The return to the good times highlights a chronic shortage of
talent.
Returning confidence in Thailand, and especially within Thailand, is
seeing both international and local clients increasing their advertising
investments.
Budgets are up, new products are coming to the market and new business
pitches are rampant.
Of course, all of this is great news for the advertising agencies and
media specialists.
The only problem - where are the young talented staff we all need to
handle this business?
The recent lean years have taken their toll. Many have left the industry
altogether. Others have sought refuge in the comparatively secure and
well-paid client-side of the business.
And who has had the time, resource or foresight to recruit and train new
staff?
Sadly, the answer is very few companies indeed.
And then there are the dotcoms.
Thailand has been at least six months behind Hong Kong and Singapore's
rapid development, but we can now say that dotcom fever has truly
hit.
More than US$1 million was spent promoting websites in
traditional media during Q1 this year.
That's more than three times the total for whole of 1999.
While individual budgets are small, there are plenty of them, and every
week sees more new entrants.
(MindShare has helped launch seven sites this year with many more to
come).
We are only just starting to see a talent exodus to the dotcoms, and I
fear the impact it will have on the chronic shortage of media
professionals in this market.
What can we do about this?
It's simple really; we need to recruit and train.
As an industry, we must agree to invest in the future.
The launch of media specialists has at last brought focus to this part
of the business and we must leverage the increased scale of operations
to invest more in software, media tools and training.
Unfortunately, it is often easier to simply poach talent.
At MindShare, we have acknowledged the only way to continue growth,
while meeting the challenges of the new media era, is to develop
talent ... and quickly.
We have hired several fresh graduates and will soon implement locally a
brand new worldwide training system focused on total communication
solutions.
I hope that this achieves more than to reinforce our image as the prime
recruiting ground for other media specialists entering the market.
Let's all accept the responsibility to find and develop new talent.
Of course, this issue is not restricted to Thailand, and is common to
the industry worldwide.
Ms Shelly Lazarus, CEO of O&M Worldwide, recently told the US4As that
"there is more opportunity in our business than we have the people or
resources to handle".
