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Northwestern Medill TalentQ Summary Paper: An Exploration of New Frontiers and the Talents Needed to Succeed in the Wild World of Marketing Written by Dan Jennis ABSTRACT: TalentQ is a Northwestern University and Medill student research program and annual conference that aims to reveal the skills and talents that propel exceptional individuals to success within the marketing communications industry. This paper considers the qualitative and quantitative research that served as the basis for the student presentation at this year’s conference. As the pace of change within the industry continues to accelerate, it is important to reflect upon the key patterns and insights that give shape to an understanding of talent within the marketing communications landscape. It is my hope that this paper will start a discussion regarding those attributes that are characteristic of successful marketing communications professionals. In the years that follow, we must return to this conversation, continuing to refine and revise our predictions as new data becomes available, following from the contributions of Medill students, staff, alumni and top-tier marketing experts. Introduction Now is a profoundly exciting and challenging time to be a marketer, as the pace of industry and technological change is virtually unparalleled. As old ways of communicating and understanding customers are left in the dust, it becomes crucial to think about the path forward and discover what it takes to navigate this dizzying maze of data, digital media, and newfound creative expression. The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications remarks that, “TalentQ is an ongoing quest to uncover unique talents and skills that make successful marketing communications professionals.” This process of research and inquiry marks a unique opportunity to critically examine the state of the industry and determine whether individuals are prepared to confront the challenges that are on the horizon. In this paper we will explore the idea of talent using summary results from both quantitative survey data and qualitative analysis from professional talks and followup interviews. The first section will relate the research methodology as well as participant characteristics. Following that, the next section will explore five key

findings in detail, paying special attention to the way that individual answers to questions concerning talent development and recognition may vary depending on contextual factors. Following this, the paper will briefly visit several surprising or contradictory findings that demand further research. The conclusion will then suggest deeper meaning and calls to action for all members of the marketing communications community. It is important to go back to these results over the years and develop an understanding of trends. This way, we can map the ways in which the pace of industry change conditions the academic and workplace training that is needed to foster professional success. TalentQ is an opportunity for Medill, and the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) program, to be thought leaders in generating and understanding top marketing communications talent, and we sincerely appreciate the countless hours and valuable insights that students, faculty and industry leaders have contributed throughout the program. This paper could not have come together without a substantial degree of community participation, a community comprised of individuals who possess a shared passion for marketing communications and a

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JOURNAL OF INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS ARTICLE | jimc.medill.northwestern.edu shared desire to better understand talent. It is therefore our hope that the entire community can benefit from an understanding of our findings.

Interested  in  Learning  More?   Go  to  talentq.medill.northwestern.edu  to  see   TalentQ  events,  videos,  partners  and  more   Visit  www.medill.northwestern.edu/imc  to  view   program  informa7on  and  videos   The  home  page  for  the  Medill  School  is   www.medill.northwestern.edu  

Methodology A three month program, TalentQ consists of three main components. First, and most importantly, the student research team surveyed almost 200 people with connections to the marketing communications industry. We had respondents fill out a comprehensive survey in which questions were asked concerning skills and talents that respondents currently possess, skills and talents that respondents wanted to improve, positions for which respondents were presently qualified, and positions to which respondents aspired in the next few years. Responses to these types of questions were open ended, and answers were then coded into categories that expressed the potential range of skills and talents that were identified. Additionally respondents were given questions based on their self-selected present status designation, the options of which included current Medill IMC student, Medill IMC alumni, Medill IMC faculty member, non Medill IMC working professional, and HR specialist. TalentQ committee members circulated the survey among the five designation groups above, and key information concerning the survey analysis appears below.

Second, all throughout the month of October, many guest speakers were featured at Northwestern University, consisting of high-level marketing professionals and Medill alumni with significant industry expertise. All of these participants were interviewed after speaking engagements, and the content of these speeches and discussions formed the basis of our qualitative research. Interviews were coded according to attributes that reflected an understanding of key talents and skills,

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JOURNAL OF INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS ARTICLE | jimc.medill.northwestern.edu stages of career development, and guiding insights reflecting the state of the marketing communications industry. Finally, we benefited from the major TalentQ Conference in November. The event featured a panel discussion with top cross-industry talent, and the student research group presented their findings as part of a lead-in presentation for the panel discussion. Thus, our methods for obtaining feedback were varied in both form and content, and this paper draws from an amalgamation of sources in order to include the most significant insights and trends, seeking similar conclusions across a range of respondent types and data modalities.

Key Findings Making use of our data sources, we wanted to see what talents were continually emphasized by marketing students, faculty and professionals. We wanted to see how this emphasis varied depending on the attributes of the participant, and how talents and skills mentioned were related to one’s current and future career aspirations. By comparing those skills that participants felt they needed to improve to those that were identified as most important within the marketing communications industry, we can identify perceptions of where the industry is headed and the gaps that need to be filled through education and training. Additionally, we can identify which participant groups are ahead of the curve or behind the curve when it comes to the recognition and development of certain skills and talents. In detail, here are five key findings that offer a clearer picture of the state of the marketing communications

landscape as well as the prevailing views concerning talents and skills that lead to industry success. Universal Talents Our combined research suggested that respondents possessed a tendency to mention three “universal talents” that served as the catalyst for exceptional occupational performance. From the long-form interviews, the first universal talent that participants mentioned was passion. From the qualitative interviews it was revealed that passion refers to a palpable degree of excitement for one’s job, and a strong drive to work as hard as possible to change an organization for the better. We talked to Azher Ahmed, Director of Digital Operations at DDB, who, when arriving home at night, would immediately take to social media to serve as a thought leader within his line of work. Becky O’Grady, President of Yoplait, told us that, “Passion and enthusiasm will excite others, including your team and your client.” Therefore, passion is such a universal talent because it pervades every aspect of a successful marketer’s workplace existence and enhances one’s skills and abilities. Becky O’Grady advised marketers to get to know their consumers like they would their friends. That kind of commitment to in-depth understanding certainly requires passion for one’s brand and for the daily tasks that are required to build meaningful relationships with customers in a fragmented marketplace. The second universal talent mentioned was creativity, which from the context of the interviews refers to groundbreaking modes of thought that are not beholden to existing ways of looking at the world. Successful professionals constantly devise innovative ideas by utilizing the skills that they have built over time and finding patterns in past experiences in order to craft novel solutions to everyday problems. Dan Fietsam, Chief Creative Officer at BBDO, offered 9 behaviors that characterize successful creative people. Two of those behaviors were “fast” and “prolific,” which refer to one’s ability to adapt to the pace of change within the industry and develop ideas that are dynamic and contextually relevant. This also requires the fluidity and flexibility to keep one’s creative ideas afloat despite external

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JOURNAL OF INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS ARTICLE | jimc.medill.northwestern.edu pressures. Fietsam also spoke to “media fluency,” which is necessitated by technological advancements that aid in creative expression and help marketers to find an audience for their creative ideas. For Fietsam, most important was the “X Factor,” that irreplaceable spark that makes ideas come to life when stimulated by the right personality and motivation. Finally, there is collaboration, which speaks to the ability to engage others in important projects and motivate co-workers to perform at the highest level no matter the circumstances. To possess a talent for collaboration, the in-depth interviews revealed that one must demonstrate strong people skills and a large degree of generosity so as to “share opportunities with others” to facilitate success for those around you. Azher Ahmed said that to engage in collaboration everyone must “work as a fluid group,” with teammates knowing their weaknesses and the holes that need to be filled, so that all can compensate for that as a collective. Dana Anderson, SVP of Marketing Strategy at Mondelez, remarked that, “Collaboration is a highly-idealized, low-yield activity.” This means that true collaboration should not be about building the semblance of a team for the sake of glorifying the leader, but passing on the credit to involve and engage others without a myopic focus on solely generating results. To a large extent, the quantitative survey data backs up these findings. A large number of working professionals expressed the desire to improve leadership abilities regardless of current skills or the position to which they aspired. Leadership is very similar to collaboration, as both involve working with and even managing others to produce a working group that is better than the sum of its parts. Within the survey data, a large degree of overall respondents expressed confidence in their existing creativity. Additionally, 46% of Medill IMC faculty held that students would be best served by improving their creative thinking, demonstrating the importance of creativity within the marketing communications industry. And while passion is difficult to make tangible, several respondents used modifiers before listed abilities that indicated a strong degree of reverence for one’s work. Examples of this include, “an appreciation of the necessity of deriving data driven insights,” “extremely well organized and

proactive,” and “eagerness to learn.” The universal talents are important because they together offer a fuller picture of the successful marketing communications professional. By thinking about those attributes that help to synthesize existing skills and produce the correct motivation needed to succeed at the highest level, we can begin to parcel out factors that predict a large degree of professional success. Additionally, we can better understand how skill development occurs, and thus start a conversation about those organizational cultures that best enable individuals to utilize their universal talents to better themselves and others. Big Data Opportunities Both current students and Medill faculty maintained that current students offer strong analytical skills. For these two groups, data analytics was mentioned as a key strength almost 50% of the time. However, IMC alumni and current marketing professionals were far less likely to identify analytical proficiency as one of their core assets, with current professionals listing data analytics less than 16% of the time overall. While almost half of current IMC students listed their analytical skills as a major asset, approximately 40% mentioned that they needed to improve upon these skills. This illustrates the growing importance of data analytics as both a skill that is necessary for many entering the job market, as well as a skill that many will need to possess in order to achieve high levels of success within firms with significant data needs.

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JOURNAL OF INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS ARTICLE | jimc.medill.northwestern.edu intuition to take leaps that separates the leaders from the rest.” And the drive to improve data analytics skills in the future certainly includes the ability to take more leaps and articulate strategic aims that can be derived from panic-inducing heaps of customer information.

We may be seeing a predictive gap, as marketing students entering the job market as well as associated faculty members were putting a high degree of emphasis on analytical skills in consideration of future changes in the marketplace. The predictive gap may exist to the extent that current marketing professionals were less likely to see the influx of “big data” as a cause for fundamental change within the job market. Alternatively, it is possible that many more seasoned professionals were well-established within positions that require less technical acumen, which likely includes the ability to analyze and interpret streams of customer data. It would also be worth exploring whether those within decidedly non-analytical positions saw the potential for spillover as far as organizational needs were concerned, such that those individuals who possess strong analytical skills would be seen as incrementally more valuable to their organization. Art Zambianchi, Managing Partner at Mindshare, certainly saw the value that data gurus can add to firms. He remarked that, “There is a fundamental panic we all share,” when referring to the pace at which technology enables the collection of big data within the industry. The professional panels and qualitative interviews both confirmed that managers within marketing organizations recognize the influx of huge amounts of data, and are concerned that employees may not be prepared to handle the data in a matter that produces actionable and clear results. Dana Anderson confirmed that, “Everyone has the same data, it’s the ability to use

The Need for Holistic Managers Based on the survey data, over half of current IMC students aspired to a future role within marketing research and analytics, while 73% of faculty indicated that current students are best prepared for a job within the above discipline. However, when compared to non Medill IMC professionals and IMC alumni, there is a large gap with respect to career aspirations. The latter group of individuals almost uniformly saw their future within account and client management, and both listed marketing research and analytics positions with a frequency of less than 10%. Thisagapainafutureacareeraaspirationacertainly warrants further discussion. A plausible explanation for this discrepancy is that younger respondents entering the job market mentioned positions that appeared earlier within their career horizon. Conversely, working professionals with more experience and industry knowledge may have been more likely to identify positions that reflect a realistic career trajectory. This is because experienced professionals may better understand the jobs available and can more easily distinguish between entry-level and management positions. Conversely, IMC students and faculty might have been more likely to identify positions for which they are currently applying or have witnessed others attain in the past. Most importantly, this gap may be explained by examining the skills that are associated with the listed aspirational positions. Those who identified research and analytical positions as being within their future plans also claimed to possess strong analytical skills. This indicates a desire to follow through on personal strengths within quantitatively demanding positions. Conversely, those who identified account and client management positions claimed to possess a variety of different skills, and mentioned an even greater arsenal of abilities and talents that they wanted to improve.

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JOURNAL OF INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS ARTICLE | jimc.medill.northwestern.edu The diversity of answers reflects that client and account management positions require a range of skills that likely includes such listed assets as leadership, communication, customer understanding, and creativity. Taken together, this suggests the need for holistic managers, well-reasoned individuals who can succeed in any one functional area and who can expertly synthesize a complex array of decision factors. Mark Goldstein, former Chairman at BBDO, noted that, “Successful managers are like a laser beam versus a tree.” This means that they need to be “relentless reductionists” who can identify and focus on the correct problem while telling a simple story for the client that takes into account all relevant information. Good managers take all the complex inputs and prune everything down into the necessary bits, maintaining their point of view but at the same time collaborating with others to refine and change ideas as required. Therefore, while specialty positions within analytics may offer a spring board into the job market, those within the quantitative domain may have to develop additional skills to secure a more well-rounded portfolio as they strive for management positions. These upperlevel positions will likely be identified by their holistic expectations, which include both comprehensive subject mastery and the ability to simplify complex situations, problems, and data sets. The Need for “Value-Added” Skills Regardless of the position to which respondents aspired, many of the same skills were mentioned in terms of what individuals believed they could offer to employers. Most of these skills were listed by between 15% and 25% of respondents, and included data analytics, creativity and communicative ability. These skills were listed with the same approximate frequency independent of future career aspiration, implying that they may constitute the essential “core” offering to employers that marketing communications professionals must present in order to meet workplace expectations for ability and performance. Turning to areas of improvement, leadership appeared among the top skills to improve for almost all individuals, regardless of the career or position to which they aspired. This seems intuitive, as leadership ability is

related to talent ascension, and constitutes a trait that a person is likely to master after learning project specific skills. Christa Chavez, Media Supervisor at Razorfish, remarked that the best leaders position themselves to work with other groups and teams. In this way, they can learn more and show others that they are a team player. Successful leaders therefore exhibit the empathy needed to understand and successfully manage others, as well as the listening skills to take in information from anyone on their team. Dana Anderson confirmed that, “It takes a certain kind of leadership to lead in collaboration.” This suggests that the value-added component of leadership means not only harnessing one’s own talents for the good of the firm, but also stimulating the talents of others through generosity and team work.

Therefore, while certain core abilities such as analytical acumen and communicative prowess are needed to get one’s foot in the door, exceptional leadership and interpersonal skills allow individuals to attain high levels of career success. The frequency with which respondents recognized the need to improve leadership is a testament to the desire for “valueadded” skills that stretch beyond the already lofty expectations that currently exist within the marketing communications landscape. Those who possess the aforementioned core abilities and have the capacity to hone their leadership skills to listen to and empathize with others will be more likely to ascend to the top of their respective organizations.

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VALUE-­‐ADDED   CORE  

VALUE-­‐ADDED:   Talents  and  skills  that   truly  delight   employers  and  are   beyond  expecta8on.   Capabili8es  that  boost   employees  to  the  top   of  an  organiza8on.  

CORE:  The  talents  and  skills  that  are  expected   of  employees.  Capabili8es  that  are  necessary  in   order  to  get  beyond  that  ini8al  job  interview.  

The Need to Build upon Existing Strengths When respondents were surveyed as to those skills and talents that they wished to improve upon, it was important to first determine the relationship between areas of improvement and existing skills. Did respondents want to build a broad repertoire of abilities by adding new talents and becoming more well-rounded? Or, did respondents want to build upon existing skills to become specialists who were invaluable within a specific domain? The results indicated that current students and faculty members emphasized improving existing analytical and data interpretation skills, while marketing professionals put a higher degree of emphasis on improving existing leadership capabilities as well as improving creativity and communicative ability. Almost half of current IMC students listed analytical skills as a key area of strength, and 40% of students expressed the desire to improve upon these skills. Medill faculty expressed a good degree of optimism with respect to the existing creativity and integrative thinking skills of students, and listed these as assets with a frequency of 18% and 36% respectively, but also indicated that students would be best served by improving upon these skills with frequencies of 46% and 18% respectively. As Janneke van Geuns, Associate Director at Draftfcb, confirmed, blending data skills with creativity through integrative thinking indicates the importance of viewing data analytics as both an art and a science. Dan Fietsam echoed Albert Einstein, proclaiming that, “Creativity and imagination

are more important than knowledge.” But to improve upon existing analytical skills, marketing professionals seek both. The science of data analytics speaks to the knowledge of the newest statistical tools and best methods for maintaining financial accountability, while the art of integrative thinking speaks to the creativity needed to derive unique and exciting insights from numbers and patterns of customer behavior. Current working professionals also expressed the desire to build upon existing strengths. 25% of non Medill IMC marketing professionals listed planning strategy as an asset, with 25% also expressing the desire to improve their strategic planning skills. Similarly, 14% of Medill IMC alumni listed planning strategy as a key strength, with 18% expressing the desire to improve. Additionally, leadership was listed as a key area of improvement for a substantial number of working professionals despite the fact that 17% of working professionals listed leadership ability as a core strength. These results indicate that working professionals recognize essential aspects of their job, such as the ability to execute strategic plans within an account management position, but also look to build upon their existing abilities to further improve their overall management aptitude. Topics Warranting Further Discussion As TalentQ is an on-going research project, we thought it prudent to discuss survey results we found surprising, confusing or even contradictory in order to prompt further discussion. The student research group found three findings to be especially worthy of future inquiry. Defining the Digital Domain The influx of digital media within the marketing communications industry merits special consideration. Within both the survey data and long-form interviews, we observed considerable debate as to whether “digital” could be considered a separate functional area. Younger professionals and current IMC students were much more likely to take the viewpoint that digital represented a transformation in workplace capability that could not be reduced to a concrete set of skills. Interestingly, 25% of non Medill IMC marketing professionals expressed a

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JOURNAL OF INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS ARTICLE | jimc.medill.northwestern.edu desire to explicitly improve their digital savvy, compared to only 16% of Medill IMC students. Moreover, only 9% of Medill IMC faculty suggested that students needed to improve their digital capabilities.

These findings reveal an important gap. In future surveys, it might be desirable to have respondents define digital skills, so that they can indicate whether digital is seen as a set of technological capabilities or a shift in the mediums that are used for marketing communications practices. Additionally, it would be useful to have respondents elaborate when they express a desire to improve digital skills so that we could know if respondents desire more concrete technical abilities, such as coding or use of software, or if respondents seek a better strategic understanding of digital media usage. As digital marketing continues to grow in importance, returning to these findings and clarifying the place of digital aptitude within the talent discussion will prove crucial. The Effect of Company Type on Skill Development and Need We found that answers concerning existing skills and areas for improvement showed some variation across different types of organizations. Survey respondents were asked to specify the type of company for which they worked, and were able to a select clientside organization, full service agency, or specialty agency. While full service agencies provide the full suite of marketing services, specialty agencies focus in one

key area, such as public relations or analytics. Those working on the client-side and within specialty agencies both professed strong analytical skills, as well as a desire to further improve upon such skills in the future. Conversely, data acumen was seldom mentioned as either an area of core strength or as a potential locus for improvement by those within full service agencies. Respondents working within full service agencies claimed to possess both the capacity for creativity and innovative thinking with a frequency of just under 18%, which represented the top-mentioned talent.

These differences in professed abilities and improvement objectives likely reflect a difference in occupational nature that occurs across organization type. Those working on the client-side put the highest degree of emphasis on analytical ability, and it would be important to know whether such individuals have functions that are intensely data driven. Additionally, it would be revealing to receive a more detailed answer that explains the way in which an organization is specialized or why respondents would choose to categorize their current company as a specialty agency. With a stronger understanding of participant job role in the future, we can better match skill strength and development to concrete positional requirements. Lack of Matching Between Current Skills and Short Term Job Aspirations Organizing the survey data by the position titles

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JOURNAL OF INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS ARTICLE | jimc.medill.northwestern.edu for which respondents feel they are currently qualified reveals surprisingly little matching between existing skills and the supposed demands of given jobs. For example, those listing marketing and research positions as the functional area for which they are currently qualified only mentioned data analytics 20% of the time as a skill that they offer to employers. For this group, integrative thinking was mentioned most, with a frequency of approximately 35%. Additionally, those who felt they were currently qualified for a position in the digital and web analytics space most frequently listed creativity, innovative thinking and the ability to draw customer insights as key skills that they currently offered. Across the board, respondents mentioned soft skills with greater frequency when identifying those talents that they currently offered to organizations. This created a significant imbalance given that a lot of respondents claimed that they were presently qualified for more analytically demanding positions. That we see less coherence overall makes sense as individuals may not be able to choose a job that matches their skill set, but can certainly aspire to one that is more in line with their existing abilities. Therefore, in future surveys, a followup question that asks individuals why they believe they are presently qualified for a given position will prove extremely helpful. However, if we examine those jobs to which respondents aspired to in the future, we see a lot more matching in terms of skill development. Overall, respondents expressed a desire to improve digital savvy and data analytics ability with among the highest frequency independent of the position to which they aspired. Those individuals who aspired to be web or digital managers mentioned the need to improve their digital savvy with the most frequency, and those who aspired to be marketing and research managers mentioned the need to improve their analytical skills with the most frequency. This may imply that individuals want to hone in on and improve those skills that are most germane to their ideal future occupation. At the same time, it is possible that individuals may feel they do not possess the skills they currently need to succeed in the position to which they aspire. As a

result, a follow-up question asking respondents why they feel the need to improve certain skills will prove useful in ascertaining the reason for wanting to focus in on certain areas.

Conclusion Based on the research data, we have the ability to chart the typical, or perhaps the ideal, pathway for marketing professionals over the course of their career. While not all individuals will follow one set path, the patterns we have observed offer a narrative that helps to offer guidance for individuals in different stages of their career. We found that as young marketing professionals enter the job market, they must leverage their hard skills and often their quantitative abilities to get their foot in the door. At the same time, the truly exceptional candidates must demonstrate their value-added capabilities in order to stand out and get the most competitive positions. As marketing professionals advance throughout their careers, positions will no longer be defined by specific capabilities and functions, and those on the fast-track will take up account management and client service roles. Success here requires the ability to grow, and to leverage one’s skills so that there is no new horizon that is beyond the grasp of truly extraordinary talents. The great leaders and visionaries will have a holistic process whereby they understand how their skills can be broadly applied to each new marketing challenge

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JOURNAL OF INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS ARTICLE | jimc.medill.northwestern.edu and management task. Every marketing professional, regardless of tenure and position, will always want to improve his or her leadership, creativity and innovative thinking. It is a passion for the craft that underlies this ethic. Another way that talent fits together in an organization is through the concept of alignment. It is important to interpret our findings in order to prescribe actions on behalf of organizations that will cultivate top talent. Just as an organization’s marketing strategy has to be in alignment with its strategic objectives, we have identified three components that the data suggest must be in synch in order for organizations to recognize and reward top talent. The first is personal fulfillment. An employee has to find meaning and enjoyment in the daily tasks that he or she is assigned. Every employee must have a reason to get out of bed each morning and come to work, ready to contribute to the success of the firm. Second, individuals must possess the requisite professional skills. Whether these are innate skills or learned abilities, there needs to be a minimum level of competency and expertise attained in order to succeed in a very competitive marketplace. Third, the organization has to have the need. A talented individual will only thrive in an organization that appreciates and is prepared to utilize a person’s strengths. Diverse skills and talents must fit together into one harmonious whole, suggesting that this process of integration may be worth further exploration. As an on-going initiative, the TalentQ team will revisit the survey results, comparing the present findings to prior research, and seeing how the identification of crucial skills and talents changes over time. In the future,

we will extend our quest and journey to identify those success factors that contribute to rich and sustained growth within the marketing communications field, and hope that everyone within the industry can benefit from a discussion of our findings. n TalentQ Hashtag

Appendix A - Acknowledgement Table

About the Author: Dan Jennis is a recent graduate of the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University. He served an integral role on the TalentQ research committee, helping his teammates take the lead on survey analytics and coding, and presenting the data findings at the TalentQ conference in November. This March, Dan will begin working at Capgemini as a staff consultant, assisting companies in improving their transactional software and customer relationship databases. While in graduate school, Dan pursed a concentration in marketing analytics. He can be reached at: [email protected].

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JOURNAL OF INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS ARTICLE | jimc.medill.northwestern.edu Appendix B - Quotation References

Appendix E - TalentQ Word Cloud

Appendix C - Breakdown of Type of Respondents

Appendix D - Social Buzz Volume Chart

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