Paladin is pleased to announce our 2009-2010 Sponsorship with the Chicago chapter of PRSA (Public Relations Society of America). PRSA Chicago is the fourth largest chapter in the world with over 500 active members from public relations agencies, associations, non-profit organizations and mix of Fortune 100 companies. Check out the calendar of the events for the year and be on the look out for our Paladin team at events. We look forward to an exciting year!
Over the last few months, several of our corporate clients have discussed significant changes in how they execute their marketing and communications efforts. Several are planning to drastically shift how they use their agency partners and will bring key projects in-house. Others are looking to outsource marketing and creative functions to concentrate on their core business. These clients differ across industries and size including global b-to-b manufactures, financial services firms, non-profit organizations and professional services firms. Because of the number of clients grappling with the same issues, we want to dive in further to find out if these are unique occurrences or growing trends.
We are turning to the marketing and communications community to hear from you. How are you executing marketing and communications efforts? Take our poll and check back for results: TAKE POLL NOW
In the mean time, here are a few articles I have come across recently on related topics that may also be of value in this discussion. Feel free to share your comments, insights and opinions on the topic here and on our poll.
Tough economy forces marketers to reorganize http://tinyurl.com/yfjghjd
Small ad agencies go over big http://tinyurl.com/yg98soe
Down economy drives small businesses and EAG http://tinyurl.com/yghcv6h
Marketing Business Services in Down Economy http://tinyurl.com/yl8etfc
Avoid the temptation to cut marketing budgets http://tinyurl.com/yf9ahe2
In-house SEO vs. SEO Provider http://tinyurl.com/yf87yr9
Last month I wrote a blog highlighting a hiring trend I’m seeing recently at Paladin. In short, we found that although a recession typically leads to an increase in mid-level interim staffing needs within corporations and agencies, our clients were disproportionally hiring senior/executive level marketers for both direct-hire positions and for interim roles.
To gain a larger perspective, we asked the marketing community for feedback via a LinkedIn poll. We wanted to determine if what we are seeing at Paladin is an anomaly, or actually a hiring trend in marketing departments.
The Findings:
Nearly 60% of the respondents polled said their companies were not hiring at all in 2009. Not shocking given the current state of the economy.
However, what’s interesting is that 30% of the remaining respondents said their organization was hiring due to one of the following three reasons:
- The need for a fresh marketing approach
- A shift in business direction
- Business growth
We also saw that enterprise and mid-sized organization were seeing the least hiring of senior level marketing talent. Small and large organization were the most active.
So, how can this information help marketers who are looking for work? The good news is that there are opportunities, and in order to find those openings, you should keep an eye out for companies that match the three indicators for hiring. As you network through organizations like the BMA or CIMA, read key publications such as Crain’s Chicago Business and The Chicago Tribune or leverage corporate Facebook accounts and Twitter feeds, keep an eye out for corporations that are taking a distinctly different approach to marketing or to their actual business model. As always, those companies that are experiencing rapid growth are ideal opportunities for senior marketers as well.
The poll is still up and active. Feel free to participate and add comments. We continue to be interested in tracking this trend.
Here are some interesting news stories from this week that seem to be tipping points for your marketing and creative toolbox.
New York City TV NY1: Personal Brand
If you are looking to expand your personal brand or do some online networking to find that next great job this is a video news story from NY1 TV in New York City.
WSJ: WPP, Google to Fund Web-Ad Research
As marketing continues to search for the most measurable results, marketing research meets Madison Ave. Looks like Google and WPP are getting together to spend $4.6M on business analysis and psychological studies.
AdAge: Is Facebook rise a boon for Google?
The old cliche about a rising tide that lifts all boats is often true on the web. But Facebook’s traffic growth has been disproportionately good to Google, according to a recent analyst, as the social network’s success appears to be boosting the search engine’s traffic.
AdAge: The beauty of being a small agency in a big world.
“How big do we want to get?”
