The IAPI Census 2021 was conducted via surveys sent to the IAPI membership and completed by the heads of Finance, HR and Agency Leaders. A total of 54 out of 61 (89%) IAPI members participated in the Census providing IAPI with robust data to take stock of the Industry and how it has fared over the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021.
The last Census was undertaken in 2019, with no Census carried out in 2020 much of the data compares 2019 to 2021, and the majority of the Census analysis was undertaken by Independent Research Consultant, Ann Claire Nolan, who worked with the IAPI Executive to produce the report.
With 27% staff churn on average in 2020, and similar figures predicted for 2021, this is the single biggest concern facing the industry, particularly as two-thirds of those moving leave the industry. There is a misperception that the majority of those leaving the industry go to the tech platforms, but these account for less than 1 in 5 leavers. Most leavers are choosing a completely different career path, stepping down altogether or, moving out of Ireland.
Naturally, the level of churn has contributed to wage inflation across all roles in the sector. IAPI members took part in a confidential salary survey in the Autumn and the findings show above inflation wage increases across a wide spectrum of agency roles.
When it comes to gender balance, women now have an equal say in Executive Management across the industry and hold 40% of the C Suite positions in agencies – a jump of 7% since 2019 and to be applauded as this is well above the industry average.
The industry is also growing its’ non-Irish workforce, with 1 in 5 employees from Europe, UK, US, Canada, South America, Asia, Africa, The Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. This represents a 7% increase of international talent since 2019. For the first time this year, IAPI also looked at the socio-economic backgrounds of the workforce...
At an average per agency income of €4.3m in 2020, there was the expected decline in revenue across the industry from €4.9m in 2019. However, if the half year figures reflect the full year results for the industry, then we can also anticipate Media and PR agencies to be back at 2019 revenues by year end 2021.
Contributing one third of the income for the industry, retainer fees remain an increasingly important percentage of the revenue breakdown for all agencies.
There is an optimistic view of profitability for 2021 with average profit margins to rise by 4% on 2020 figures. However, pitching still represents a huge cost to the industry, and with an estimated 427 pitches in total, IAPI estimates that pitching cost the industry €12m in 2020.
87% of Agency Leaders are very optimistic that their agency will fully recover from the impact of the pandemic, and three-quarters believe that Industry Revenues will increase next year.
With nearly two-thirds of all agencies pursuing business from International Clients, this again reflects the confidence of Irish Agencies to compete on a global stage and that the work IAPI does to promote Ireland: Where Creative is Native is taking hold.
Agency Leaders are also seeing some positive trends emerging from clients, including their focus on great creativity and their belief in its’ positive impact on business effectiveness.
However, the industry still faces a number of challenges as the pandemic continues to affect our working lives. Aside from talent churn, maintaining agency culture, as we continue to work from home, remains the key concern of agency Leaders for the next twelve months.
To read more about the industries upcoming opportunities and challenges, click here>>
Our thanks to John McGee for featuring our census in The Sunday Independent on 12 December. He extracts and discusses the positives and negatives from the 2021 Census.
"According to IAPI’s census, average revenues for both creative and media agencies are likely to return to 2019 levels, possibly even higher, after taking a hit of between 20pc-30pc last year. Looking into 2022, the census shows that 87pc of agency bosses are now very optimistic with 75pc of the opinion that revenues will be up." - John McGee, Sunday Independent Writer
