Who is on the Committee?
That’s me, Emma O’ Doherty! However I work closely with the Digital committee and call on other media agency personnel from outside the IAPI Board as required.
What is the Committee concerned with?
As we come into a year filled with more confidence and increased advertising investment there are still some ever present concerns from our media agency members – namely staff resourcing, recruitment and retention. The cost of resource did not decrease during the recession and with increased competition from the global tech companies and a small talent pool the majority of agency MDs have cited this as their number one concern in 2016. In terms of managing existing resource, two areas have been raised; (1) media auditing (particularly digital auditing) and (2) media training.
So what are our objectives and goals in 2016?
Namely to assist our media agency members in three areas:
1. Recruitment – showcasing media as an attractive career option
2. Advocacy – working with the media auditors to assist in managing agency resource; working with Nielsen to continue with improvements in investment reporting
3. Training – more media focused events
Recruitment – showcasing media as an attractive career option
IAPI already has a graduate communication programme in place and in 2015 commissioned and promoted a campaign What If? to encourage more people to consider advertising as a career. However, there is a distinct need to pull out media as an attractive career path within advertising – too often those leaving school or college do not know it is a sector for consideration or understand the wide skill-sets required within media agencies.
In April 2016 media will form a key strand of the Future Heads ASKvertising graduate recruitment showcase; with younger members of the media industry answering questions and pitching directly to those who come along.
Across the summer we plan to pull together a working group to design media-only collateral to drop into schools and colleges for the new term in Q3 – focusing on great career stories, what we do and the type of skills we need.
Advocacy – auditing resource & investment reporting improvements
In 2016 we will continue our engagement with both the Media Auditors and Nielsen to ensure improvements on behalf of our members. Media auditing resource management has become an area of concern and there is also a lack of understanding with regard to the demands of digital auditing. IAPI has already begun to engage with auditors and in Q2 plans on creating principles and timelines for all to work with.
Nielsen continues to work with our members to improve its investment reporting service Addynamix. In 2016 we will be rolling out new radio methodology and continuing to look at the digital offering.
Training – more media focused topics
Whilst IAPI tries to ensure a balanced training programme, focused on the current and future demands of the industry, there have been concerns raised about the lack of media bespoke topics. 2016 sees increased focus on digital training, a theme started in 2015, as well as a review to source relevant content for bespoke media sessions for late 2016 or early 2017. We will also look for media thought leadership topics to encourage more senior level involvement in IAPI’s training programme. We would love some input from our members as to what they would like to see on the programme so please do get in touch.
If anyone is interested in getting involved in any of the areas mentioned above, would like more information, or simply like to make a suggestion, then please feel free to contact me at emma.odoherty@mindshareworld.com or on 01 4150300.
