Outsourcing can improve your marketing team's effectiveness
Back once again into the Hospital Club room named 'Classroom', I was quite surprised that most of the seats were empty — must have been P.E. or something. No, seriously, only seven other members had shown up.
I was back in 'Classroom' to attend a 45 minute presentation which shared findings from a new survey of global marketing teams and their use of freelance talent and ad agencies. It was presented by Peter Geary, Managing Director of Aquent UK — a global marketing, creative and digital staffing solutions company.
See also: "How to Verbalise Your Idea in the 21st Century" and "Business Models Are the New Unit of Design"
Geary saw the lack of attendees as an opportunity for a more effective and interactive presentation. He introduced himself individually to the audience members, consisting of the likes of large media agency directors, social media executives and me — the 21 year old marketing intern.
The introduction of the Internet, smartphones, tablets and social media has resulted in marketers being overwhelmed with the work needed to be done. With two-thirds of marketers working more than 50 hours per week and 32% of them finding work extremely stressful, Geary addresses the issue of attracting and retaining top marketing talent without burning them out with five bullet points:
- Know where you are going
- Realise you can't do everything
- Identify high priorities for the in-house team
- Analyse your current team's capabilities
- Develop a flexible talent pool
Geary stressed the importance of bringing in a flexible talent pool — and then I felt like everyone (bar me; I remained shy) had something positive to say about the idea of external resourcing.
As more people started to fill the room, opinions were being thrown around, with Geary at one point probably feeling he needed to blow a whistle to remain in control of the class. One argued that freelancing was a good way of being more personal with clients by bringing in the people best suited for the jobs at hand. Then came the idea that many may people prefer many mini-jobs to regular 9 to 5 ones — and that people need to constantly reinvent themselves. There was also the inevitable argument of the ease of letting go of a freelancer as opposed to in-house employees. I sat there listening silently with a false sense of superiority. As the directors were discussing what they really thought about freelancers, little did they know — I was one myself.
-- David Rabee
David Rabee recently graduated from the University of Birmingham with a degree in Business Management and Communications.
