Many of these highly desirable people are not even bothering to
make the detour into the advertising industry at all. What we are seeing
is that many young people are simply going straight into the new media
arena, making it increasingly difficult for the ad industry to recruit
fresh, raw talent.
It may be a whole new millennium, but some things never change.
The issue of how to find and retain skilled, talented staff has been
discussed to death over at least the last two decades, but has any
progress been made?
It seems not, going by some of the concerns raised by regional agency
chiefs.
Worse, where in the past the primary worries centred around poaching of
existing staff by rival agencies, the advertising industry is now facing
a new threat: that of the Internet and the booming dotcom companies.
As MEDIA has reported over the last couple of months, the influx of
these dotcom organisations into Asia has seen a steady stream of highly
skilled, talented people leave the ad industry.
Whether lured by the idea of a new challenge, or by the large sums of
money being thrown around by the dotcoms, the fact of the matter is that
the talent pool, already critically shallow in the twilight years of the
last millennium, has shrunk even further.
Now it looks as if many of these highly desirable people are not even
bothering to make the detour into the advertising industry at all.
Once upon a time, advertising was perhaps the only option for those who
wished to exercise their creativity in a business environment.
Now, dotcoms and the Internet offer the same opportunity, spiced up with
the excitement of the new and the promise of huge rewards - God and the
dotcom stock boom willing, of course.
What we are seeing is that many young people are simply going straight
into the new media arena, making it increasingly difficult for the ad
industry to recruit fresh, raw talent.
This will inevitably mean that poaching is likely to become more
intense, as agencies fight to find and obtain the best among a
diminishing supply of talent.
For those who choose to remain in advertising, this is good news.
Demand will exceed supply, which will drive prices - read, salaries -
up.
But for the industry at large, the signs are not good.
Struggling as it is to recover from the hammering taken over the last
two years, with the recession still lingering, the ad business faces a
crunch.
And with mergers along the lines of the AOL-Time Warner deal taking
place, the pressure will intensify.
Let's not kid ourselves: this problem is not going to go away.
But what we should be doing is finding real, lasting solutions -
training is one thing, but that only works if you can get your hands on
people worth that investment.
And the better trained and skilled your staff are, the bigger the risk
of poaching.
Perhaps what the ad industry needs to do now is to reinvent itself -
convince people it is still the sexiest, most glamorous and exciting
business to be in.
