The Asia-Pacific talent crunch of experienced advertising personnel
has reached crisis proportions in some agencies.
The dire situation has been caused by the upswing in the economy and the
rapid growth of the Internet industry.
Two agencies said that they had more than 10 top-level regional
vacancies to fill, while three others said that if they were to get any
more new accounts, they would be forced into a desperate scramble for
people.
In order to prevent their directorate level staff from leaving for the
client side or dotcoms, some agencies have had to give salary increases
in excess of 30 per cent.
And at Ogilvy & Mather, the search for experienced talent has been
widened to include Eastern Europe and Russia.
The agency has already hired a Mexican to fill a vacancy in Indonesia
and a Colombian in Singapore.
"When Asia was last growing in the mid-1990s, the US and UK - the major
source of expat labour - were not doing so well, but we cannot find the
quality of people from there anymore," O&M regional chairman Miles Young
told MEDIA.
"Their economies have become supercharged because of the dotcoms and the
best talents have been taken up."
Grey regional CEO Jonathan Fox said the situation was exacerbated by the
fact that experienced Asian advertising professionals were hard to come
by.
But he stressed that this was not because the talent pool here was
small.
"There are a lot of talented people in Asia. The problem is that they
are not in the advertising industry.
"Many years ago, the industry was considered hot and sexy. Young, local
talent not courted by the leading companies would actively consider
advertising as a career. But not anymore, because compensation has hit
the wall," he said.
A major part of the problem emanated from dotcoms poaching people from
agencies.
However, pressure is also being exerted by the client side as they
expand their advertising and communications functions.
Agencies said that they could not compete against the salaries and stock
options offered by dotcoms. But they stated that they were fighting back
on qualitative aspects - seminars, training, career prospects and office
environment.
Said Mr Fox, "The enticements outside the industry are enormous so
increasing people's salaries by 10 per cent or 50 per cent means
nothing. So we have to find other ways to attract and keep staff."
