I don’t know a single person in my profession of advertising, or in an ancillary field, who isn’t working much harder for the same or less money then they were a few years ago. Most industries have been hit real hard. But marketing and advertising professionals got it right in the teeth.

Marketing departments are now expected to function with far fewer people and also handle a proliferating assortment of media types. Plus they need to be expert on Web strategy, analytics, ROI reporting, project management, get social media and Web 2.0 figured out and keep multiple vendors on task and on budget with less then half the work force they would have had five years ago. And did I mention the dwindling budgets?

Those dwindling budgets are being passed on to the agencies where staffs have been decimated and pressure to preform and workloads have risen. A friend reported an 80% cut where he was working.

Agency vendors and media companies are now in dire straights. Many have even folded.

There are now thousands of talented people on the street. Many of the people I know who’ve lost their jobs were among the best. Unfortunately their salaries lined up perfectly with what the bean counters needed reduce the hemorrhaging. I’ve been caught in that situation before and am so thankful it’s not me this time.

Many of the people left manning the marketing departments and agencies are working at unsustainable rates. Yeah, I know it’s cool for creative types to sleep under their desks when they’re juniors. I did it too but a whole industry can’t continue working at a short-term pace forever.

It doesn’t look like lost workers are going to be replaced anytime soon either. Economists expect slow job growth over the next decade, it may even take 10 years to reach near full employment again. And fears of a double-dip recession are keeping staffs ultra-lean.

So is everyone just supposed to suck it up for the next decade? Many managers are choosing that strategy. And it may seem like the safest.

But I suspect it’s not in the long run. If the value was truly there in our current mix of services and the industry has not changed for good, then the money would have come back as the stock market has recovered. But it hasn’t come back to the traditional marketing channels.

In fact, digital is seeing some growth and Web 2.0 and social are seeing significant growth. Remember when newspapers ran columns in the business sections making fun of the internet companies like Facebook who couldn’t turn a profit? Yeah, times really have changed.

Well, we’ve all gotten leaner and meaner. We’re working smarter.  We’re employing project management best practices and using software to optimize our work flow. Yet none of these are good enough to restore balance.

What’s really needed is a complete re-imaging of the industry. We need to break down the all the assumptions that we’ve had about how our business works.

That ad agencies shouldn’t take responsibility for digital strategy and analytics.

That marketing is different than customer service.

That digital agencies can’t do branding.

That PR shops should function in a vacuum.

That corporate communications are somehow different than marketing communications.

That marketing and sales teams can function separately.

That virtual agencies just can’t work on branding.

That branding happens at an agency or marketing department in the first place.

That crowd sourcing will only hurt our industry.

That advertising should always be created in integrated campaigns.

That push messaging can’t also be pull (anyone old enough to remember The Great International Paper Airplane Contest knows better).

That a digital agency shouldn’t produce a TV spot.

That a creative departments should exist.

That an ad agency shouldn’t be responsible for the messaging and building of a corporate website.

If any of the above seems risky or scary you’re right. But if you don’t take these points seriously, you may find yourself in a rather scary place before this economy has recovered.

Posted on: March 1, 2010, by : Jimmy Gilmore