What Will Newly Graduated Marketers Face in 2009?

Q: How will the job market look for college grads majoring in Management/Marketing in 2009? –Hussain from Chicago, IL

A: Employment of advertising, marketing, promotions, public relations, and sales managers is expected to increase by 12 percent through 2016—about as fast as the average for all occupations. Job growth will be spurred by intense domestic and global competition in products and services offered to consumers and increasing activity in television, radio, and outdoor advertising.

Projected employment growth varies by industry. For example, employment is projected to grow much faster than average in scientific, professional, and related services—such as computer systems design and related services, and advertising and related services—as businesses increasingly hire contractors for these services instead of additional full-time staff. By contrast, a decline in employment is expected in many manufacturing industries.

Advertising, marketing, promotions, public relations, and sales manager jobs are highly coveted and will be sought by other managers or highly experienced professionals, resulting in keen competition. College graduates with related experience, a high level of creativity, and strong communication skills should have the best job opportunities. In particular, employers will seek those who have the computer skills to conduct advertising, marketing, promotions, public relations, and sales activities on the Internet.
--Erdin Beshimov, Experience, Inc.

Source: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos020.htm#outlook.

Vintage Ad Contest

Worth1000.com is sponsoring a pretty cool contest where people can submit old styled ads of new products. Judging by the current entries, I'd need to bone up my photoshop skills by quite a lot before I could submit one myself. Some of the people got pretty creative with their entries. You can check them all out here.

What's Next in Marketing+Advertising by Paul Isakson

We all know that marketing is changing. I've done nothing but talk about these changes since I first started writing for this blog one year ago. Never, however, have I been able to explain these changes, and the way which companies can most effectively implement them, as effectively as Paul Isakson has with his brilliant slide presentation. It's simple, clear, funny, and, most importantly, effective at delivering a strong message about the future of the industry. Check it out below.

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Thanks a ton to David Armano at Logic+Emotion for posting about this presentation.

Reverse Product Placement

Everyone by now knows about product placement. Sometimes it's done well, as in the case of Reese's Pieces and ET.



Other times...not so much.



By the way, I remembered this scene from Demoltion Man differently. I'm pretty sure the version I saw had Taco Bell. Thankfully, Wikipedia was able to verify my sometimes shaky memory. Apparently the European version of the film used Pizza Hut and the American version used Taco Bell. Completely irrelevant, but a neat little factoid for your friends.

Anyways, the reason I'm talking about product placement at all is because I read something at Brandweek about a relatively new concept called "reverse product placement". With RPP, fictional products taken from TV or movies are made into real products for actual purchase. 7-11 got involved with this somewhat during promotion for the Simpsons Movie and now it appears that "Slurm", the drink of choice for the animated series Futurama, may soon be made for real use. If this does eventually come through, I'll be sure to get a can.

"Safe is Unsafe" - A New Approach to Integrated Marketing

The term "integrated marketing communications" gets tossed around pretty frequently nowadays. In principle, it sounds brilliant: create a campaign for your client that delivers a consistent message over a diverse assortment of media. What company wouldn't want their print, radio, tv, and internet messages to be developed all together? But how genuinely practical is the IMC method? In order for a small ad firm to really commit to integrated marketing, they'd either need their staff to be experts on everything or hire more staff. Since these companies don't usually have the resources to do either one of these things, they can't really succeed at IMC.

The people at Hub Strategy in San Francisco have found a creative and, so far, extremely successful way around this. By establishing solid connections with an army of freelancers, Hub is able to quickly meet a client's needs in any number of specialized media. With over 100 on-call workers to choose from, Hub makes the concept of integrated marketing not only work, but also work fast and efficient. Also, since CEO DJ O'Neil is committed to the philosophy that "Safe is Unsafe", companies are guaranteed that their work is going to get noticed.

Even though the company is relatively small, it's gained some impressive clientele and may become a model for ad shops in the future. To see some of their work, check out their webpage. Oh, and if you do visit their site, be warned: you're going to watch a video about sweaters.

Google - Is it really the best place to work?

Taking a cue from a post Jenna put up at the 3gen blog, I wanted to talk about Google's recent recognition as the "Best Company to Work For" by Fortune Magazine. I've done a lot of research into Google's work environment, and it certainly sounds great on paper, but there are some catches. You see, Google tried really hard to make the integration of work and life seamless. They have childcare, free food, laundry on site. It's hard to argue that these are bad things.

However, if you think about it, they're actually only devising ways to get their employees to work earlier and to keep them there later.

"Come in and get free breakfast...but you have to come in at 8am to get it."

"Use our free laundry...but not during your scheduled work hours."

I guess it's hard to harp on Google since they offers these things at all, but the truth is they're hiring recent college grads and giving them a very college like atmosphere. Google, in effect, becomes their new college campus where they spend most of their time.

So what do you think, am I reading too much into this or have I uncovered Google's secret plot?

Have you got your ticket to the ODDY's?

So what if the Oscars have all the hot shot celebrities and fancy red carpet fashions? There are a number of high profile awards for excellence in the field of marketing too! You've got the ADDY, the Clio, the Silver Anvil, the Mobius; the list goes on and on.

You see, marketing professionals, like all other human beings, want to be celebrated for their achievements. These awards honor the creativity, passion, and inspiration needed to craft an effective and compelling marketing campaign and are taken very seriously in the marketing community. Having a major award on your company's resume is a big time reputation enhancer and can help bump a small business to national prominence.

Recognizing the importance of innovation and originality in new marketing efforts, Phoenix design firm Keane Creative has developed their own award for marketers in the state of Arizona called the ODDY. Even though it's not a national award, it still looks like it could end up being a pretty cool trophy to take home. I especially like how any business can apply for consideration.

I'll definitely be keeping my eye on these awards. There's a lot of talent out there, and seeing the best of the best can really help us newbies learn what type of work needs to be done to get noticed.

I Love the Onion

I read the Onion every week. So should you. Wanna know why? Because of articles like this.

I've never been so tickled by seeing my future career satirized. It's just plain brilliant.

Are You Ready To Make Some XLNT Ads?

Thanks to the power of the internet, many companies are realizing that they don't have to turn to the standard powerhouse agencies to produce quality advertising. Through the proliferation of video sharing sites such as metacafe, current, and youtube, it is possible for a budding advertiser to create their own hip and edgy ad which can be viewed by the world. I mean, what could be better than strolling into a job interview and being able to say that 110,000 people had viewed your fake commercial on Youtube? How about getting paid for it?



The website pictured above is called XLNTads.com. What they've done is created a platform to connect digital video producers with specific advertising projects from major companies. When a user submits a video to the site, the company reviews it and, if they like it, they award the creator anywhere between $5,000 and $20,000. Plus, since big time brands such as Bud Light, Slim Fast, and 100 Grand candy bars have been featured on the site, you know that it's not some kind of sham. If these companies are willing to invest their time and resources into partnering with this web site, it must be a pretty legit operation.

So, if you're into creative advertising and you've got access to a camera and some editing software, check out XLNTads.com. I'm willing to bet that websites like this, or at least the general idea of user produced advertising, will become a much more prevalent part of the ad industry in the next 5-10 years.

Leo Burnett's Hispanic Marketing Director Shares Her Career Path

Every so often, I find it useful to post a link to an article or story I find which details a successful marketing professional's rise to glory. They're not only interesting stories, but they help show us that the path to the top is never quite as linear as we want it to be. In the case of Dolores Kunda, Leo Burnett's director of Hispanic marketing, the break toward marketing came when she realized that finance wasn't as interesting as she'd hoped.

I'm encouraged when I read about career paths like Ms. Kunda's because it helps put the post collegiate job search in perspective. It's refreshing to hear that someone doesn't necessarily have to major in marketing and get the perfect internship to become a success. The most important thing to remember is to just enjoy what you do. If you're happy and you work hard, the promotions and bonuses will come in time.