Wait, There's a Marketing Skills Gap?

Welcome to the Monday Marketing Brief - a regular chronicle of what's caught my attention in the marketing world. Suffice to say, all opinions are my own.

Well hello there, readers! It’s been a while. I've missed you.

Welcome back to the first Monday Marketing Briefing in far too long. I’m coming back to you in the first days of a new financial year - and what a rush it's been.

Frantic antics and MQL reporting aside, there’s something refreshing about starting anew; I'm filled with enthusiasm and optimism for the year ahead - probably because I've got a secret weapon.

This quarter, our Marketing Department has implement OKRs (objectives and key results) - a brilliant means of measuring success, monitoring progress, and connecting teams with what's important. (I definitely owe a little thank-you shout out to There Be Giants' Roger Longden for introducing me to the concept back in my self-employed days - thanks Roger!)

Aside from all that, there's another reason I chose OKRs to plot our department's course: I happen to think they're especially potent for marketers. Here's why:

• Because OKRs and the tasks underpinning them are intrinsically linked to the organisation's objectives, it's much easier to prove the value and impact of behind-the-scenes marketing activities
• The visible connection between organisational and departmental OKRs gives back control of priorities, filtering out and deflecting superfluous tasks that often come marketing's way
• A key OKR philosophy is measuring impact over output - keeping marketing teams focused and delivering based on what's important to the company, rather than drowning under a mountain of vague campaign ideas and potential blog titles (we've all been there!)

I'm excited for our department to be the first to adopt them in the company, and I'll likely update you all as we navigate this first quarter. For now though, I'll step off my soapbox so we can get on with the show - just keep OKRs in mind if you're looking for a smarter way to steer your marketing team, 'kay?

I'm definitely somebody who enjoys the partitioning of time; something about breaking life up into weeks and quarters and years works very well for me and my brain. As such, with the seasons changing and a new threshold being passed at work, I recently felt the need to start a clear out that will almost certainly take me until November to complete.

As part of that clear out, I thought it was time to clear my old laptop and migrate over anything I needed. Whilst digging through a machine from 2010 that somehow has more storage than my modern Macbook Pro and the heft of a concrete slab, I found my old university lecture notes and slides gathering virtual dust.

Some of you may not know that I actually started my university career doing two years of Japanese and Business joint honours, which was a) incredibly stressful because of doing two whole degrees together and b) very useful for impressing people on nights out, cobbling together sentences in broken Japanese over the sound of Mr Brightside.

Despite the stress and limits to my linguistic learning abilities, I loved Introduction to Marketing - so wasn't too surprised to see that most of what I'd saved from those days was from those lectures.

But when I opened the slide decks to soak up some memories, it felt more like reading something from my Archaeology degree. The ideas were almost archaic, the examples exclusively B2C, and the philosophies - while familiar - verged on being alien to modern day marketing. Amused, I put those slides away, carried on deleting other files, and forgot about the whole thing until last week, when I read this article from Forbes about the marketing skills gap.

Wait, there's a marketing skills gap? Admittedly, I was a little perplexed at first. Isn't a skills gape reserved for industries like construction and technology, where things have changed so heavily and interest in relevant subjects has waned? Haven't Google's Digital Garage or LinkedIn’s?training?platform brought marketing skills to the masses?

At that point, a little voice spoke up in the back of my mind, drawing attention to those crowded marketing slides and their ancient (2008) gospel. Of course there's a skills gap, Joe. Look at how much has changed! the voice exclaimed. It makes sense. Facebook adverts and pages, for example, were announced late in 2007 - would there really have been a chance to rewrite the syllabus to talk about their use and impact so early in the game? Could we have known that in a few years' time, TikTok would be taking the world by storm, or that social media would herald the crumbling of barriers between consumer and seller?

Reflecting on all that change, it should come as absolutely no surprise that the chief skills deficit is in digital - particularly because of how technologically-heavy marketing has become. Recent LinkedIn data supports this shift in the skills hierarchy, with PR dropping out of the top 10 altogether to make room for more contemporary requirements.

Still, knowing that certain skills are desired and recognising that there's a requirement are surely very different to actually feeling the impact of a skills gap, right? Correct...but a third of brands are feeling the impact - especially when it comes to data and analytical skills. This skill may feel relevant for more than just the marketing team, but it makes the difference in the digital age. As marketing has evolved, so too has the impact of data - mainly because we can track it a lot more successfully thanks to digital channels; a marketer in the 70s would struggle to report the success of a billboard then vs a LinkedIn advert today with the same degree of accuracy.

So, what do we do about it?

Listen, there are a thousand articles out there where people from every industry talk about how to close the skills gap - up-skilling, apprenticeships, encouraging young people into certain subjects, tapping new talent via remote working (though that one is debated) etc. - and honestly I don't feel qualified to add anything new to that debate.

What I will say is 'don't let it hang over you personally'. It's healthy, from time to time, to look back at all those changes and all the changes yet to come - and then to breathe.

Marketing will continue to evolve and new skill requirements will arise, but you don't need to complete the Seven Marketing Wonders and become the next Supreme (I'm rewatching American Horror Story) to be good at what you do.

As for the skills gap, we can all contribute to closing it in our own small ways - in particular by encouraging apprenticeships, being open to learning, and sharing knowledge with one another - it just might take a little time.

By then, maybe I would've grasped an understanding of TikTok...or finished my latest clear out. Who can tell?

Times are tough over at Snap, with plans afoot to reduce the social media platform's marketing spend and cull staff.

It's always fun to see legacy brands reach for something new. Four Seasons is the latest to do so, making a concerted effort to 'brush off luxury tropes' as part of their new brand relaunch.

?What's not to love about the Andrex puppy turning 50? Recognising the emotional connection its customers have formed with the beloved mascot, Andrex are upping investment in their latest campaign to properly leverage five decades of the lovable scamp.

Speaking of familiarity, I have another story to include this week, all about Heinz's latest campaign - which features vintage fashion splashed with ketchup stains.

I will be?deep?in the CRM mines this week, building some internal functionality to help support our sales team’s data input and output. Don't weep for me, though: I’m?that?nerd who enjoys it – I’ve got it all mapped out in my favourite notebook. Speaking of which, it’s time to throw my earphones in, change my Teams status to Do Not Disturb, and get cracking.

Have a wonderful week everybody! See you on the other side…