I have been following this story for several months -- since the stories began in the media. I find it hard to believe that in 2008 our top agencies are not more reflective of America. As a small business owner, I know how tough it is to try to "compete" with the big agencies. Small agencies don't stand a chance, but I would be willing to bet, that small agencies are more diverse and bring experiences and opinions different from the large "country club" agencies.........
Enjoy!
Ad Agencies Making Progress on Hiring Minorities, After All
Human Rights Commission: Most Met or Exceeded Pact Goals
By Rupal Parekh Published: September 23, 2008 NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Many people aren't satisfied with Madison Avenue's progress on the diversity front, but Patricia Gatling, head of the New York City Human Rights Commission, today said she is "cautiously optimistic" that ad agencies will ramp up the numbers of minority executives in their ranks.
Patricia Gatling Ms. Gatling was speaking at a public hearing at City Hall called by New York City Councilman and Civil Rights Committee Chairman Larry B. Seabrook. The goal of the hearing was to discuss the progress (and lack thereof, in some cases) of the agencies that two years ago signed a pact to boost minority hiring and set individual goals. As part of her testimony, Ms. Gatling reiterated statistics released this spring that found that five of the 16 ad agencies that signed on have not met all their minority-hiring goals in the first year of their diversity pact with the New York City Commission on Human Rights. However, the remaining agencies either met or exceeded all their 2007 goals. BBDO, DDB behindOf the shops that signed a memorandum of understanding with the commission in 2006 vowing to boost diversity, five did not meet their goals. Four of them were from the country's biggest holding company, Omnicom Group: BBDO, DDB, Merkley & Partners and PHD. The fifth was Publicis Groupe's Kaplan Thaler Group. While it eventually caved and signed the pact with its competitors, Omnicom went its own way at first. It pledged more than $2 million for diversity initiatives, including the establishment of an advertising, media and marketing curriculum at the historically black Medgar Evers College. Weldon H. Latham, a diversity counsel to Omnicom who testified at today's hearing, said the holding company's CEO, John Wren, has firmly communicated to those shops that they must come into compliance by the end of 2008. "We gotta make sure that those numbers get up," Mr. Seabrook told Mr. Latham, recommending that Omnicom appoint an executive solely to monitor the agencies' progress. Those that failed to meet their self-created diversity goals have hired consultants to help them improve their numbers, Ms. Gatling said as part of her testimony. Hiring up 25%Meanwhile, the other agencies that signed the agreement have all met or exceeded their goals, said Ms. Gatling. They are: Havas' Arnold and Euro RSCG; WPP Group's Grey Direct and Grey Interactive, Young & Rubicam and Ogilvy & Mather; and Interpublic Group of Cos.' Avrett Free Ginsberg, Gotham and DraftFCB (counted as two agencies because it was created out of the merger of Draft and FCB Worldwide). The average goal was 18% for minority hiring and the average result was 25%, Ms. Gatling said. In certain cases, the agencies have raised their minority-hiring goals for 2008. For example, Ogilvy this year increased its goals 2%, and is aiming for 18% of its senior management and 35% of all staff to be of color. The hearing garnered a far better turnout compared with those called two years ago, though agency and holding company chiefs were still absent. During Advertising Week 2006, Mr. Seabrook had called hearings decrying minority-owned media outlets' lack of advertising, and nobody turned up. The agencies, Mr. Seabrook said at the time, "ran like chickens with their asses plucked clean." Reviving that metaphor today, Mr. Seabook said, "I'm putting some feathers back on you now," as a means of commending the majority of the agencies for their progress. In addition to an attorney for Omnicom, Interpublic Exec VP-Strategy Philippe Krakowsky and representatives for WPP also testified today about the status of their companies' diversity initiatives, as did executives from Publicis Groupe's Saatchi & Saatchi. Saatchi was also one of two ad agencies that turned up for a public meeting called by the Human Rights Commission about the issue in July. Representatives for Havas or Havas agencies did not testify. Nancy Hill speaksAlso submitting testimony was Nancy Hill, president-CEO of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, who Mr. Seabrook commended on her presence, noting that her predecessor, O. Burtch Drake, had not shown up for hearings in the past. There was strangely no talk of a potential threat of a class action lawsuit against the industry, but Mr. Seabrook promised to stay on top of the issue. "The commission is going to stay on your case and I'm going to stay on the commission's case until we get it done and get it right," Mr. Seabrook said at the conclusion of the hearing.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
A nice surprise this week......I was asked to pose in a photo about changes in Prince Georges County. Check out the link on local Bisnow Real Estate.
Enjoy!
Karen
http://www.bisnow.com/washington_dc_commercial_real_estate_news_story.php?p=1502)
Enjoy!
Karen
http://www.bisnow.com/washington_dc_commercial_real_estate_news_story.php?p=1502)
Monday, September 08, 2008
This is an interesting turn in the industry. If you look at the hourly rates, you could reason that the "consultants" are making much less than they would in permanent jobs. Sad...and scary times for our industry.
With an increasing number of companies looking to reduce the full-time head counts in their marketing departments, and a glut of experienced baby boomers available to do consulting stints, a growing number of marketers are looking to fill brand-manager, project-leader and even marketing-director positions with short-term employees.
A trend tracker on Indeed, a search engine that scans U.S. job listings throughout the internet, shows a sharp spike since May on listings that include the word "temporary" in ads seeking marketing managers, directors and researchers. The spike punctuates a general uptick in such marketing listings relative to all postings since 2005.
The percentage of online job listings containing the words "temporary," "marketing" and "director" surged roughly 50% between May 1 and July 31, according to Indeed.com, even though the trend line for just "marketing" and "director" remained flat during the period.
"I'm finding a lot more companies now are [using] contract employees and consultants at the higher-level jobs, such as director of marketing and senior brand managers," said Michael Carrillo, president of CPG Jobs, which operates the job site CPGjoblist. He also works as a recruiter.
While the move is clearly aimed at controlling head counts and cutting costs, Mr. Carrillo said he believes demographic factors are at play, such as baby-boomer employees who are downsized out of positions but aren't ready to retire and have valuable experience.
Broad range of marketers
A variety of firms specialize in the burgeoning area, including conventional temporary-service firms such as Kelly Services and Manpower. They're seeing temporary marketing jobs on the rise even as temporary employment overall has declined steadily since early 2007 due to the slowing economy.
The surge appears to be coming from a surprisingly broad array of marketers, as well as old and new media.
An ad last week from Creative Group, a unit of Robert Half International, for an unnamed Southern California beauty marketer seeks a marketing director for a temporary assignment possibly converting to full-time -- and offers someone with eight-plus years of industry experience $50 to $60 an hour.
Apparently the same Southern California beauty marketer seeks to round out the team with a product-development manager at $20 to $30 an hour, a bilingual media planner at $25 to $35 an hour and a "marketing guru" at $43 to $50 an hour. Creative Group stands to be the employer of the outsourced team.
Media companies also appear to be stepping up temporary hires. Among temporary positions advertised online: a sales and marketing coordinator for Time Warner's Health.com; a marketing program manager for EchoStar's Sling Media, marketer of SlingBox; and a site manager whose duties would include marketing of a national portal and social-networking site from Gannett Digital, MomsLikeMe.
"Everybody is looking at head count and ways to reduce it," said Joe Hawley, who helped lead the turnaround of Doctor's Dermatologic Formula for two years before the business was sold to Procter & Gamble Co. last year.
The veteran of Avon Products, Unilever and Liz Claiborne is now working as a consultant with his own firm, Hawley Global Partners. While he's open to another permanent position, he's also plying a series of consulting gigs and believes marketing -- and even general management functions -- increasingly will be outsourced in the way information-technology and human-resources positions have been in recent years.
Most of these marketers aren't contractors directly through the employer, he said, but through third-party firms such as Aquent, which specializes in providing temporary marketing-industry help from its own pool of permanent employees and says it serves 90 of the Fortune 100 corporations.
The downside
"You'll look at a company and not be able to tell who's a contract employee, who's [a permanent employee] from a third-party resource and who's [an employee of] the company," Mr. Hawley said.
Of course, the downside can be quality, said Dave Gallagher, president of Boyden, an Atlanta-based executive-search firm. "Nobody is going to leave their job," he said, "to be a 90-day temp contractor."
But Mr. Hawley said temps aren't always getting worse deals, and some can even be of higher quality.
"I call it rent to buy," he said, adding that many of the positions have permanent potential, sometimes involve equity stakes or involve efforts to bypass corporate salary caps, and can attract people with broader or more current experience than permanent employees.
Beware, CMO: A Temp Might Steal Your Post
Economy Stokes Trend Toward Short-Term Hires in Marketing Suite
BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- The hard times facing the marketing industry may be only temporary, but so, it turns out, are a lot of the jobs.With an increasing number of companies looking to reduce the full-time head counts in their marketing departments, and a glut of experienced baby boomers available to do consulting stints, a growing number of marketers are looking to fill brand-manager, project-leader and even marketing-director positions with short-term employees.
A trend tracker on Indeed, a search engine that scans U.S. job listings throughout the internet, shows a sharp spike since May on listings that include the word "temporary" in ads seeking marketing managers, directors and researchers. The spike punctuates a general uptick in such marketing listings relative to all postings since 2005.
The percentage of online job listings containing the words "temporary," "marketing" and "director" surged roughly 50% between May 1 and July 31, according to Indeed.com, even though the trend line for just "marketing" and "director" remained flat during the period.
"I'm finding a lot more companies now are [using] contract employees and consultants at the higher-level jobs, such as director of marketing and senior brand managers," said Michael Carrillo, president of CPG Jobs, which operates the job site CPGjoblist. He also works as a recruiter.
While the move is clearly aimed at controlling head counts and cutting costs, Mr. Carrillo said he believes demographic factors are at play, such as baby-boomer employees who are downsized out of positions but aren't ready to retire and have valuable experience.
Broad range of marketers
A variety of firms specialize in the burgeoning area, including conventional temporary-service firms such as Kelly Services and Manpower. They're seeing temporary marketing jobs on the rise even as temporary employment overall has declined steadily since early 2007 due to the slowing economy.
The surge appears to be coming from a surprisingly broad array of marketers, as well as old and new media.
An ad last week from Creative Group, a unit of Robert Half International, for an unnamed Southern California beauty marketer seeks a marketing director for a temporary assignment possibly converting to full-time -- and offers someone with eight-plus years of industry experience $50 to $60 an hour.
Apparently the same Southern California beauty marketer seeks to round out the team with a product-development manager at $20 to $30 an hour, a bilingual media planner at $25 to $35 an hour and a "marketing guru" at $43 to $50 an hour. Creative Group stands to be the employer of the outsourced team.
Media companies also appear to be stepping up temporary hires. Among temporary positions advertised online: a sales and marketing coordinator for Time Warner's Health.com; a marketing program manager for EchoStar's Sling Media, marketer of SlingBox; and a site manager whose duties would include marketing of a national portal and social-networking site from Gannett Digital, MomsLikeMe.
"Everybody is looking at head count and ways to reduce it," said Joe Hawley, who helped lead the turnaround of Doctor's Dermatologic Formula for two years before the business was sold to Procter & Gamble Co. last year.
The veteran of Avon Products, Unilever and Liz Claiborne is now working as a consultant with his own firm, Hawley Global Partners. While he's open to another permanent position, he's also plying a series of consulting gigs and believes marketing -- and even general management functions -- increasingly will be outsourced in the way information-technology and human-resources positions have been in recent years.
Most of these marketers aren't contractors directly through the employer, he said, but through third-party firms such as Aquent, which specializes in providing temporary marketing-industry help from its own pool of permanent employees and says it serves 90 of the Fortune 100 corporations.
The downside
"You'll look at a company and not be able to tell who's a contract employee, who's [a permanent employee] from a third-party resource and who's [an employee of] the company," Mr. Hawley said.
Of course, the downside can be quality, said Dave Gallagher, president of Boyden, an Atlanta-based executive-search firm. "Nobody is going to leave their job," he said, "to be a 90-day temp contractor."
But Mr. Hawley said temps aren't always getting worse deals, and some can even be of higher quality.
"I call it rent to buy," he said, adding that many of the positions have permanent potential, sometimes involve equity stakes or involve efforts to bypass corporate salary caps, and can attract people with broader or more current experience than permanent employees.
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