What you need to know: 

• Adland's most experienced cohort has taken the brunt of widespread job cuts, and many are struggling to find their way back in. 
• New survey data from Experience Advocacy Taskforce (EAT) and Advertising Industry Careers finds 51.54 per cent of those who have exited from media agencies, creative agencies and media owners were between the ages of 45 and 54. Of all exits, 35 per cent were attributed to involuntary redundancy. 
• Now retired, former WPP veteran John Steedman says ageism has always been a factor in this industry, but it's become "particularly worse" of late.
• Structure and economics are partially to blame, but many of adland's more experienced talent are flexible when it comes to the type, level and pay of work they're open to – they're just not getting a look in. 
• EAT founder and industry stalwart Greg 'Sparrow' Graham says ageism is to blame, and a lot of it is based on misconceptions around senior candidate's expectations and ability to adapt to digital.
• It puts Australia behind other markets like the US, which recruiter Lea Walker says puts more value on experience - arguably because it has the scale (and the dollars) to do so. 
• For talent in Australia, the expectation is to climb the ranks. Stay in one spot for too long and management perceives "there's something wrong", per Steedman with agency leaders often assuming those who don't chase progress are not assets to the business. 
• Meanwhile, younger managers feel threatened by hiring older staff. According to talent leads at IPG Mediabrands and UM, when given the choice between hiring more junior talent, or those older than them, juniors are hired almost every time. 

Last week, those at the intersection of adland’s volatile talent market told Mi3 the latest pendulum swing was a return the mean after the unprecedented talent wars

It’s a harsh reality that’s been exacerbated by “recession-y” macros and ongoing agency consolidation at the big end of town, and in-house and external talent specialists alike agreed it has hit senior ranks hardest.

The industry’s treatment of veterans is a problem that outdates the latest cuts. Ageism, according former WPP veteran John Steedman, “has always been an issue in businesses in this industry”, but he says in recent years it’s become “particularly worse”.

New data published today by Experience Advocacy Taskforce (EAT) and Advertising Industry Careers (AIC) suggests the sector is losing its mature talent at an unprecedented rate – a trend they’ve dubbed ‘the silent exit’. That exits are happening at both ends of the spectrum might be cause for alarm.

According to EAT's survey of 130 advertising professionals who had voluntarily or involuntarily exited a media agency, media owner or creative agency, 51.54 per cent of exits are occurring between the ages of 45 and 54. Those who once started out in the industry as ‘Young Guns’ (between the age of 18 and 24), are also falling particularly fast, per that dataset, with 69 per cent having left the industry prematurely.

Across the board, 35 per cent of all exits were due to involuntary redundancy while 11 per cent attributed their exit to stress, the same percentage as moved client-side.

Adland stalwart turned consultant Greg ‘Sparrow’ Graham is behind the EAT project. He told Mi3 he wanted to put the “disturbing” number senior exits on the radar. The survey results go live ahead of Ageism Awareness Day on October 9.

"I don’t think it’s a reflection of the talents of those people, it’s purely a cost and economic issue," per Graham. "There’s a lot of good, talented people out there that now just can’t find jobs."

Economics vs ageism

The challenges for senior talent can be largely attributed to the structure of the industry – there’s fewer jobs at the top, so they have fewer opportunities to begin with, even before holdco consolidation. Then when downturns hit, higher cost senior staff are jettisoned because it has the biggest bottom line impact.

“You can look back over the last 50 years of statistics, and every time there are cuts, there are disproportionately more senior people [axed], because they make a bigger difference to the bottom line,” talent consultant Lea Walker told Mi3.

While that might explain the latest mass exodus, it doesn’t account for the lack of older talent elsewhere in the ranks – after all, not all of those who are senior in years want a senior title.

“A lot of people we spoke to, they were happy in a [less senior] role, they didn't actually want to progress. They wanted a really great life balance – they have a family, and they didn’t want to work really crazy hours in these high pressure, high stress jobs,” says Graham.

Per the survey, 70 per cent of seniors on the market for a role were happy to take positions below their previous level, and a half are open to various levels of employment, including freelance and part-time.

Problem is, employers appear far less open to that approach. One respondent in the 50 to 54 age-bracket had replied to more than 200 jobs without a single interview to show for it.

AIC's Adam Elliot said that's not an outlier and suggests it’s become standard for employers to ghost unsuccessful applicants. For those on the job hunt, he says the lack of feedback is “soul-destroying”.     

Recruitment myths

Part of the issue is the assumptions that are made around a senior candidate’s salary.

In reality, many are flexible with their salaries and some are even happy to take pay cuts. But according to Graham, they’re not “even being given a chance to have that discussion”.

Then there’s the generalisation that older talent can’t do digital – which Steedman says he doesn’t buy.

“I started work in the analog era and transitioned into the digital era without any issues whatsoever. I adapted to that transition, as far as anybody who's been brought up in the digital age.”

He says most people can “adapt quickly to those changes” – and the survey backs his point that the stereotypes are largely unfounded. Only 2 per cent cited the industry’s evolution as reason for leaving.

In any case, Steedman says misconceptions completely undervalue the knowledge and mentorship that older people bring to the business.

Graham agrees, and suggests it stands in stark contraction to other industries like law and medicine where “senior wisdom and experience is really valued”.

“In agency world, we’re obsessed with youth.”

Lead or leave

It doesn’t help that this market has particularly low tolerance for those who don’t wish to climb the corporate ladder, as Walker explains.

“We as an industry in Australia are certainly ageist at the hierarchy – there is this kind of perception that if you cap out at CD [creative director] or something, that you can only sit in that spot for so long.”

Else, she says, “we assume something is wrong with them, because why were they not raised any higher?”

Walker spent four years heading recruitment for creative giant Wieden + Kennedy and says the US market provides a stark contrast with an abundance of opportunity for senior talent, though there are significant scale benefits.

“It was one of the things I really admired about working in US – and the difference is money,” she says.

“I blame our ageism on being a small market with less cash. [But] the truth is, you can have a senior team of 40-somethings that costs you the exact same as a 28-year-old senior team." But she thinks the senior team may be more productive, and make better decisions, due to deeper experience.

Steedman agrees there is an ingrained but  “unacceptable view” held by some leaders that those who want to stay close to their craft rather than progress are not an asset to the business. I.e. that everyone should be 'ambitious' and want to climb the ranks.

“Not everyone is going to lead a business, but that doesn't mean that they're not highly skilled in a particular area that they should be rewarded [for] doing,” says Steedman.

IPG Mediabrands head of talent acquisition, Monique Black, suggests it cuts both ways. Leadership should be less about age, she says, and more about personality.

“Just because you've got lots of experience and you're older doesn't mean you're cut out to be a leader. Similarly, just because you're more junior and you're less experienced doesn't mean you can't be a great leader.”

Power struggle

Advertising moves fast and as such has plenty of young leaders, per Shilpa Jayakumar, who works alongside Black as talent acquisition partner for UM. Agency talent, and particularly those in media tend to climb the ranks quickly – a trend accelerated during Covid and its aftermath (with Jayakumar and Black's boss Mark Coad warning of ugly consequences.)

But challenging dynamics between age and seniority in the agency environment have often made collateral damage of older talent.

“You've got a lot of people who are probably less experienced, who have been promoted into management roles, and they might feel they might struggle with that decision to bring someone into their team who is maybe 10 years older than them, or 15 years older than them and saying: ‘I’m happy to do this job at this level, I can help you’,” explains Black.

There is a natural psychological defence mechanism at play – the fear of being 'out-seniored', the perceived threat of hiring someone "potentially better" than they are, per Black.

“A lot of people don't have the confidence to do that. They will avoid it and look to hire someone who is more junior than them in experience and years.”

She says that has played out in almost every case where a younger manager has been given the option to choose between a junior and senior candidate.

Black argues, “a confident and mature manager” would “always want their best person to be better than the job than they are”. But “unless you mandate, it’s very hard sometimes to get people to look at things that way.”

Jayakumar qualifies that not all the blame is on younger managers – she says issues with maturity “can sometimes play both ways”.

Some older candidates who are “open to taking that job and reporting into someone younger than them”, might not be so open to “taking feedback”.

But Steedman says the dynamics are no excuse.

“I think that's an indictment on the industry and the people looking to recruit that they have this point of view or are afraid of putting in people that are older than them… I have in the past reported to people younger than myself, and they had no real issues with the fact that I was older than them.”

Forward planning

Whether or not industry can change its dynamics, Walker suggests people in advertising and media don't leave it to chance. They need to be “doing more genuine career planning”, she urges.

“You can have a really opportunistic career journey for [the first] 20 years… it happens really organically for some people.”

Then suddenly, they “get to a point where the phone stops ringing and they go ‘oh my god, why is the industry broken?’ They just kind of assumed there was always going to be more jobs and more work – [but] there’s only one ECD.”

“It's a combination of the industry not looking out for you at a certain point, but also people not looking out for themselves purposefully at a certain point.”

With fewer jobs at the top, Walker says people need to think seriously about their trajectory – whether that’s targeting the C suite job, starting their own consulting practice or indie firm, or translating their skills outside of the advertising industry.

What would Gen Z do?

“Agency skills are so transferable. We are solving business problems with creativity. What else can you solve business problems with creativity? There's so many other things you can do. And the generation coming through now, we know statistically that Gen Zs will have seven careers on average in their lifetimes, whereas Gen X's, who are kind of at the top of that period currently, they might have had two or three historically,” says Walker.

“Gen X can learn a lot from the generation coming through … I think most of them just assume the only solution is to have another job in advertising, and yet to be truthful, there's just not enough jobs advertising for everybody.”

Jobseekers alternative

For those committed to remaining in this sector, organisations like EAT and AIC are committed to helping them find a way. 

As part of that effort, AIC has launched a new initiative its calling the “Expert Directory – a database that connects senior people seeking work to employers seeking experience". Circa 50 individuals have so far created profiles, per Elliot.

"Many of these professionals, with 10-25 years experience, are actively seeking contract or part-time work or are open to full-time roles." 

He hopes the platform will go some way to creating a solution to a long-standing problem.