• by Larry Dobrow , Featured Columnist, June 22, 2005

The nonscientific results were culled from a questionnaire sent to HR departments at the top media agencies, as well as recruiters who specialize in the media profession. The questions sought to determine perks and salary ranges for several key job titles, and to assess how an agency's reputation and client roster affect candidates' decision-making.

What follows is a look at some of the survey's findings. While most respondents, (especially those in the HR departments of large firms) weren't eager to speak to us on the record, others were candid in their assessment of the state of the business from a personnel perspective. Given that the survey didn't generate thousands of responses, we advise readers not to consider the conclusions as gospel. Nonetheless, the near unanimity among respondents on the dearth of online planners suggests a business in the throes of a personnel reshuffling.

Money for Something Any "Salary and Benefits" portrait necessarily starts with a look at salaries. Respondents were asked to estimate average salaries for a handful of positions, and most prefaced their comments by noting that the ranges vary by market. Additionally, as Forum Personnel president Karen Katz remarks, "Once you get past the supervisor level, everybody has different titles for the same jobs" - meaning that one company's associate media director might be another's director of strategic and tactical media, thus skewing the estimates. That said, experienced media directors can expect to earn as much as $400,000 per year at the larger agencies and anywhere between $125,000 and $200,000 at smaller ones. Salaries for group/associate media directors generally fall somewhere between $90,000 and $120,000, while supervisors' pay tops out at around $80,000. Not surprisingly given the intense focus on return on investment, research directors demand and command the big bucks - as much as $300,000, according to two recruiting specialists.

Children Are the Future

Simply put, firms are tearing their hair out trying to find planner/junior supervisor-level staffers. The reason - during the economic downturn, companies slashed their training budgets and limited their number of entry-level hires. Rendering the shortfall even more frustrating is the inability of many firms to give younger staffers the raises and perks they demand.

"I'll talk to media buyers or planners who are in their first or second jobs out of school, making low- to mid-$40,000s, and have only gotten nominal raises over the years," says Beverly Weinstein, president of Markham Media Executive Search. "Other agencies are offering the same jobs at $50,000+ and can easily recruit [those buyers]. The first agency then can either counter the offer or has to find a replacement at $50+. All the horse trading is incredibly self-defeating."

Another respondent suggests a strategy that many firms are using to work around this: "You go to the person behind hr's back and say, 'Listen, go out and get an offer from somebody else and bring it back to us. We'll match it.' That's the only way I'm able to get these people what they deserve."

Online and Out-of-Sight

Recruiters say agencies can't find enough people with the experience and savvy to navigate the reinvigorated waters of online media. All the respondents contacted after submitting their questionnaires bemoaned the paper-thin talent pool, suggesting that top firms might want to do everything within their power (read: raises), to pre-emptively ward off poaching by their peers.

"There's just not enough people to meet the demands of the growing online marketplace," complains Kurt O'Hare, president of search firm O'Hare & Associates. "Back in '01 to '03, the industry wasn't able financially or structurally to bring in new talent, and nobody was devoting much in the way of resources to the online area. The result was that no younger talent got trained, so now you're down to five or six major companies, and they're all looking for people who work for each other."

Of Benefits and Bonuses

Participants vary wildly in their responses when asked about the top motivators for choosing where they'll work. A handful of typical comments pop up like "an environment that fosters creativity" and "a client roster peppered with A-list brands." Still, as one agency source concedes, "When it comes to things like medical, dental, or 401(k) benefits, it's a competitive wash for candidates when it comes to programs among the major agencies." Among the more innovative "new" perks is paid marriage/commitment ceremony leave (at MediaVest), and the potential for flexible telecommuting. As for the car and gym allowances that were temporarily an agency mainstay in the late 1990s, those are long gone - though junior staffers occasionally pick up free concert tickets, cab/car fare, and/or meals.

Room at the Top

The one area where there doesn't seem to be an appreciable shortage of qualified talent is in the executive suite. Senior management didn't get whacked when times got tough a few years back. "I don't think agencies cut back very much in the early 2000s at the more senior level," O'Hare says. "Plus you don't see as much attrition or career switches in the upper ranks as you do among the younger people." Respondents also suggest that such deeply entrenched individuals demand serious prompting (not to mention perks), before they will even consider switching gigs. "You hear a lot of, 'If I move, I need X, Y and Z,'" writes one respondent. Markham Media's Weinstein adds: "People have become very particular about what they want."

Hot Shops

About half of the responses to the question, "If you were new to the industry, which agency would you want to work for?" had to be disqualified, as every in-house hr person listed his or her own firm. The response was typically prefaced with "this may be a biased opinion, but..." However, independent-minded recruiters give MediaVest high marks. "They are redefining the media product," writes one; "there is a commitment to recognition for outstanding work from top management and it reverberates throughout the agency," adds another. TargetCast tcm, a smaller shop, also gets raves: "Since they're the new kid on the block, they have a great energy level and the potential for career growth is limitless."

Opportunity Knocks

Asked to delineate the differences between the media world and Wall Street, the overall response was "it's the money, stupid," implying there's a hell of a lot more of it in high-stress financial jobs. However, Dan Fanok, director of human resources at Mediaedge:cia, believes that a more interesting comparison would be between media shops and consultancies. "Consulting firms suck up a lot of young talent and probably have even more jobs than Wall Street in New York City, and certainly on a nationwide basis."

Beyond the online arena, respondents diverge in their predictions for the next hot specialty within the media business. Forum's Katz says that "fully integrated" media people - ones who can skip nimbly between, say, online, broadcast, and out-of-home - are in highest demand, and adds that she's getting more feelers from the client side than in previous years. "What that tells you is that corporations are now sensing a need to have someone inside with media eyes and ears," she explains. "They want somebody who's able to work one-on-one with the marketing team, challenge the media agencies, and serve as sort of an internal strategist."

Weinstein, on the other hand, warns media people about getting typecast: "I've talked to people that were moved out of general planning jobs and into, say, magazine planning. After a few years, that person is officially a 'magazine expert.' They're stuck. If they want to move back to general planning, they can't because they're seen as a specialist."