ANA takes on Talent Issues in New Campaign – “Best Jobs Ever” [VIDEO]

The ANA is tackling the marketing industry’s ongoing talent crisis head-on with a new multi-tiered campaign designed to inspire talented and diverse university students to choose marketing as a career.

Dubbed “Best Jobs Ever,” the campaign includes a video and a new partnership with WayUp, a digital platform that will connect marketers with millions of college students seeking summer internships and entry-level jobs.

 

 

ANA CEO Bob Liodice said the new campaign is rooted in a simple, powerful idea: The marketing industry offers some of the best jobs young people have never heard of. He added that the campaign is designed to optimize the talent pipeline from college students through to CMOs.

“Top-quality talent is the lifeblood of our industry, but the current system for attracting and retaining talent isn’t working, and we need to take immediate action,” Liodice said. “This campaign demonstrates just how creative, innovative, and powerful a career in marketing can be, and I urge all ANA members to support it in whatever way they can.”

The effort is part of an ambitious agenda established by the Global Growth Council, a keystone of the ANA Masters Circle, to develop solutions to the talent crisis facing the marketing industry. Growth Council member Elizabeth Rutledge, CMO at American Express, is leading it. Other companies that have joined include Procter & Gamble, Verizon, Sephora, and IBM.

“As the lead of the Global Growth Council’s Talent Development and Organization team, I strongly believe in the importance of attracting and training the next generation of marketing talent,” said Rutledge. “I hope to continue to drive progress in ensuring this next generation understands how dynamic a career in marketing truly is.”

The campaign resulted from research conducted in partnership with McCann Worldgroup that revealed marketers’ recruiting efforts are beset by a perception problem in which most students view marketing as simply ads and selling. They fail to see that a career in marketing is a diverse, multi-disciplined career that calls for a variety of skill sets ranging from creative to analytical.

The campaign video was created by McCann Worldgroup and highlights the wide variety of marketing industry jobs available to students, from picking out flavors for potato chips to putting together Spotify playlists using data and analytics. The video can be accessed at www.ana.net/bestjobsever.

“We are proud to support the ANA in this important initiative,” said Chris Macdonald, global president of advertising and allied agencies at McCann Worldgroup. “The discipline of marketing has changed radically, and the campaign we have developed celebrates this shift and challenges perceptions. It is critically important to communicate to students, professors, and parents what incredible career opportunities exist throughout the industry.”

“Best Jobs Ever” will launch this month with the video on WayUp, a platform specially tailored for college graduates and early career professionals seeking jobs and internships.

A toolkit for marketers also is planned that will include the McCann video, informational slides, and a link to a new page on the ANA Educational Foundation’s website at www.aef.com/bestjobsever where companies can find creative assets that will help them talk about their marketing roles to students.