BRAND BUILDING 12 <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2019</strong> FEATURE Surviving the Marketing Talent CRUNCH By Carro Ford
BRAND BUILDING <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2019</strong> 13 i f your business hasn’t experienced the marketing talent shortage yet, don’t worry. You will. According to the “<strong>2019</strong> Marketing Talent Crunch Survey Report” (Spear Marketing Group), 90 percent of companies have trouble finding marketing talent. Half describe their marketing departments as somewhat understaffed; more than a third identify as significantly understaffed. How did that happen? Digital Marketing Is Now Mandatory Like never before, marketing is a technical game with an ever-increasing budget allocated to technology. Hiring trends reflect this in the growing number of roles that require at least a basic understanding of martech. <strong>The</strong> talent crunch survey cited marketing analytics positions as most difficult to fill (61 percent), followed by marketing ops (47 percent), demand gen (45 percent), and content marketing (33 percent). Maybe all this is news to you. Or maybe you already feel the pinch. More than 80 percent of open marketing roles take over five weeks to fill, and almost a third sit vacant for more than two months, confirming that the talent pipeline has struggled to keep up with demand, especially the demand for data-focused marketers. Lesson one: connect to talent resources before you find yourself needing them. For this reason, we decided to introduce you to an organization that is addressing the marketing talent crunch, Marketing EDGE. Marketing EDGE is the only nonprofit with a track record of preparing college students for careers in data-focused marketing. <strong>The</strong> Marketing EDGE mission is to educate, develop, grow, and employ college students— to launch the next generation of inclusive marketers. This mission perfectly suits the challenges marketers face today, but what’s mind-blowing is that Marketing EDGE has been around in one form or another for decades, always in step with market needs, if not a step ahead. Mad Men on a Mission <strong>The</strong> organization was founded by contemporaries of performance marketing pioneers, such as Lester Wunderman and David Ogilvy, to satisfy the emerging appetite for direct marketing. <strong>The</strong> mad men icons creating direct marketing discovered few students coming up were actually aware of this tactic, much less able to practice it. <strong>The</strong>se pioneers banded together with academics to share information that professors needed to understand and teach direct marketing, performance marketing, and marketing in general. Marketing EDGE has stayed true to its mission to this day, and that’s a good thing, because the need for a contemporary marketing workforce hasn’t waned. “All those skills needed to operate in a world where we deliver ads one exposure at a time grow out Marketing EDGE is the only nonprofit with a track record of preparing college students for careers in data-focused marketing. <strong>The</strong> Marketing EDGE mission is to educate, develop, grow, and employ college students —to launch the next generation of inclusive marketers. Giving Students An EDGE Carlos Sirotnikov didn’t plan to major in marketing. Two years into a computer science degree, he realized he didn’t see himself coding for the rest of his life. When a friend recommended marketing, he made the change. In search of an internship to learn the field, he came across Marketing EDGE. After participating in a Marketing EDGE Collegiate Summit, Sirotnikov nabbed an internship at the New York SaaS company that created the first iPad app. “<strong>The</strong> [summit] provided networking sessions and a group competition where we were assigned a business problem to solve and present. Combined with other EDGE events, this gave us a cumulative experience we otherwise might not have had,” he says. “School doesn’t give you that level of exposure.” <strong>The</strong> Marketing EDGE experience played a huge role in where he is today. <strong>The</strong> Baruch College graduate eventually went from New York all the way to Seattle, where he’s now an Associate Brand Manager at Amazon. “Marketing EDGE did a great job at pulling together a smart, passionate group of students and helping us with skills needed in the marketplace,” Sirotnikov says. Handshakes and Networking “<strong>The</strong>se students need help, especially first-generation college students,” says Terri Bartlett, President, Marketing EDGE. “EDGE caters to their circumstances, not just skill development, and provides opportunities to engage and feel more comfortable with executives. It’s amazing how this impacts the lives of students through connections, networking, and even handshaking practice. <strong>The</strong> fact that someone believes in them builds confidence and poise that are palpable.”
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