The IAPI Census 2023 was conducted via surveys sent to the IAPI membership and completed by the heads of Finance, HR and Agency Leaders.
72% of IAPI member agencies participated in this year’s Industry Census throughout September and October 2023.
Commenting on this year's Census, Sean Hynes, Creative Director, Bonfire Dublin and IAPI President 2022-23 said: “As always, this year's IAPI census shows many fantastic perspectives. Whilst there is some talk about economic uncertainty, it is fantastic to see so many agencies defiantly optimistic about their own performance for 2024. And it’s particularly encouraging to see the growth in international business now on a solid upward trend.”
The total workforce employed by IAPI members is estimated at 2,323 (a marginal decline since 2022), with the highest volume of staff within Client Services and Project Management.
The war on talent, caused in the main by the tech companies, seems to have eased. Talent Churn is down YOY at only 10% vs 16% on average in 2022. Administration and Client Services departments are still seeing high churn however at 22% and 18% respectively.
Over a third (34%) of talent leaving the industry is reportedly taking time out or going travelling, still reflecting the lag in this natural movement due to the pandemic. Less than 10% of leavers are now going to tech companies, while movement to other creative agencies accounts for a quarter of leavers.
While three-quarters of leavers are at junior levels (less than 5 years), 40% of these are taking time out and 20% are moving to another agency. Click here to read more>>
8 in 10 respondents either have their own DEI Policy in place or use the IAPI Policy available to all members.
While it appears that clients are not actively seeking that their agencies have a fully inclusive and diverse workforce, agencies believe that it is very important for their agency culture and that they need to reflect diversity of the entire Irish society to relate to it.
Females still dominate the workforce by 12% overall which is a slight decrease from 2022.
With more females in Executive Management (almost a 2:1 ratio), the goal to reach gender equality in the Boardroom looks highly feasible. With 41% of females at C Suite or Board Director level, this is a slight decrease (2%) from last year. Click here to read more>>
2022 showed healthy increases on average for IAPI members in terms of Revenue (up by 21%), however Media Billings on average fell by 10%.
The average revenue (or fee income) reported by respondents for 2022 was €6.5m across all agency types. Events agencies also continued to see strong growth with an increase of 48% in revenue in 2022.
With numerous agencies now part of network groups, it has impacted the growth trajectory that Independent Creative Agencies were on average for this sector down 16% in 2022, and for the first half of this year, revenues are down significantly on average by 39% YOY compared to Networked Creative agencies who were ahead on revenue by 22% on average. Click here to read more>>
Leaders are again more optimistic about their own agency’s future than the industry as a whole. While over 9 out of 10 respondents state that their agency will do as well, if not better, in 2024, only 72% feel the same way about the industry.
Even with the uncertainty of the current economic backdrop, on average 72% see their revenue increasing next year and only 5% see it decreasing.
Of most concern to leaders is clients’ increasing conservatism and caution regarding the type of content being released, leading to reduced innovation and freedom. Click here to read more>>
Our thanks to John McGee for generously featuring our census in The Sunday Independent on 26 November. He extracts and discusses the optimistic outlook for our industry coming into 2024, the pain points experienced this year, and more.
You can read the full article here>>
John McGee, Writer for the Sunday Independent, comments: "Looking into 2024, 90pc also said that their agency will do as well, if not better than 2023 while nearly three-quarters (72pc) believed that revenues in 2024 would increase. Just 5pc, meanwhile, see revenues actually declining.
With profit margins of anything from 12pc-15pc for smaller agencies rising to 20pc for bigger agencies, the industry continues to walk a very fine line at a time of economic uncertainty. Any talk of a recession, technical or otherwise in 2024, would not be good for IAPI members, which employ 2,323 staff between them."
