Staffing Industry Reports On Marketing/Creative Segment
After attending an industry seminar this past week in Florida, I was pleasantly surprised to read the March 2009 edition of Staffing Industry Report. After asking for years to be measured independent of Professional Services, the marketing segment finally earned its very own segment! Not only did they address the economic outlook on the marketing/creative segment, they also mentioned McKinley Marketing Partners!
As a recap of the article, it was estimated that the marketing/creative segment “generated $1.4 billion of domestic revenue in 2008.” The growth of this segment was attributed to the growing trends towards Internet advertising. Even though marketing budgets are being cut in today’s economic climate, there is still a need for talent who has the in-demand skill sets. McKinley has definitely seen the impact of the movement towards online marketing as we are receiving more requests for Internet marketing managers and search engine optimization experts. These companies need candidates who have multiple skill sets in the realm of marketing/creative services.
The organization is also predicting that this segment’s revenue will decrease by a minimum of 4% in 2009 due to the declining state of the economy and the reduction of advertising budgets. Although I hope this is not the case, I understand the rationale behind the prediction and only hope to be proved wrong.
The article went on to define the segment’s competitive landscape. Aquent was recognized as the largest private provider of creative services, with revenue reaching $200 million in 2008 and “some of the larger providers of staffing in the segment are FILTER, The BOSS Group and McKinley Marketing Partners.” I was gratified to see McKinley included as one of the major players in the marketing services industry. It is definitely a proud moment for Team McKinley.
All in all, I found this article to be extremely informational and useful. Although McKinley has made similar predictions/estimates in our daily business, it was nice to get an educated outlook on the industry as a whole.
