Thunderclap | Advertising and Marketing Recruiter

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Advice & Thought Starters

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How to recruit agency talent to smaller markets

So, you’re a leader at a great agency. You make terrific work. And more good news: your people and clients are happy. But the agency is located in a market that’s not necessarily an advertising mecca. It’s more of a hidden gem. Not the first market people think about when they think about agencies or places to live.

There’s no doubt the pandemic has broadened the talent pool as the agency world adopts more flexibility on location, teams and how agency work is made and sold.

But… location, location, location. It still matters. Where does the team enjoy a nice dinner after your new business win? Where does one enjoy a beverage? What’s there to do on weekends? Where and how do people live? Where do your staffer’s kids go to school?

What follows are some things you can do to attract and recruit talent to your agency – particularly if it’s not in a market like the Windy City or the Big Apple.

This thinking has come from helping agencies find leaders to work in fantastic markets like Atlanta, Milwaukee, Omaha, Kansas City and New Orleans.

(Full disclosure: I fully admit these ideas will also work when driving down Lake Shore Drive on a summer day. Or grabbing a blanket and some vino for a weekday, after-work concert at Chicago’s Millennium Park. Your market has it’s own Millennium Park. Your mission is to find it and make sure your candidate feels it.)

Optimize what’s worked in the past (and tweak or abandon what hasn’t)

One of the first things we do when working with a new agency is understand the full cycle of past recruiting efforts. From where did we source our options? What platforms work for us? Who’s involved at the agency? What’s the process look like? What do our descriptions look like? How do we evaluate candidates? What’s the story we tell? How do we onboard staff? What impact does location have?

With one agency, we took a look at the agency’s top performers’ careers to write a sharper, more effective recruiting plan. Identifying some common traits both increased the number of good options and ensured a tighter cultural fit moving forward.

Leverage your agency’s positioning in candidate conversations

One agency with whom I work has a particularly smart way of talking about their expertise. It not only attracts and helps win new business, but also interests job candidates. Because new business growth suggests more and bigger career opportunities for them. So this positioning comes up in candidate conversations Candidates have a good understanding of the agency’s expertise and what it can do for their career – an easier path to promotion; exposure to more categories; and the chance to work on name brands.

Identify a candidate pool with ties to your market

This can mean things like where they went to school or if they had a job earlier in their career (in your market). I loved Atlanta so much, I worked there twice. In 2020, we recruited four professionals to a great agency in a market that has a hard time attracting talent. And one way we did this was based on the professionals’ past ties to that market.

Share newsworthy stuff about your agency or market with the candidate pool

Doing this over time creates awareness. While they may not be looking for a job now, they will be looking for a job in the future. Or they know someone looking now and will refer them to you or pass along your interesting news. This is a location and agency-specific example of a relationship valentine.

Develop relationships with local colleges and universities

These kinds of institutions have a vested interest in helping their students and alma mater find jobs. So explore what a relationship can mean. It could be anything from sponsoring alma mater communication… to guest lecturing…to running a campaign competition…to having an informal relationship with marketing professors to identify top talent. Play your cards right and they could even turn into a client.

Find simple and creative ways to sell your market

So your agency isn’t in Chicago or New York. And for many, that’s a great thing! There’s a lot of existing content out there about your market and I encourage you to use it. Give candidates a chance to understand what it’s like to live there. For one agency, we created a one-pager with links to local tourism-type content, testimonials, and cost-of-living comparisons so that candidates could see how much further their money went in the smaller, but way more liveable market. The document went out with every job description.

And at another agency, we made sure to give finalist candidates a nickel tour of the market, helping them understand good neighborhoods, schools, entertainment options and other cultural highlights of their prospective new town.

You could have a lot of fun selling your market. Do it in a creative, distinctive way and it might even attract some trade attention, creating more awareness for your agency.

Use simple tech to collect interview feedback and facilitate hiring decisions

For years, I’ve used Google Forms to quickly gather team feedback on candidate interviews. Without much work, Google can summarize input, giving you quantitative and qualitative data on any given candidate that can be shared with hiring managers.

Customize candidate interactions

There’s a lot of “save as” in HR and recruiting. Offer letters, for instance, are generally templates. (And for good reason.) But candidate interaction – particularly initial outreach – should be customized. Why are you contacting this particular professional? And what do you know about them that can impact your pitch content and context? How does your agency market influence your initial outreach? Adding a touch of your market’s benefits can also help demonstrate your agency’s interest in work/life balance.

Codify how your agency describes its culture and values

What are the key words people use to describe what it’s like to work at your shop? Making sure hiring managers and interview teams have a shared language about the agency in and of itself communicates team alignment and purpose.

Live the agency’s culture and values in recruiting and people-related agency policies

Live your brand! One of the things I noticed when working with one agency was that their Employee Handbook was a pleasure to read. Usually these documents are boring and full of legalese and corporate-speak. I found pretty big bits of humanity in the handbook, which turns into a great proof point this is an agency that cares.

Give recruiting the attention it deserves

Granted, this is a little self serving. Wrote the man with a mortgage. But make recruiting someone’s job that isn’t already too billable or busy doing too many other things. How can you recruit talent if you don’t spend any time doing it? The best candidates don’t respond to a Linkedin posting. Over the years, I’ve found it’s a combination of on-brand, one-to-one and one-to-many ideas that surface the best candidates.

Find out more

Hope the above gives you a thought or two that can make recruiting at your agency more effective. And should you ever want to discuss any of the above, feel free to reach out. Thanks for reading!

Here’s some other thinking that can inspire ad agency recruiters and help find your next great leader:

photo credit: Uxbridge Onatrio ~ Canada ~ Rutledge Jewelers ~ Former Grocery Store /Dry Goods ~ Heritage Block via photopin (license)

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The most helpful agency new business post you’ll read in six months

The title of this post may sound like an overpromise. But stick with me. There just might be over 240 reasons why the post is helpful in your agency’s new business growth efforts. (When all you really need is one or two.)

This post digs further into a list of 241 CMO hires from the first six months of 2020. The list is broken out by the following broad categories:

  • apparel / retail
  • consumer digital and media
  • consumer products & services
  • leisure & hospitality
  • financial services
  • healthcare
  • industrial & natural resources
  • non-profit / education
  • professional services
  • technology

Some brands will be familiar to you. And some won’t be. To me, some of the categorizations feel a little wonky. But not sure it matters here. What’s helpful is that it’s a collection of brands in a variety of sizes, marketing budgets, potential scopes of work and marketing situations. A little something for all agencies.

The list is published by Russell Reynolds, a leading executive search firm. You can find it here. They note that while many (many!) brands cut their marketing spending during the pandemic, here’s a surprise: the number of senior-level marketing hires actually increased by 15%.  Which spells opportunity for many agencies.

What follows are four quick ways an agency can use this intel:

Identify brands that may be going into review
This ain’t rocket science. Here’s a great example. This list mentions that Nikki Neuburger is the new chief brand officer of Lululemon. Five days ago, trade press suggests Droga5 was just hired.

Identify brands that may need new CMOs
When a CMO gets hired, they may be leaving a brand that will need a new senior marketing leadership. One could argue this is more helpful information than knowing a brand will go into review. Particularly if you can place a past client there.

Build your connection with CMOs
Share this information with them. There are a number of senior-level client-side professionals out there looking for jobs. This information helps identify potential job openings.

A word of caution: double check the information on this list! At random, I checked about ten names. And on two of them, found some incorrect info. For instance, new CMO’s past jobs listed were from one or two jobs ago vs. their most recent job. This kind of information is easily checked via other online databases.

Further dimensionalize this list to make it even more useful
This information can inspire a few more questions for for growth-minded agency professionals:

  • What’s changed on the list? For the brands that are a potential match for your agency, hop on Linkedin. What’s changed since June? For example, I recently saw new marketing leaders at AT&T, Nature Conservancy, Kate Spade and Volkswagen.
  • How does your agency intersect with these CMO needs? Do you have anything special that might be of interest your target that could spark a conversation?
  • Can this list be prioritized by that intersection?
  • Here’s another post with more questions to inspire your outreach

Anywho, hope this intel proves helpful in your agency’s growth efforts. And as always, should this post spark a thought or two, give me a shout. Thanks!

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New marketing leaders at Equifax, Bed Bath & Beyond and Panera Bread

Hello, agency world. Here’s a quick snapshot of new CMO-types from around the country.

Equifax adds CMO from b2b travel brand Sabre. Agencies with B2B experience…Lindsay Parker joins Equifax in April of 2020. She spent over four years at Sabre as their marketing chief.

Sprouts Farmers Market nabs CMO from Kroger. Gilliam Phipps joins this up and coming retail grocer. Spouts is located in Phoenix, AZ and has over 300 locations.

Bed Bath & Beyond hires new Chief Marketing Officer. This beleaguered retailer has brought on Cindy Davis to help turn things around. Here’s an Ad Age article with some of the details.

Panera Bread’s new global brand and concept officer hails from Kraft Heinz. But his most recent job was with a small company called 8greens. Eduardo Luz will be reporting to the CEO. And part of Eduardo’s team will Panera Bread’s CMO and Chief Digital Officer.

This note was published on June 4, 2020.

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Brands with new CMOs: Walmart; Byrider and WeWork

Your new business machine might need to change, but shouldn’t stop. Here are three brands that will be changing their marketing plans…

Walmart gets new US CMO from Target. Here’s an Ad Age story that gives you insights on the new Walmart marketer and the team around him. William White spent seven years at Target in a variety of marketing roles before joining Walmart. The CMO role had been vacant for seven months. Check out what people say about him on Linkedin. Impressive!

Byrider hires new CMO with ten years of aftermarket retail experience. Walter Scott held several senior-level roles at AutoZone before joining Byrider (a buy here-pay here franchise brand).

WeWork hires marketing leader from Sprint. Roger Sole joins the brand after the Sprint/Verizon merger. Here’s an Adweek story on it. WeWork has gone through several senior level changes. News stories have suggested this brand is in something of a freefall. But given what’s happening with the pandemic, this brand could be well positioned – simply by the name alone – to succeed in the future.

This post is based on trade reports and was published April 27, 2020.

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New marketing chiefs at Del Monte, Popeye’s and NPR

For those with an eye on their new business pipeline, here’s a quick recap of recent new Chief Marketing Officers.

As you’re looking through these changes, how might our new work and reality impact these CMOs who are just starting?

Del Monte brings on new CMO with nutritional start-ups, Abbott and Sabra marketing experience. Elana Gold has more than 25 years of leadership experience on a variety of brands.

Popeye’s adds CMO from legacy brand Tim Horton. Paloma Azulay has worked on two big, sharply articulated brands: Tim Hortson’s and Coke.   Here’s her Adweek interview.

NPR hires new marketing leader with extensive media brand marketing experience. Michael Smith has worked at Scripps, Cooking Channel, Food Network, Disney and more. He brings strong expertise in broadening demos. Which might be helpful for a brand like NPR.

This post was published April 2, 2020.

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New CMOs at Jimmy John’s, Arby’s, SodaStream, AHA and more

Here’s a collection of CMO news from the trades and a custom Google search…

Jimmy Johns hires CMO from Sonic. Darin Dugan brings a wealth of experience to Jimmy Johns: 3 years on Sonic; 2 years on Applebee’s and 13 years from CPG giant Kraft.

Arby’s gets a new CMO with strong CPG experience. Patrick Schwing has more than 15 years of marketing brand experience from P&G. His Linkedin profile suggests he was steadily promoted at P&G, with a strong background in innovation.

The American Heart Association adds a new CMO that’s worked with the brand before. Katrina McGhee rejoins the association as the organization’s marketing leader. The role is familiar to Katrina, as she was the CMO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. And she got her career started at the American Heart Association.

Reputation.com adds new marketing leader. Rebecca Biestman will “will draw on her extensive experience to scale the business, drive broader brand awareness and advance the company’s newly cemented mission to tie reputation management to the customer experience (CX).”

SodaStream looks to further growth with new CMO with extensive beverage experience. Matt Kahn’s worked on a variety of drinks, including Dos Equis and several coke brands. He’s also been involved in several early stage brands.

Mazda looking for a new CMO. Keep your eyes on Mazda. For the abrupt resignation of their most senior marketing professional could spell an opportunity for your agency.

This post was published 3-12-20.