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Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping roles at advertising agencies, replacing and rewriting more jobs.
The number of people in the industry is falling, with the latest MFA Census reported a decrease of 2.7% to 4,650.
This is at least partly due to rapid increase of AI and a rethinking of traditional roles, agency CEOs told AdNews.
These include those roles that add little value to the media planning process, Havas Media CEO and MFA deputy chair Virginia Hyland said.
This has meant that entry level roles now come with higher pay and more engaging responsibilities than two years ago.
“As basic functions become automated this decreases the need for basic repetitive work and a larger junior entrant pool,” Hyland told AdNews.
“For example we are hiring terrific talent from university and require them to load invoicing in systems and type up material deadlines… it makes sense to review these types of basic media function roles because they cause churn and are not high motivators for talent to remain in our industry.”
Publicis Groupe ANZ is also augmenting roles by embracing technologies that enable people to focus on higher value impact in their work.
Mediabrands CEO Mark Coad echoes this trend as technology, automation, and new ways of working is seeing a shift in skill sets and specialisations rather than a loss of capability.
With technology and digital roles in demand for agencies.
On the independent scale Orange Line co-founder David Klein also agrees agencies are increasingly using automation to streamline processes and improve outcomes.
"Allowing us to focus on the most impactful tasks while achieving greater efficiency. It's not about replacing jobs, but rather about enhancing how we work to better serve our clients and meet their evolving needs," Klein said.
Publicis Groupe ANZ general manager of people and culture Anushka Methananda expects the demand for employees in roles that require digital expertise to grow.
“As agencies continue to embrace emerging technologies, there will be a need for employees to augment their skills to support the ever-changing media landscape as well as develop a growth mindset and willingness for continuous learning,” Methananda told AdNews.
“Encouraging retention and developing talent to adapt to rapid changes will be key priorities in this space.
“The media landscape evolves quickly, meaning employees need to continually adapt and learn new skills. Agencies will need to foster an environment that encourages agility and ongoing learning.
“While there are both opportunities and challenges, the future growth of employees in the media agency sector looks promising for those who are adaptable and willing to accelerate their learning.”
The jobs functions when Hyland joined the industry 30 years ago were not motivating then, and they are less motivating now for high functioning University graduates.
“For decades we have asked our talent to spend a week building PowerPoint decks by converting excel numbers into charts, developing a material deadline sheet and loading all media amounts into the invoicing system,” Hyland said.
“The focus on these basic functions is to ideally automate, to be delivered at speed whilst training our teams in areas that are interesting and are of higher value for our clients such as data analytics and insight development.”
Keeping up with client needs
Industry veterans across the country have noted that there has never been a more complicated time for marketers, mixed in with shrinking budgets, agencies must adapt to maintain growth.
Plus marketers are under greater pressure without significant new investment to deliver growth for their businesses.
Brands are no longer chasing constant growth, they’re chasing profitability, and that naturally flows through to agencies, Klein said.
“There’s less room for bloated teams or generic service models. You don’t need more people, you need the right ones, solving the right problems,” Klein said.
“The old playbook of 'just scale media' doesn’t work anymore. A lot of agencies are still set up as channel specialists, but that’s not enough if you want to grow brands in today’s market.
“The challenge is many agencies are still pushing the same model and trying to squeeze clients into it. Whereas the opportunity lies in adapting to the client and building programs around real business problems and impacting commercial outcomes.
“Ultimately that’s what brands need, and that’s where the sector will move - towards agencies that think more like consultancies and less like media vendors.”
Indeed the media agency sector is adapting with new technology and data advancements to continue to answer clients biggest challenges.
Havas Media Network, for example, now retains one third of its revenue in Australia from delivering in areas that are not considered traditional media agency functions in retail media, ecommerce, social commerce, brand activation, data organisation and customer experience.
“To optimise sales potential we know that the infrastructure of the clients owned channels needs to be fully functioning before we invest in paid media to push to owned channels,” Hyland said.
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