The gap in qualified and experienced media staff is proving a hurdle for all involved. It’s well understood that resources are tight in media agencies. This issue varies from agency to agency and across disciplines, but all are experiencing it. While some agencies are looking for a workaround with offshore solutions, others are raiding universities for the next crop of talent or simply praying for the next plane load of English expats to arrive. These may provide a longer-term solution, but all are still left facing the dilemma in the near term.

With the forecast increase in client spend will come more pressure on media agencies to perform. Added to this has been the colossal shift to e-commerce and performance media across almost every category. This in turn drives demand for performance media specialists, which has led to some extraordinary increases in performance media specialists salaries to match the demand crunch.

The talent supply versus demand trajectory isn’t pretty. Either more will be expected of current staff, leading to increased risks of staff burnout (hello, The Great Resignation!), or the quality of work will be at risk because inexperienced people are being over-promoted. Either way, there’s a great risk the client will end up frustrated with the quality of the work, and next thing you know a pitch is on the cards, putting even more pressure on agency resources.

With limited solutions, the natural strategy is to poach from a competitor. A totally reasonable solution in normal circumstances, but becomes problematic when the salary increases offered are totally out of sync with the role. There are too many tales of $40-$50k salary bumps for mid-level talent.

Ultimately, salary inflation is going to be passed on to the clients, who will pay for it either in terms of dollars, but potentially in sub-standard work.

Clients must change or pay

But there is another way. A way that bring clients in to the fold, allowing them to assist with the solution. After all, the best talent gravitates to the best clients. Not necessarily the biggest clients, but certainly the ones that everyone wants to work on. It’s always been that way.

And what makes a great client? Numerous factors, no doubt, but above all it’s the quality of the people. Good people making reasonable demands, providing quality briefs with sound, rationale feedback and reasonable timelines for the delivery of work. These are the dream clients: the ones that give agencies what they need to do good work.

If ever there’s been a time to focus on how you work with your agency, it is now. Clients that actively work to be the best possible client will certainly reap the rewards when it comes to attracting and retaining talent.

Stop creating pointless inefficiency

You might think that you’re operating a slicked-down, lean machine, but there are probably more inefficiencies in your operating model that could be eliminated. For instance, do we really need all of these reports? Do we really need a 60-page deck for every presentation, or can we get to a two or three-page summary?  What information is nice versus necessary to have?

I remember working with a very large client on streamlining their agency operating model. One area we focused on was reporting. The list of reporting requirements was extensive, with every month seeing a host of reports generated from the agency. Were these reports being read? Were they actually needed? No one knew. What they did know was that they had somehow joined the list of “requirements”.

So we did the unthinkable. We targeted a few of the more onerous reports and simply stopped them. Then we hid under the tables and waited for the backlash.

Not one person raised a flag.

Overnight we freed up valuable agency time for more productive work.

Eliminating unproductive work will certainly ease the delivery burden at agencies. And while this isn’t an entire solution, every bit is going to count. Clients and agencies working together on this issue is a worthwhile and necessary exercise. After all, clients will ultimately bear the brunt of salary inflation and or quality output issues if they don’t.