DUBAI: The World Advertising Research Center has released The Future of Strategy 2021 report. Now in its 9th year, the annual study is based on a worldwide survey as well as in-depth interviews with marketers in agencies and brands.
This year’s report focuses on the evolving role of marketers in light of the impact of the coronavirus disease pandemic, and the career paths young strategists can choose as they grow.
Amy Rodgers, managing editor of research and rankings at WARC, said: “This year’s (report) reveals that as well as the role of the strategist being crucial to the post-pandemic recovery, there are more opportunities as the shift to upstream planning increases.”
The report presents five key takeaways. Firstly, there has been an increase in the emphasis placed on diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace, but there is a disconnect between discussion and action.
“With diversity proven to drive innovation and better decision-making, and with only a quarter of respondents having targets in place to hire diverse candidates, much needs to be done to drive long-term positive change,” Rodgers added.
Eighty-six percent of global strategists agreed that strategy teams need greater diversity in hiring, but less than half have a framework in place for doing so, and only 27 percent have targets in place to hire diverse candidates.
Melanie Norris, managing director and head of planning at BBDO Worldwide, said: “If we as an industry want to get to more authentic representation and to do better and more diverse work generally, and we really do want and need this, we have to start with the stories we tell, and this all starts with strategy.”
Secondly, strategists are busier and more productive than ever. The pandemic has resulted in them having to work faster and more closely with clients as they navigated crisis and recovery.
Although more than 60 percent have felt their influence increase during the pandemic, the study found that many are not satisfied with their current role and are looking for new opportunities.
Thirdly, the shift in the type and volume of work following the pandemic may accelerate a longer-term trend in shifting career paths, the study found. Young strategists are likely to continue their careers in the agency world, but mid-career strategists have a growing desire for broader experiences and new challenges.
Sixty percent of respondents agreed that their plans had changed over the last 12 months, which could signal a significant swing in the future of where strategy sits within organizations.
Fourthly, this shift is likely being compounded by declining training opportunities within agencies. However, strategists continue to feel that the best experience is on the job and in the real world. When hiring, 66 percent of managers look for an inquiring mind over specific skills.
“We need to start to redefine our careers; from exact categorizations into expansive constellations, from skill sets trapped within the ad world to skill sets transferable into the wider one,” said Zoe Scaman, founder of Bodacious and co-founder of MCX London.
Finally, the report highlighted that there is a divergence in upstream and downstream planning, with most strategists looking upstream for opportunities to have the widest impact possible. Increasingly, they are looking to move to the client-side, consultancies, or to freelance career paths to find this opportunity.
“What I’ve found to be a great learning experience, as someone who’s moved from agency to consultancy, is the stage that you enter with clients — especially when you’re working with the senior leadership of businesses as they plan and craft strategies (that have a significant influence on branding and creative executions down the line) rather than being handed them later as parameters and guard rails of a campaign brief,” said Abel Sim, brand and creative strategy lead at Accenture Interactive Studios.
