{"id":841161,"date":"2025-04-15T18:12:47","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T23:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/15\/at-digidays-media-buying-summit-challenges-with-talent-recruitment-bubble-to-the-surface\/"},"modified":"2025-04-15T18:12:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T23:12:47","slug":"at-digidays-media-buying-summit-challenges-with-talent-recruitment-bubble-to-the-surface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/15\/at-digidays-media-buying-summit-challenges-with-talent-recruitment-bubble-to-the-surface\/","title":{"rendered":"At Digiday\u2019s Media Buying Summit, challenges with talent recruitment bubble to the surface"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

By Michael B\u00fcrgi<\/a> and Antoinette Siu<\/a><\/span> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 March 14, 2025<\/span> \u00a0\u2022<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

\n Ivy Liu <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

This article is part of Digiday\u2019s coverage of its Digiday Media Buying Summit. More from the series \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a talent problem in the media agency world, and it starts at the bottom \u2014 meaning the entry level.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(There\u2019s a whole different talent problem in the C-suite as well, as a steady dribble of executives leave one holding company for another \u2014 but that\u2019s a story for another time.)<\/p>\n

\n

The rising use of AI for entry-level and sometimes menial tasks has started to jeopardize the ability of young people to break into the agency business. At a Town Hall discussion held during the Digiday Media Buying Summit in Nashville on March 12 \u2014 a meeting that was held under Chatham House Rules, which guarantees anonymity for the agency attendees \u2014 some media agency folks spoke of that very problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one phrase that irks me the most is when the C-suite says that \u2026 that, because of AI solutions, it\u2019ll help us think more strategically,\u201d said one attendee. \u201cWith entry level employees. You still need to have those junior team members get in the weeds to understand how the plant grows. Otherwise, you\u2019re not going to have a forest. Pretty soon all you going to have is just snapping buds from 100-year-old trees when there are no saplings anywhere to be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when they do get in the door, the learning curve is just different than it used to be \u2014 for both junior talent and senior.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still really heavily invest in junior people, but what I see now, what we expect from a junior person, is so different than what I would\u2019ve expected five years ago,\u201d explained another Town Hall attendee. \u201cI expect that every tedious part of their job they want to figure out how to make AI do it for them.<\/p>\n

Another more senior attendee noted that there\u2019s almost a language barrier with entry-level talent. \u201cWhat I\u2019ve learned is some of the ways in which we are trying to train them is [generationally] not native to their language anymore,\u201d they said. \u201cSo maybe you [shouldn\u2019t be] writing them a 10 page email or even three paragraphs versus videoing them. It\u2019s simple stuff, but it\u2019s not, because we\u2019re just not intuitive to it, and we sort of have to listen. Our agency has been doing a lot more of the training in their language to help them get some of those skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Education, notably in an era where DEI has become a more complicated solve to figure out in light of a changed political climate, agencies like Kepler want to make it a business priority to develop talent and retention programs, as well as provide training for upcoming talent to break into the digital advertising industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an onstage session addressing DEI and talent retention issues for agency, Justin Roberts, global head of culture and inclusion at marketing agency Kepler, spelled out what\u2019s gone into Kepler U. Started in 2020, Kepler U provides a free eight-week training program on Google Ads and other programmatic or paid media topics to individuals from underrepresented communities and lower socioeconomic backgrounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just having DEI initiatives, it\u2019s having successful ones,\u201d said Roberts. \u201cWhat can we do to give back to our communities, and what can we do to make our industry a more diverse and representative place?<\/p>\n

To gauge effectiveness on these investments across a global company of 600, Kepler also started employing tools like client surveys and employee health checks in recent years to understand where the company needs to actually dedicate resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre they feeling included in a sense of belonging within their team, within their department?\u201d Roberts said. \u201cMore broadly, do they feel seen? Do they feel valued? Because when you measure those things against the demographic or identity characteristics within the company \u2026 across different offices, across different regions, you can get a really, really in-depth understanding of where maybe you need to put more investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a separate onstage discussion about influencers and creators, Amy Choi, executive director of creator strategy and marketing at agency Trade School, echoed a greater need for hiring diverse talent on her team in order to bring a wider perspective to creator partnerships \u2013 as it mirrors the diverse interests of creators and brands.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important when you build teams, especially in this kind of evolving creator marketing industry as an agency,\u201d Choi told Digiday. \u201cBecause [different people] might be following different creators based on personal interests as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

We want to hear from you.<\/strong> Take this quick five-minute survey<\/a> to help Digiday learn how to make our products even better and you\u2019ll be entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

https:\/\/digiday.com\/?p=572039<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\n More in Media Buying<\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael B\u00fcrgi and Antoinette Siu \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 March 14, 2025 \u00a0\u2022 Ivy Liu This article is part of Digiday\u2019s coverage of its Digiday Media Buying Summit. More from the series \u2192 There\u2019s a talent problem in the media agency world, and it starts at the bottom \u2014 meaning the entry level.\u00a0 (There\u2019s a whole different<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":841162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86766,1125],"tags":[143227,6438],"class_list":{"0":"post-841161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-digidays","8":"category-media","9":"tag-digidays","10":"tag-media"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}