Advertising loves to talk about what's next. New platforms. New trends. New technologies. New processes. New proprietary tools. New, new, new! The old is dead and the young is what reigns supreme.
In reality, however, we have massive issues attracting young talent into the industry - and retaining the ones who do come. Some say it’s because advertising isn't cool enough anymore. So, we try to be more like tech companies - at least on the surface. But fixing this image problem and talent drain has nothing to do with bean bags, snack pantries, or flexible work arrangements. It has everything to do with lack of proper career planning and mentorship.
I wouldn't be where I am today without senior mentorship.
Early in my career in Korea, and later in Hong Kong, some of my supervisors and former bosses didn't disappear when I or they moved on. We stayed in touch and they continued to advise me. Later, it was older peers - people who'd been in the CEO role far longer than I had - who became my informal board of advisors.
That mentorship shaped everything: my career decisions, my leadership philosophy, how I approach strategy and business. I'm genuinely not sure I'd have navigated the complexity of leading through good times, bad times, and ugly times without it.
But young talent today isn't getting that same opportunity. Our industry is quietly pushing out the people who could help advertising with its youth problem: senior talent.
Headcount is being rationalised and senior talent costs more. So, they're often the first to go. Then we promote people into leadership who've never been properly mentored in how to actually lead a team. Burnout ensues, junior talent leaves, and the leadership pipeline breaks. But no worries! AI will fix it! Right?
Soft skills such as judgment, perspective, navigating ambiguity, managing people through change, can't be outsourced to AI or fully learned in a one-day workshop. These come from someone who's been through it. Someone who's made mistakes, recovered, and learned things the hard way.
So, what if we reframed senior talent not as a cost, but as coaches? If training budgets are being cut anyway, why not invest in having experienced leaders formally mentor the next generation? It's not charity. It's a competitive advantage.
I'm still in my 40s, but more and more people are already asking me: "What's your exit strategy?" I'm hearing stories about people just a few years older than me being quietly let go. Seasoned leaders, brilliant strategists, people with 20+ years of experience. And they're not finding their way back in. The industry that once valued them has moved on. Which sometimes keeps me up at night: will I have to come to terms with the fact that my days in advertising will be over soon? Is my expiration date already being calculated?
Long story, short: for all its youth fixation, advertising isn't doing a great job recruiting and keeping young talent. And we're actively dismantling the infrastructure that could fix this.
The reputation crisis our industry is facing isn't about beer tabs and pool tables. It's about losing the mentorship layer that develops leaders properly. It's about burning people out because they've never had anyone teach them properly how to lead. It's about pushing out the very people we most depend on.
The question isn't whether we can afford to keep senior talent. It's whether we can afford to lose them.
Campaign’s 50 Over Fifty
Too often, the industry overlooks senior talent in favour of younger, cheaper and supposedly more agile hires. Campaign’s 50 Over Fifty challenges that bias by spotlighting seasoned leaders whose experience, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit continue to push the industry forward.
Nominations are now open. Submit your entry or nominate an outstanding peer.
Nominate nowSource: Campaign Asia-Pacific
