done, should be standardised and, after three years, apprentices would gain full accreditation — a qualification that provides a benchmark for future employers so that everyone in the industry understands the level of experience associated with the title. Once we’ve created this platform of qualified apprentices, it creates upward momentum within the entire industry. We build the quality from the bottom up.
The establishment of an industry-endorsed apprenticeship programme has the potential to restore stability to what has become a particularly unstable people business. It would slow down churn; ensure that junior staff members work at junior levels, and allow senior staff to work at senior levels. It would enable agencies to build up relationships with their staff, and their staff to build relationships with clients. It would encourage agencies to invest in their staff, and discourage those looking for a quick buck to invest their time in the industry. The levels of professionalism would improve, the standard of work would improve, and the pride in the industry would be restored.
Most importantly this would restore a level of respect and trust that clients have in their agencies. They would know that we’re not just a low-barrier-to-launch sector and that we are an industry of professionals who’ve toiled hard to possess the experience that we do have, and that this experience will be critical to their business success.
Join us
To this end, I’m calling on you — the CEOs of our local advertising community — to join me and some of my industry colleagues who have already raised their hands to make this a reality. We will be hosting a first workshop session where we will agree on the why, what and how of this initiative. If you’re keen to take a proactive step to better our industry, come join us. Pop me a mail and we’ll share more details.
Adrian Hewlett (@adrianhewlett) is CEO of Publicis Machine, which is represented in both Johannesburg and Cape Town and features additional talent across five specialist pillars: Narrative (content marketing), Incentiv (loyalty and rewards), Answered (research), Moon Walk (public relations), and Nurun (technology specialist).
“Motive” is a by-invitation-only column on MarkLives.com. Contributors are picked by the editors but generally don’t form part of our regular columnist lineup, unless the topic is off-column.
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