ADLAND’S TACKLING THE TALENT CRISIS SEE P. 8 · THE TALENT CRISIS SEE P. 8 SALLY HOGSHEAD: YOUR...

CAREERGUIDE

INSIDE

SEPTEMBER 24, 2007

A SUPPLEMENT TO ADVERTISING AGE

HOW ADLAND’S TACKLINGTHE TALENTCRISISSEE P. 8

SALLY HOGSHEAD:YOUR VALUE LIESIN GREAT IDEASSEE P. 5

WHY JIM STENGELAND OTHERSLAST AS CMOSSEE P. 7

PASS IT ON!ADVICE FROM THEBEST IN THE BIZSEE P. 10

PHOTO BY CLAUDE SHADE

AD AGE MAIN 09-24-07 B 1 ADAGE 9/17/2007 3:13 PM

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FROM THE EDITORWHETHER YOU’RE SEEKING A NEW OPPORTUNITY, WORKING TO UPYOUR VALUE OR TROLLING FOR STAR HIRES, THIS GUIDE’S FOR YOU

human capital. It’s the single-most-important asset agencies and marketingorganizations can have right now, and thereisn’t enough of it to go around. Demand’s atan all-time high; supply hasn’t kept up.That’s because as technology transforms theadvertising landscape in unprecedented anddizzying ways, it leaves in its wake legionsof marketers who, by default, end up at thebase of the learning curve.

Agencies need creative minds and strate-gic thinkers who can help guide clients asthey navigate the new waters of interactivi-ty and brand development, all the whileadhering to critical, ROI-infused businessgoals; marketing organizations need talentthat can execute against a new and morechallenging agenda hell bent on boostingthe bottom line.

Of course, if you are an individual withthe kind of multifaceted skill set so prizedamong marketers these days, you’re a com-modity that’s hotter than a pop tart’s implo-

sion on YouTube. Because there are too fewof you. Your challenge? Finding the right fitfor your brilliance.

The purpose of this guide is to provide thetools and advice that can help hiring organi-zations as they seek the best of the best, aswell as job seekers whose goal it is to landthat plum gig.Whether you’re new to theindustry, a midlevel executive looking toadvance or a CMO who is toiling to have aneven greater impact on his or her company’smanagement team, this report is for you.Likewise, if you’re in the beginning stages ofpaving an agency career or have been suc-cessfully leading a global firm for years, thisguide should provide you with a closer lookat some of the critical issues related to maxi-mizing your career success.

And for more tips, trends and expertadvice on landing and navigating that dreamjob, as well as how to fix the talent crisiswithin your organization, check out Ad Age’sTalentWorks each week, in print and online.

BY JENNIFER ROONEY

INNOVATIVE PLACES TO WORK AND GROW

4 Ready to make a move? Or strike out onyour own? Career consultant Brad Karshoffers up four essential steps to help youlay the groundwork for your job search.

5 Radical careerist Sally Hogshead on whyideas are still the most important currencyyou have to help advance your career--and why you shouldn’t neglect them.

6 If you’re a marketer, is switching industriesa help--or a hindrance—to your careerdevelopment? These industry-hoppingveterans say it’s definitely a help.

7 Think you have what it takes to be a CMO?Think again. It takes a certain kind ofacumen and expertise that’s rare. Here’show to evaluate your chances of success.

8 The race for the best and brightest: TheNo. 1 crisis facing the advertising,marketing and media industry is a lack oftalent. A look at its roots and solutions.

10 Want to know how to get ahead in the adgame and create a dream career? To findout, we went straight to the top. Here,seven industry leaders share their advice.

12 The CMO tenure stat is a celebrity in and ofitself, grabbing headlines and making forneat sound bites. But it has to be kept inperspective. Yes, CMOs can beat the odds.

14 Are you a marketer who’s at risk of makingyourself obsolete? Fight back. Work tostrengthen your value by learning thelatest tech trends and most critical skills.

The numbers don’t lie: Ad Age Data CenterEditor Brad Johnson provides a snapshotof the state of the advertising-servicesand media job markets.38

16 AQUENT

18 CENTER FOR BRAND & PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

20 THE CREATIVE GROUP

22 DRAFTFCB

24 GREY

26 JAVELIN DIRECT

28 JWT

30 MCCANN WORLDGROUP

32 MEDILL IMC AT NORTHWESTERN

34 MEREDITH

36 WEBER SHANDWICK

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3CAREER GUIDE SEPTEMBER 24, 2007

REWARDAD STARSFOR VALUE,RESULTSAGENCIES SHOULDN’T HAVE TO CUT COMPENSATIONPACKAGES FOR THEIR STRONGEST PLAYERS

advertising is still a people business. Thestrategic thinking and creative concepts thatbuild brands come from the minds of peoplewho make a difference. They are peoplewho win business. Ask a chief marketingofficer what he or she most wants from anad agency, and the response will be: ideasthat solve a problem, ideas that are strategicand communicate across a multitude ofplatforms and ideas that brands need toaddress. These ideas are born in the mindsof the stars of advertising. But will they bethere in the future?

Agency compensation continues to besqueezed. Procurement concepts of buyinghours or FTEs do not reward brilliantinsights that come from creative people andcannot be measured in hours. Blendedhourly rates and payment for execution andcoordination, but not creative or strategicthinking, are forcing agencies to reducecompensation packages for their stars.

As agencies struggle to define the incen-tive compensation formulas for success forthe client and additional compensation foruse of strategic and creative conceptsbeyond the scope of the specific assignment,they are finding it difficult to reward theirstars. Bonuses for employees can only bepaid if an agency overall makes its numbers.Long-term incentive plans pay off only ifthe overall agency achieves significantimprovement in its stock value. Theseachievements become more and more diffi-cult as agencies are continually squeezedand often not compensated at all for theadditional use of strategic creative as adver-tisers no longer entrust all of their market-ing dollars to a single agency.

Salaries have topped out. Public compa-nies have to report the compensation oftheir most highly paid people.

Compensation at the top is about theoverall package. How much does the starearn after taxes for each year of devotionto the agency and its clients? This has toadd up against alternatives such as going towork in Hollywood, starting an internetcompany, joining the Google staff or start-ing a brand-consulting or content company(“please do not call us an ad agency”).

So it’s not about salary. It’s about theother pieces of the package and the chances

that the agency will achieve the profitabilitythat will make those pieces pay off:

� The percentage of salary that can beachieved in exceeding targets as an annualbonus and whether it is determined by theagency worldwide or the individual office ora mix of factors.

� The value of equity or restricted shares(options are a thing of the past). Assuming15% per annum growth in value is some-thing to be undertaken with care.

� Additional equity or a “phantom equi-ty” to reward staying with the agency andachieving long-term goals. This is where thewealth creation may rival the lure of settingout on your own and building your owncompany that you plan to sell to the hold-ing company that failed to perceive yourvalue last year at bonus time.

The bottom line is that compensationpackages for the stars of the agency world—the great creative strategists and individualswho move the business—are trendinglower. It becomes more difficult for agenciesto fashion a package—salary, annual bonus,long-term incentive and restricted stock—that will produce, over time, the wealth thatstars of advertising achieved in the past. Thesolution: Clients must compensate agenciesfor achieving results—paying for value cre-ated so that agencies can more predictablydeliver to the stars who make it happen. Ittakes creativity on both sides of the equa-tion—the agency reaping the rewards ofsuccess and the stars structuring a compen-sation package that will yield a fair share ofthose rewards if they are achieved.

BY RICK KURNIT

WHERE DO MARKETINGMASTERS COME FROM?

Where do marketing masters come from? In truth, there’s no magic formula thatguarantees success. While the term “marketing” and the title “CMO” may beconsistent across companies and sectors, the ideal background for a marketingleader isn’t. It will shift depending on the industry, the situation, company andbrand needs and the cultural environment. Here, a rundown of how the path tomarketing mastery can vary:

RETAILSome of the best marketers in retail have a merchant mentality and may haveheld merchandising positions earlier in their careers. The best merchants areactually quite good marketers who buy for their customers rather than forthemselves; marketers in retail should approach marketing from a merchant’sperspective, with intimate understanding of the product, the customer and theirneeds, and a feel for the rhythm and cadence of retail.

CONSUMER PACKAGE GOODS Marketers at major consumer-package-goods companies have typically spenttheir careers in packaged-goods brand management and are experts inunderstanding channels, new-product development, demand generation, brandextension, pricing, packaging and consumer insights. They are excellent atanalyzing syndicated data and using it with their sales force and key customers.

FINANCIAL SERVICES Many of the top financial services marketers got their start in a more disciplinedCPG “academy,” but they were distinguished by their particular ability to be moremetric-based in their decision-making. Direct and data-based marketing canserve as excellent training grounds for financial services marketers who so oftensell their products directly to customers or through third-party financial advisers.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES Master marketers at law firms, consulting firms, accounting firms are increasinglybeing looked to as the architects and drivers of growth. The best marketers inprofessional services know how to work with partners to help them becomemasters in their individual industry sectors, teaching them how to developbusiness with new and existing clients.

WORDS TO WORK BY ‘The book that has inspired my career is…’

� “Forgiveness is aChoice: A Step-by-StepProcess for ResolvingAnger and RestoringHope,” by Robert Enright.It’s a book by a professor ofeducational psychology atthe University ofWisconsin-Madison whose10-plus years of researchhas proved the power offorgiveness to improveperformance in all aspectsof work and personal life. Itespecially applies toanyone working in theagency business, with itsrejections, risks, longhours, often unfairjudgments, losses andchanges of loyalty.

–Marsha Lindsay,president-CEO, Lindsay,Stone & Briggs

BY DAVID SELBY AND BRADFORD MCLANE

� I get a lot of inspirationfrom so many books. Iguess the most influentialbook is the large Bauhausbook that was designed byMuriel Cooper for MITPress. I picked up twoconcepts: “Less is more”and “the sum is greaterthan the individual parts.”Both concepts areimportant to the basicarchitecture of R/GA. Thefirst is about designsimplicity, and the secondis about collaboration andintegration.

–Bob Greenberg,chairman-CEO-globalchief creative officer,R/GA

� I read Ogilvy’s“Confessions of an Ad Man”in 1978, and I promptlyswitched majors fromaccounting to journalism.

Shortly beforegraduating I read “Christwas an Ad Man,” by RobertPritikin. It was a hilariousread, especially the partwhere, after consumerresearch confirmed that thegreatest benefit of owningyour own swimming poolwas swimming in the buff,he proposed “Best F___INGPool in the World” as aheadline. Little did I knowthat 10 years later I would beproposed “Just F__K It” as aposition line for Nike. With asmall tweak that lineworked out pretty well.

–Scott Bedbury,founder, Brandstream

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Rick Kurnit is a partner in the lawfirm of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz. He has thirty years ofexperience in the advertising and marketing services andpublishing industries, representing advertisers andagencies.


4

WHEN YOUKNOW IT’S TIMETO MOVE ON

it’s never an easy decision to change jobs. But whenthat magic moment comes, when you’ve read “WhoMoved My Cheese,” and when you decide that today isthe day, what exactly do you do?It’s a problem plaguing many job seekers. In fact, part ofthe reason you haven’t made the move is probablybecause you don’t really know how to get started. Here’sthe inside scoop on exactly how to take the next step.

CAREER CONSULTANT BRAD KARSH WEIGHS INWITH FOUR ESSENTIAL STEPS TO HELP YOU LAYTHE GROUNDWORK FOR YOUR JOB SEARCH

BY BRAD KARSH

1.PUT YOUR HOUSE IN ORDERResume, cover letter, interviewing skills.You’ll need to have all of them brushed upand in top-notch shape. I know that resumehas been sitting dormant since yougraduated college eight years ago, buttrust me, the recruiting director no longercares that you raised $370 for the “CannesCar Wash ‘99” as the Ad Club VP-programming.

Don’t assume that your title orcompany will speak for themselves, either.Just because you’re the accountsupervisor on Unilever at Ogilvy, New York,doesn’t mean you’ll get any job you applyfor. There is an abundance of well-qualifiedcandidates out there. The more buttoned-up you are with your preparation, thebetter your chances.

So update the résumé. You can do ityourself or work with a professionalrésumé-writing company. Just make sureit’s in great shape, accurately reflectingyour accomplishments. The same goes forinterviewing. You probably think that youare great at interviewing, but you may beshocked at the mistakes you makefollowing a mock interview. Perhaps you’rean excellent speaker, but that doesn’t meanyou do well in an interview. Like anythingelse in life, practice makes perfect.

2.REASSESS YOUR CAREERWhen you decide to look for a new job, it’stypically for one of two reasons: Either youdon’t like your job or you lost your job.

Our first inclination is to get another jobdoing the same exact thing, as quickly aspossible. We think like a robot:

Lost job as account director on caraccount at large multinational ad agency.Must get new job as account director on caraccount at large multinational ad agency.

Instead, take some time to think. Do youlike your career? Do you like the field youwork in? What might make you happier?The earlier you do this in your career, thebetter. One lament I hear from more-experienced job seekers is that they feeltrapped; because they are senior andbecause they’ve only worked in one area,every new job needs to be in the sameexact industry and job title.

But that doesn’t necessarily have to bethe case. And now that you’re changingjobs, reassess your priorities and makesure you’re not just blindly jumping into thenext job.

If you work for an agency, now may bethe time to go client-side. If you work for aclient, perhaps you should try working foran agency. Start your own company or goto work in a different city or in an agencyunlike anything you’ve experienced before.Obviously, there are some constraints onwhat you can do, but take some time toreally consider that next move.

3.GET OUT THERETake our exciting quiz to determine if youknow the best way to land work. Pleaseselect which is the most effective way toscore your next job:

A. Check out AdAge TalentWorks and other online job postings

B. Network

C. Work with an executive recruiter

D. Scour individual company websites

E. All of the above

Yes folks, the answer is E. If you are seriousabout landing that next job, you want to goafter it with vigor. Like anything else in life,the more effort you put in, the more youget out. Each method has its advantages:

� Online job postings are how mostcompanies list their open jobs

� Networking can get you access tohiring managers and recruitingdirectors with a recommendationfrom someone on the inside

� Executive recruiters often are hiringfor jobs that are not posted online

� Company websites allow you to stayabreast of up-to-date job listings

It sounds cliché, but the wider you castyour net, the more likely you are to catch afish (or, in our discussion, land a job).

4.ACT WITH PROFESSIONALISMIN ALL THAT YOU DOThe way you conduct your job search is areflection on you. I’ve heard (and seen) fartoo many instances of resumes sitting onthe copy machine, Yahoo HotJobs left upon your computer screen when you headout to lunch or multiple instances of yourgrandmother dying unexpectedly onWednesday from 1 – 2:30. Not only does thisgive you a bad reputation, but it can alsocost you your current job.

Similarly, don’t be too quick to get intobed with your new company. Don’t betraycompany or client confidences, don’t badmouth your former company and don’tgive less than the industry-standard two-weeks’ notice if you do quit.

Why should you care about any of thesefor a company you are leaving? From myperspective as a recruiting director, I alwaysthought that if you do that to your formercompany, you’d do it to my company as welldown the road.

Plus it’s a small world out there. Peopletalk and people move jobs quite a bit. Youdon’t want to burn bridges or be knownaround the industry as unethical.

Getting a new job can be an intimidatingprocess. But if you go about it with a planon how to do it the right way, it can beincredibly rewarding.

ABOUT THEAUTHOR:

Brad Karsh ispresident of

JobBound(jobbound.com), acareer-consulting

and corporate-training company.

He is one of thenation’s leading

experts on landing ajob and author of“Confessions of a

Recruiting Director”(Prentice Hall Press,

2006). Brad spent 15years at Leo Burnettin Chicago. He left in2002 as VP-directorof talent acquisition.


the world headquarters of TBWA Advertisingwas located at 292 Madison Avenue, back when aMadison Avenue address was still de rigueur for anagency’s letterhead. It was the summer of 1991, andTBWA was in full swing with the iconic Absolut cam-paign, now polishing its fame to blinding perfection.The agency exuded the untouchable cool of an inter-national catwalk model: aloof, poreless, slightly bored,altogether intimidating. If advertising had paparazzi,they would’ve camped outside the door. Entering thelobby made one feel suddenly self-conscious, acutelyaware of some otherwise irrelevant detail, such as thefact that the dry cleaner’s seamstress had recently re-sewn a button in a slightly off-color thread.Yet on thefirst day of my unpaid summer internship at TBWA,walking into that lobby, I felt no intimidation whatso-ever. Not because I possessed that same unattainablecool, but quite the opposite. I was too clueless even tohave a clue of how clueless I was. Just two weeks earli-er I’d graduated from college wearing my new $29.95Thom McCann white pumps that coordinated withmy Laura Ashley hair bow.

During my first week, I discovered a most star-tling fact: The creative department staff locked theirfile drawers at night. Why? So no one could stealtheir ideas. This, as you might imagine, intrigued meentirely. What was this intellectual bullion? Thesesame employees unthinkingly left personal valuablessuch as watches and cameras on their desks at night,yet locked their file drawers? Whatever lay insidethose OfficeMax treasure chests, I wanted some of it.

Locking up the ideas was a little extreme. Perhaps.But actually I’m beginning to wonder if our industryknew something back then that we’ve since forgotten:Nothing in an agency is more valuable than ideas.

Until fairly recently, clients and agencies shared areverence for ideas. For those of you who got into thebusiness recently and have only seen the near-extinctspecies known as a print ad trapped in amber, here’s aflashback. Computers were a novelty (a spiffy littlenumber named the Mac Classic had just been intro-duced).Type was still hand-lettered for meetings, then,once approved, sent out overnight to be set. Brands did-n’t have to compete for attention with iPods,BlackBerries,YouTube,Wii video games, Facebook orNetflix.They barely had to compete with cellphones,websites or a newfangled thing called e-mail. Mediaoptions were so limited (single page or spread?) that wedidn’t have to deal with an entire range of variables,which meant that if a timeline was a week long, six-and-a-half days were spent developing the strategy and idea.

Advertising has changed since then—and decidedlyfor the better.We’re entering a new renaissance, onewith more creative opportunities than ever before, a

time when “idea” is no longer synonymous with a 30-second TV spot.Yet in our rush to conquer new media,true insights are often becoming an afterthought.Especially among clients.We’re at risk of going to anopposite extreme, throwing out the baby with the 30-second bathwater.As we’re exploring various mobile-platform-this and Facebook-application-that, there’sonly a fraction of time and energy left over to spend ona little thing I’ll nostalgically call “the concept.”

Caveat: Lest you think I’m a cantankerous old-timer with a “those were the good ol’ days” chip onmy shoulder, please know that’s not the case. I’m notromanticizing the sepia-toned days of traditionalmedia or suggesting we return to churning butter byhand. New media is very cool and very necessary, andunquestionably the future of our business.

To be successful over the long haul, your careercan’t be founded upon trendy epiphanies or shinynew executions. Just as a pun wasn’t a concept in thelate 80s, a typographical treatment wasn’t a conceptin the mid 90s and shock value wasn’t a concept inthe late 90s, so does new media need a core idea inorder to reach its full potential.

Most new-media revelations will seem laughablyquaint in a few years. But true human insight willnever go out of style.

Our greatest value—as employees, leaders andentrepreneurs—will come from the substance of ourideas.The people who have the most job security, makethe most money, carry the most prestige—at all levels,in all departments, across advertising, marketing, film,PR and every other communication profession—areidea people.They can consistently do the heavy liftingof solving problems with new solutions.These stars domuch more than merely sell; they have the horsepowerto expose something so incredibly potent about ourneeds, values and ambitions that they can incite achange in behavior.Think about that. In a cynical andjaded world, few governments have enough juice tovoluntarily change behavior among millions of peoplethe way Apple can.

The reality is that now there’s less time for bigideas, and depressingly, in an age of fear and uncertain-ty, often less client appetite for those ideas.We’re allrunning in a million directions at once. On manyassignments, the process is so pressured and frenziedthat we’re forced to skip a stage of mental heavy lift-ing: that amniotic mess when a brand engages deeplywith the messy and difficult question of what it actual-ly wants to say. Even presentations to clients are start-ing to showcase forms of media in place of concepts:

Agency: We’re proposing a new concept: a seriesof webisodes.

Client: Interesting. What are they about?Agency:Ah, don’t know yet.We’ll figure it out later.When authentic insight starts to lose currency in

the client equation, we devalue our raison d’etre,thereby leaping to the slippery slope of commoditiz-ing who we are and what we do.

Call me retro, but I miss the craft. Increasingly, ourprocess has been crushed to the point that it no longerincludes those magical steps in which we sort througha litter of irrelevant data to discover a single, glitteringtruth, to polish that truth into a meaningful message,then finally to adjust this message through countlessmental Rubik’s Cube variations until it clicks into theperfect combination of thoughts and emotions.

There are countless fantastic exceptions—hel-looooo, Dove “Evolution”!—that have an awesomeconcept in which brand message is intrinsically bornout of its media. Yet in and of itself, “YouTube” is nota concept. “Second Life” is not a concept. “SMS text”is not a concept. These are forms of media and theystill need a killer concept to be used to their fullestpotential. The medium might be the message, but it’sstill no substitute for a concept. As our media getscheaper, faster and shorter, don’t allow your thinkingto get smaller.

Now, back to the internship. By the end of the sum-mer I’d realized two things with utter certainty: Ideasare the most valuable currency in a career.And moreimportant, I’d stop buying shoes at Thom McCann.

ABOUT THEAUTHOR:

Sally Hogshead is aconsultant, speaker

and author. Hercareer includes stints

at Wieden &Kennedy and Fallon,and she co-founded

Robaire & Hogshead,where clients

included Target,Remy Martin and

Condé Nast. In 2001,she opened the West

Coast office ofCrispin Porter &

Bogusky. She is theauthor of “Radical

Careering: 100Truths to Jumpstart

Your Job, YourCareer and Your

Life.”

5

IDEAS?REMEMBERTHOSE?NEVER BEFORE HAVE WE HAD SO MANY MEDIAOPTIONS AND YET SO VERY LITTLE TO SAY. IFYOU WANT TO MAKE IT IN THIS BUSINESS,DON’T ALLOW YOUR THINKING TO GET SMALLER

BY SALLY HOGSHEAD

CAREER GUIDE SEPTEMBER 24, 2007


6

years ago, when laura sankey moved from abrand-management position in the Charmin divi-sion of Procter & Gamble into a similar positionin the Duncan Hines division, she decided toexplore her new world. She asked the test kitchento bake her some samples of competitors’ brown-ies. Forty batches later, Ms. Sankey was on herway to a bellyache and also to putting into actionthe first rule of marketers on the move: Immerseyourself in each new brand. Then she did it again.And again. After leaving P&G, she spent a brieftime in the consulting world then moved toCoors Brewing Co., where she was VP-market-ing. Most recently, she was exec VP-marketingand communications for Denver-based Qwest.

There was a time when Ms. Sankey’s variedrésumé would have made her an anomaly. Nowshe’s part of a sizable subset of marketing execu-tives who have spent time in myriad industries.Some, of course, have little choice in the matter, butothers move when interest, timing and opportunityhappily collide.

Take Scott Parker,VP-marketing for Carlsbad,Calif.-based Jenny Craig. Mr. Parker spent 15 yearsin consumer package goods—reaching the level ofVP-marketing for Dial soap—before he left to take ajob with Bank One.“Frankly, at that point I’d donethe consumer-package-goods thing and I was look-ing for opportunities to broaden my skills,” he says.As senior VP-marketing for credit cards, Mr. Parkerseized the opportunity to grow his skills in directmarketing and data mining.Then he was off to Bath& Body Works, where he gained critical retail expe-rience.“Retail is a very different animal with respectto the kinds of tools you use, the speed at which thebusiness moves and the speed with which you haveto respond,” Mr. Parker says. He credits his effective-ness in his position at Jenny Craig—which he calls acombination of all three previous industries—to hisdiverse experience.

Richard Taylor, the newly appointed CMO atGoal Financial, a student-lending organizationbased in Alexandria, Va., spent four years as sen-ior VP-brand marketing at AOL. Before that, heheld the VP-U.S. marketing position at BurgerKing, and prior to that he spent a decade atBacardi, where he says the package-goods envi-ronment instilled in him a disciplined marketingapproach. “Looking back, I wish I’d looked at evenmore industries,” Mr. Taylor says. “It’s been atremendous help to me in how to assess newbusiness opportunities and build brands.”

As these executives have navigated changesfrom industry to industry, they’ve certainlypicked up some new expertise. But they’ve alsofound many of their skills to be transferable.

At the same time, there’s no doubt that learn-ing curves exist for those who choose to step out

of their comfort zones, and they can be steep.“For folks going from heavily marketing-drivencompanies, one of the challenges is that they haveto learn how not to overpromise,” says DougHall, founder-CEO of Eureka Ranch, a think tankbased in Cincinnati. For Mr. Parker, moving fromconsumer package goods to retail meant realizingthat different tools were available—or not—tocommunicate the overall brand image.

Ms. Sankey, meanwhile, has learned that strik-ing the right balance between rational and emo-tional messaging changes from one industry toanother. In the image-driven beer industry, shesays, it was easy for marketers to forget therational side of the messaging. In communica-tions the opposite is true. “Getting that balanceright is something that you have to do no matterwhat industry you’re in,” she says.

Then, too, frequent movers face pronounceddifferences in the products they seek to market.Ms. Sankey says marketers in the beer industrymust contend with a three-tier distribution systemin which distributors are a key link. For Mr. Parker,the move to Jenny Craig meant learning to marketa product whose consumers can be reluctant. ForMr.Taylor, learning to speak a new language canbe baffling.“Everyone’s got his own set ofacronyms for different products and services,” hesays.To combat that initial bewilderment, Ms.Sankey urges marketers to ask a lot of questions,no matter what their level. “There’s no way youcan know it all when you switch industries.”

Even as they grapple with new vocabularies,CMOs on the move often must become accus-tomed to a change in how the rest of the organiza-tion views marketing.

Of course, where challenges lie, so do opportu-nities. Mr. Taylor notes that because lending insti-tutions are just beginning to embrace marketing,he can be deeply involved in how the organiza-tion shapes its marketing plans.

These marketing executives are unanimous inone piece of advice: If you have the chance tochange industries, take it. “I do believe that thefuture CMOs are going to be grounded in a vari-ety of segments,” Mr. Parker says. “I would beafraid to grow up too vertically in one place.”

“If you can find a company that wants tomake great products or services, do it,” adds Mr.Hall. Not only will your résumé thank you, it’slikely that your new organization will too.“When you come into an industry fresh, you lis-ten with a whole new set of ears,” Ms. Sankeysays. “You’re not encumbered with all the differ-ent data sizes and file sizes or hops-and-brewingtechniques, and that can make a big difference interms of being able to make some meaningfulchanges.”

READY TO MAKEA SWITCH? DO ITVARIED MARKETING EXPERIENCE WORKING IN SEVERAL DIFFERENT INDUSTRIESCAN YIELD SIGNIFICANT BENEFITS, THESE VETERANS SAY

BY MEG MITCHELL MOORE

SCOTT PARKER: SPENT 15 YEARS INCONSUMER PACKAGE GOODS—THEN LEFTTO TAKE A JOB WITH BANK ONE. THENBATH & BODY WORKS. THEN JENNYCRAIG. HE CREDITS HIS DIVERSE EXPERIENCE FOR HIS EFFECTIVENESS AS A MARKETER.


7

WHAT YOU NEED TODO TO GRAB THATCOVETED CMO POST

so, you want to become a chief marketingofficer? Get in line.

These days it seems that just about every-body does: agency executives who want tobecome clients; consultants who want to becomemore accountable for their strategies; digital anddirect marketers who want to cash in on the hotcommodity that is their knowledge and experi-ence; sales executives who want to leverage theirchannel and customer expertise; and, of course,the classically trained marketers who haveworked their way up managing brands at themore traditional marketing “academies.” Despiteall of the press, peril and drama around CMOtenure, it remains a job in high demand, both forindividuals and at companies across multiplebusiness sectors, including consumer packagegoods, financial services, health care and evenprofessional services.

But what does it mean to be a marketingchief today and what are they keys to success?

No doubt, the marketing business is changingand becoming an increasingly metric-driven dis-cipline. It requires even sharper analytic rigor,strategic reasoning and business acumen. But italso still relies, thankfully, on intuition, vision,conceptual intellect, perspective, persistence andcreativity.And one thing remains clear:Experience is critically important.At its core,marketing refers to the efforts to connect a com-pany and its collection of businesses, brands andservices to an end user, whether an individualconsumer, another business or even an institu-tion. Companies that are serious about market-ing embrace an end-user orientation. Doing sorequires understanding the behavior and atti-tudes of the end user and creating products, serv-ices and strategies that deepen a connection tothem in proprietary, profitable and sustainableways.To be the officer in charge of marketingtoday is to be the executive who champions thiseffort through a combination of well-developedfunctional expertise, broad business perspectiveand the ability to lead constituents both insideand outside the company.

There is no substitute for a solid foundationof great training and early discipline for thoseseeking the CMO track. If you are starting out,do so at a company for which marketing is astrategic business driver and training is consid-ered a critical investment—and where you’llmaster the basics. Over the years, this hasalmost exclusively meant joining Procter &Gamble or General Mills or Kraft followingbusiness school—bastions of product marketingand brand discipline. Increasingly, though, thetraining ground is shifting. Certainly some ofthe CPG stalwarts such as P&G continue to be

recognized as cutting-edge marketers and theplace to learn marketing, but for CMOs of thefuture, package-goods marketing may not pro-vide as complete an experience as it once did.Tomorrow’s marketers may just as likely gettheir start in management or brand consulting,in financial services, retail, or even by joiningone of the leading marketing-services firms,such as Digitas or OgilvyOne, that are settingthe course for customer engagement, branddevelopment and measured marketing invest-ment in a complex marketplace.

Wherever you start, the goal is to gainbroad exposure to both traditional and newmarketing channels, to work with brands andbusinesses in various sectors and stages ofdevelopment, to get hands-on experience ana-lyzing consumer behavior and to be able todevelop and implement strategies and measuretheir performance in the marketplace over time.

Meanwhile, our work with companies andmarketing officers across various industriesand sectors has identified a core set of profes-sional and personal competencies that we seeas critical to CMO success, both now and in thefuture: business acumen and technical expert-ise; strategic perspective; brand-managementskills; hands-on leadership; the ability to buildteams and strike partnerships; accountability;and adaptability, flexibility and resilience.

For all of the discussion around CMO move-ment and shortened tenure, it is amazing thatsome top marketers have managed to secure sta-ble careers. Jim Stengel at P&G, Mike Boylson atJC Penney, Michael Francis at Target and JohnHayes at American Express are all examples ofexecutives who have risen to the top marketingpost and have achieved great things once there.Each of these executives has “majored” in anindustry and with a company in a way that hasenabled them to achieve consistent successthrough various business cycles and manage-ment structures. Indeed, there is something to besaid for tenure and sticking around long enoughto learn a culture, a company and an industry.

These executives are not only marketing experts,but they possess deep expertise and experiencewithin their respective industries and companies.They have well-honed instincts and the knowl-edge of how to get things done as well as credi-bility with their peers, teams and executive lead-ership that allows them to efficiently and effec-tively drive results.

If you’re lucky enough to find yourself with acompany whose values you share, whose missionexcites you, where you feel valued and see mean-ingful opportunities for growth, don’t be afraid tostay there if you can. If you are good, you maybe rewarded, as the pendulum is clearly swingingback toward a renewed interest in internal candi-dates.There are too many examples of CMOswho have parachuted in from the outside withunrealistic expectations and, in their zeal to pleaseand put points on the board, have missed the cul-tural imperatives of their new company.

Of course, not every company has a benchfull of worthy CMO prospects who are willingto wait patiently for the opportunity, and notevery executive with patience has the stuffrequired to be a CMO. If you are a companyexecutive considering the recruitment of a newCMO, consider: Does my business model sup-port the need for an enterprise-level strategicmarketer? Do I really need a CMO? Is mycompany ready to accept a potential changeagent and consumer/customer advocate fromthe outside?

Likewise, if you are an individual consideringa new CMO opportunity, do so carefully andtake the time to address questions such as: Doesthis opportunity leverage who I am and what Iknow? Will I be able to have a meaningfulimpact on the business? Is there clarity aroundthe role and how it is defined?

Bottom line is this: Do your homework. Ifmore companies and individuals, and the exec-utive recruiters working with them, spent thetime and due diligence addressing these andother questions, the rate of CMO failure wouldcertainly drop.

BY BRADFORD MCLANE AND DAVID SELBY

BIG FOUR: THEY ROSETO THE TOP MARKETINGPOST AND STAYED THERE.

JIM STENGELP&G

MICHAEL FRANCISTARGET

JOHN HAYESAMERICAN EXPRESS

MIKE BOYLSONJC PENNEY

TO GET THE JOB EVERYBODY’S GUNNING FOR, EXPERIENCE IS KEY—SO EMBED YOURSELFIN AN ORGANIZATION THAT WILL LET YOU BUILD A WIDE RANGE OF BRANDING SKILLS


ABOUT THE AUTHORS:David Selby is a member of Russell ReynoldsAssociates’ consumer sector and marketing officers practice. Bradford McLane isthe leader of the firm’s marketing-officers practice for the Americas.


8

bennett porter is wickedly busy these days.She has just been promoted to Yahoo’s head ofmarketing for Southeast Asia, so she’s frequent-ing the parabola between Singapore and corporateheadquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. Yet Ms. Porterstill is in the process of disengaging from her keyrole in building the company’s buzz-marketingdepartment from scratch over the last eight years.

And, oh yes—she’s continually processingcalls from headhunters. “I’m always willing to lis-ten, but I end up handing off these opportunitiesto other people,” says Ms. Porter, who’s in hermid-30s. “Yahoo has always anticipated my rest-lessness and given me new challenges so that Idon’t really have time to entertain other offers.”

Each time Ms. Porter blithely hangs up on arecruiter is another small confirmation of theunprecedented talent squeeze that is throttlingthe marketing business. A shortage of strategicthinkers who can sagely guide brands or act astrue business partners to clients has becomesevere. There’s also a real dearth of people whocan function holistically in an increasingly frac-tured media landscape that has become dictated—if not dominated—by digital platforms.

And there’s a four-alarm shortage of profes-sionals such as Ms. Porter who can do both.“There’s probably a ‘negative unemployment’rate with those people right now,” says SteveLanzano, chief operating officer of MPG NorthAmerica, a New York agency.

Marketing executives are trying to ease theshortage by throwing more money, perks andopportunities at individuals they want to keep;redoubling internal talent-development programs;casting their nets wider for potential recruits; help-ing develop advertising-education programs; andredefining the traditional roles of agency and client.

But for now, each major feature of the indus-try’s deficit in talent, skills and experience is prov-ing disruptive in its own huge way.

The lack of capable big-picture thinkers canleave brands adrift. “With the disaggregation ofthe entire industry, everyone is a specialist now,and it is difficult to find brand-management exec-

utives who have all the requisite merit badges aswell as being strategic generalists who can put allthe pieces together,” says Bill McDonald, execVP-brand strategy for Capital One.

And the shortage of technologically fluentprofessionals can render brands incapable ofleveraging today’s explosion of digital demandsand opportunities.

“The magnitude of platform diversity hasbecome such that it isn’t a question of whetherthere is talent – there’s just not been enough timefor everyone to become proficient in everything,”says Peter Krivkovich, president-CEO of Cramer-Krasselt, Chicago.

Agencies are bearing the brunt of the shortageand are sustaining an industrywide attrition rateof as much as 30% a year, by some estimates.

Many brand marketers claim that they’ve gottheir own bases covered.At JC Penney in Dallas,for instance, Chief Marketing Officer MikeBoylson says marketing-department turnover ispractically nil. “We sell people on the multichannelaspect of our stores and the internet,” Mr. Boylsonsays,“and we bring them on to a team and pairthem up with people who know our end of thebusiness, and then use their combined skills.”

Large-agency CEOs also maintain that they’reholding their own.“There are a few agencies in theworld that people really want to go to, and we’re inthat group,” says Rich Silverstein, co-chairman ofGoodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco.“Butthe very small pool of good talent seems to have alot of choices of where they can go, and a lot ofagencies are competing for them.”

Heads of lesser known, midsize and small agen-cies, meanwhile, don’t try to sugarcoat the fact thatthey’re experiencing the brunt of the talent crunch.“We can’t compete financially for startup salarieswith a lot of other industries,” says Beau Fraser,managing director of Gate Worldwide, an Ogilvyagency in New York.“So the best and brightest aregoing where it’s cool—like finance or consulting—and if they’re creative people, there are so manyoutlets that create content now, includingHollywood, music and the web.”

THE RACE FORTHE BEST ANDBRIGHTESTTHE NO. 1 CRISIS FACING THE INDUSTRY RIGHT NOW IS A DEARTH OF BOTTOM-LINE-BOOSTING TALENT. BUT AGENCIES AND MARKETERS ARE FIGHTING BACK

BY DALE BUSS

BILL MCDONALD, CAPITAL ONE


9

Geography doesn’t necessarily inoculateagencies either. In sunny San Diego, forexample, the cost of living is so high that non-Californians suffer sticker shock when theycome in for interviews.“Now we’ve decided tostick only with people who already live inCalifornia and [who] understand what it takesto live here,” says Indra Gardiner, president ofBailey Gardiner, based in San Diego.

Media companies, meanwhile, are strug-gling with their own talent squeeze as theirmarketplace changes convulsively.“We’veraised the bar because we’re representingbrands now, not just types of media,” saysMaryAnn Bekkedahl, exec VP-group pub-lisher at Rodale.

But given the rush of media to interac-tive platforms, the Emmaus, Pa.-based pub-lisher doesn’t have time to grow its own tal-ent to fit. And the competition is fierce forthe handful of professionals anywhere whorepresent the perfect elixir of experience,savvy and digital proficiency.

“We’re only looking to bring on people

who have multimedia experience,” Ms.Bekkedahl says. “But it’s like looking for aneedle in a haystack. I don’t expect people tohave done it before in terms of representingmultimedia. I’m just hoping that they’vehad maybe three to five years of print andthen some online. Or, if they worked for amarketing company, maybe they under-stand events and promotions.”

Nicola Bridges is one of Rodale’s prizenew recruits. Ms. Bekkedahl plucked thenew editor of Prevention.com fromiVillage.com, where Ms. Bridges was VP-editorial programming.

Ms. Bridges was busy recruiting morepeople like herself as she prepared for thefall relaunch of the site. “The key is to gooutside the core media pool,” she says. Acase in point: the new producer she justhired from a real-estate-industry website,who also “has a passionate connection tohealth and healthy lifestyles.”

Some entire disciplines are parched fromthe talent drought. Media planning and

buying, for example, traditionally has been acolorless domain. But the proliferation ofnew digital channels and rising clientdemands for spending accountability havemade these jobs—and their practitioners—sexier. Too bad few agency folks have thedepth or breadth of experience to navigatethis new media world.

So Eric van den Heuvel, Gate’s director ofmedia solutions, gets three to five calls a weekfrom agencies, clients and headhunters whocovet the 35-year-old’s combination of client-side, internet and media experience. He’s con-tent where he is for now, especially because“our media side is finally getting space at thebig table and being treated by clients withequal importance as creative,” he says.

Attacking this problem requires a broadoffensive that must begin with marketingexecutives understanding the reasons for thetalent shortage. It began with the dot-com

WHYDIVERSITYREMAINSELUSIVE

The marketing industry andemployee diversity ought to be afantastic match. Advertising worksthe cutting edge of societalevolution, after all. And over thepast generation, the expansion ofethnic populations has become oneof the most powerful social andeconomic dynamics in America.

But this hasn’t been agroundbreaking relationship.Minority members accounted for13.9% of total creative employmentat the large agencies surveyed bythe American Association ofAdvertising Agencies last year, upfrom 11.3% five years ago. Totalminority employment at theagencies improved to only 20%from 18.2% in 2002.

“The industry doesn’t cast awide enough net looking for talent,”says Ronald Owens, former VP-diversity inclusion at TMPWorldwide, a marketing-recruitingagency, and now an independentconsultant.

Some marketing executivesconcede Mr. Owens is right. “As anindustry, we’ve been more reactiverather than proactive about this,”says Bill McDonald, exec VP-brandstrategy for Capital One.

At the same time, “Advertisinghasn’t been at the forefront of[minorities’] minds as a careerpoint,” says Peter Krivkovich,president-CEO of Cramer-Krasselt,Chicago. Moses Foster can explainthat. “A huge part of our [African-American] population is the firstgeneration to go to college,” saysthe president-CEO of West CaryGroup, a new Richmond, Va.-basedagency. “And if you tell your momand dad, ‘I’m going into advertisingto be a copywriter,’ they mightrather you be a doctor or lawyer.”

How can the industry close thedeal with minorities? The first thingis to realize that the benefits ofdoing so go far beyond meetingquotas—and to understand thatthose advantages don’t stop withgleaning the insights a member of agiven ethnic group might be able toprovide about marketing to his orher family and friends.

“I want to work with other gooddesigners who take their workseriously,” says Cheyney Robinson,an African-American who is acreative director at the Atlanta

TALENT CONTINUED ON P. 11

DIVERSITYCONTINUED ON P. 10


ERIC VAN DEN HEUVEL, MEDIA DIRECTOR, THE GATE


10

office of Avenue A/Razorfish. “It’sless about me being or specificallywanting to work with a person ofcolor. Inherently, in making diversityimportant, agencies will have abetter product.”

Other agency executives agree.“People from differentbackgrounds and cultures,speaking different languages, tendto have different creative talents,”says David Becker, president andco-founder of Philippe BeckerDesign in San Francisco.

Indeed, certain minorities maydefine one of today’s premiumcandidate pools. “The bestrésumés I’m seeing now are fromforeigners; so during the last coupleof years I’ve hired a lot of Indians,Pakistanis and other Asians whohave come here for school anddon’t want to go home,” says BeauFraser, managing director of GateWorldwide in New York.

The second priority is to workharder to bring in minorities andkeep them. “It has to be a businessimperative, and managementneeds to actively drive it,” saysLaurence Boschetto, worldwidepresident-chief operating officer,DraftFCB, Chicago.

To improve its odds, DraftFCBemphasizes internal mentoring ofethnic staffers and externaloutreach to employees’ friends andat minority-dominated colleges.Partially as a result, Mr. Boschettosays, DraftFCB has women andminority members “at almost every

level of management,” most of themhomegrown.

Reaching out to minorities, Mr.McDonald says, is one big reason hemakes a lot of speech and seminarappearances. That’s also why Mr.McDonald understood when Mr.Foster, the former interactivecommunications manager andhead of Capital One’s creative shop,AT Capital One, decided it was timeto leave.

Mr. Foster founded West CaryGroup in April and also haslaunched Remar (Reflections of theMarketplace), a programassociated with VirginiaCommonwealth University’smarketing department that isaimed at reaching minority high-school and college students.

“We want to demystify and takeaway the shroud,” Mr. Foster says,“show that this business is excitingand that you can make a good livingat it.”

The 4A’s increased participationin its multicultural advertising-internship program to 150collegians this year from about 100last year and just 12 in the first year,1973. And now the organization ispressing younger.

“To be successful in identifyingpeople of color, it needs to startbefore they get into college bymaking high-school students awareof advertising as a career,” saysAngela Johnson Meadows,manager of the 4A’s diversityprograms. —D.B.

WORDS OF WISDOMhow competitive is the ad business? Just ask act-ing legend Bruce Willis, who played an ad exec in therecent thriller “Perfect Stranger.” Willis, a fearless typewho has faced nearly every possible villain in the “DieHard” franchise, reportedly exclaimed, “Wow, thisbusiness seems more cutthroat than Hollywood.”

Touché. But thankfully, some of the best in the adbusiness are willing to set that competitiveness aside, ifonly for a moment. We wanted to take a minute totalk to some industry leaders and get their advice forcreating a career of passion and promise—guidingprinciples to stick by whether you’re just starting out,in midcareer or at the top of your game.

Sharing their thoughts with us were CEOs such asInterpublic’s Michael Roth and Leo Burnett’s TomBernardin, as well as chief marketing officers such asSony’s Mike Fasulo and YouTube’s Suzie Reider,among others. The tips from these marketing titanswere honest, meaningful and surprising. So for every-one who’s ever wanted to have five minutes alonewith the boss to pick his or her brain, here’s yourchance. Listen up.

WANT TO KNOW HOW TO GET AHEAD IN THE AD GAME AND CREATE A DREAM CAREER?TO FIND OUT, WE WENT STRAIGHT TO THE TOP

BY CHRIS TAYLOR

DIVERSITY CONTINUED FROM P. 9

TOMBERNARDIN,CHAIRMAN-CEO,LEO BURNETTWORLDWIDE

“Follow and engagewith art, design, music,movies andtechnology. Live it.Experience it. You’llend up with a goodfoundation fordeveloping the abilityto recognize talent.Travel widely, or atleast leave yourcomfort zone. Ifoffered a foreignassignment, take it. Ifnot, seek one out. Takerisks; that’s how welearn. Keep fear incheck. Don’t be afraidto say ‘I don’t know’ atany stage of yourcareer. Never bullshitan answer. The mostcreative people arethe most difficult tomanage, but they arethe easiest to inspire.It’s always worth theeffort. Focus on the jobyou have, not the nextone.”

� Mr. Bernardin isresponsible for LeoBurnett’s globaloperations,overseeing more than200 units in morethan 80 countries. Hewas formerly CEO ofLowe, New York, theflagship office of LoweWorldwide.

VICKY FREE, VP-ENTERTAINMENT MARKETING,TNT/TBS/TCM

“I have two mottos.The first one is to knowthyself, and do you?Look at yourself in themirror and understandexactly who you are—the good, the bad andthe ugly. Then do thebest possible you.Focus on what you’regood at, and surroundyourself with stafferswho can strengthenmore challengingareas. The secondmotto is to be bold andfearless. One of myfavorite poems is byMarianne Williamson,and one line that staysin my mind is: ‘Who amI to be brilliant,gorgeous, talented,fabulous? Actually,who are you not to be?’In those moments inmeetings when you’rewith higher-rankedpeople and you have aquestion or an idea,you have to dig deep tobe bold and fearless.Because when you’retrying to differentiateyourself and get toanother level in theorganization, thosemoments are key.”

� Ms. Free buildsmarketing campaignsfor a variety of serieson the three Turner-owned networks. Shewas previously withMcDonald’s Corp.,where she was mostrecently director ofwomen’s initiatives forthe U.S.

MICHAELROTH, CHAIRMAN-CEO,INTERPUBLICGROUP OF COS.

“Make sure you findyourself in a companyyou’re proud to workfor, surrounded bypeople you enjoybeing with. Then putyour head down anddo the best you can,and don’t worry aboutall the other stuff thatmay be going onaround you. Becausesometimes people getinvolved in officepolitics or are thinkingabout their next jobalready rather thanjust focusing on whatthey do well. But ifyou’re working withpeople who recognizetalent and appreciatehard work, then therest will follow. That’sthe way we do it here;we try to encourageopen-door policiesand have freediscussions aboutissues, and believethat everybody shouldbe available to helpout their colleagues.It’s very importantthese days tosurround yourself withpeople like that and towork for a companythat stands for theprinciples you want tostand for. You need tofind that out early on.”

� Mr. Roth has helpedlead Interpublic, firstas chairman and thenas CEO since 2005. Hewas formerly CEO ofthe financial-servicesfirm Mony Group.

JANTHOMPSON, VP-MARKETINGCOMMUNICATIONS,NISSAN NORTHAMERICA

“Time is very limited.Young people look atlife like they have amillion years left, butthey don’t. So in thattime you’ve got, liveyour own life, anddon’t let corporationsdictate your life to you.Find what you loveand go with it. Ifsomething isn’t right,give it up and move on.And in doing so, livewithin your means.Because you get introuble when youdon’t live within yourmeans, and end updoing things you don’twant to do. Anotherpiece of advice is toread and learneverything youpossibly can. First-mover advantagealways wins, so don’tsit around and wait foreveryone else. Movefaster, be at the headof the game and putthe dinosaurs wherethey should be.”

� Ms. Thompsonoverseesdevelopment andexecution ofadvertising andmarketing for theNissan and Infinitibrands. She waspreviously president-CEO at the Designory,an Omnicom-ownedmarketing-servicesagency.


CAREER GUIDE SEPTEMBER 24, 2007 11

meltdown at the beginning of the decade, whichtook out of play a lot of marketers who had beguncompiling digital experience.The post-9/11 reces-sion in the marketing industry also constricted theinflow of talent for a while.

Agencies have been hit hardest because theyare struggling both to prove their fundamentalworth to clients and to handle the rapidly chang-ing work itself. “Because everyone and his motherhas an opinion, a good [agency] strategic persongets challenged at every turn,” says BruceMittman, CEO of Mittcom, a Newton, Mass.,agency. “They start to get tired of it and end upgoing on the client side, where they get challengedless.”

At the same time, agencies blame today’s decid-ed paucity of competent professionals.The biggestpremium is on junior-level people in their late 20sand early 30s who have experience with clients aswell as with digital platforms.The new dominanceof interactive media arrived so suddenly that fewseasoned marketers have had the time to ramp upon new technologies even if they’ve had the incli-nation.

The other problem is that entry-levelcareerists who grew up on digital mediadon’t have industry experience yet.Andmany of them leave a lot to be desired ingeneral. It isn’t a demographic wrinkle;there are plenty of Gen Xers andMillennials in their 20s and 30s whocould populate the marketing world.

Quality, not quantity, is what theylack. “We get a lot of résumés, but I’mextraordinarily disappointed when Imeet the people,” Mr. Fraser says.“There’s an awful lot of bravado andconfidence but not much substance,and they have difficulties in thinkingthrough a problem.”

Yet others believe agencies mustshare the blame, because plenty of rawtalent is available; the industry simplyhas misappropriated and wasted it.“We’ve really pigeonholed folks in thisindustry and created vertical proficiency,but we haven’t created horizontal plat-forms to deliver channel-agnostic andmedia-neutral work,” says LaurenceBoschetto, worldwide president-chiefoperating officer of DraftFCB, Chicago.

So what are marketing executivesdoing about easing the talent shortageand its effects? Several things:

1. Boosting pay and perks. Salaries aregrowing by as much as 25% to 30% for profes-sionals with strong résumés in interactive media,by some estimates. This summer, the Atlantaoffice of Avenue A/Razorfish also raised itsemployee-referral bonus to $4,500 for a two-week “contest” period, compared with the previ-ous $1,500.

Small agencies should get creative. PhilippeBecker Design, San Francisco, for example, has aski cabin at Lake Tahoe available for agency staff.

2. Improving the culture. “If you have a richculture,” Mr. Boschetto says, “the recruiting issuewon’t be as intense.” So, for example, MPG isemphasizing to potential recruits the fact that itsparent, Havas, has been winning awards for thecompany’s operational “green” orientation.

3. Enhancing talent development. Marketingcareerists now expect stretch assignments, such asinternational rotations, earlier. Meanwhile, experi-enced managers and strategic thinkers want“active guidance through their careers,” Mr.Boschetto says. So DraftFCB emphasizes staffdevelopment and succession planning by requir-ing certain managers to identify their top 10 peo-ple and the potential challenges in retaining them.

4. Going beyond the hot skill set. Marketingexecutives can short-change themselves if theyfocus too narrowly on what’s listed on a résumé.Cammie Dunaway, CMO of Yahoo, says shelooks “for marketers who have lots of intellectualcuriosity and are excited by learning and experi-mentation, and not just by relying on the set oftools they learned in school.”

At the same time, nowadays many in theindustry are guilty of looking past those with tra-ditional-media experience just because they can’tpepper their credentials with a lot of dot-com refer-ences.“Agencies are too fearful of taking a sea-soned person, someone who gets it, because theymight not know how to do interactive,” says LeslieKay, president of Kay & Black, a New York mar-keting-recruiting firm.

5. Identifying talent outside the industry.Networking by current employees is Goodby’ssingle best source of new recruits, Mr. Silversteinsays.

But marketers must look even harder outsidetheir industry as well, Ms. Kay says.

6. Building up marketing education. More

agencies, including Avenue A/Razorfish, are get-ting actively involved with local college and uni-versity marketing programs, offering moreinternships and making more on-campus appear-ances.

Yahoo even employs a handful of marketinginterns from local high schools, akin to an old-fashioned co-op program. “Managing themrequires some new skills for our leadershipteam,” Ms. Dunaway says. “They’ll ask you if it’sOK to go to lunch now.”

7. Making agency careers more rewarding.More careerists now simply fail to see agencies asgreat places to work. One reason for that, saysCapital One’s Mr. McDonald, is that “manyclients have taken things in-house and askedagencies only to implement.”

But Mr. Boschetto laid more blame at agencies’feet. “There used to be mystique, excitement anddynamism in this industry,” he says. “Today, peo-ple look at it as more transactional and short-lived. We will fare better in attracting strategictalent when we credibly position ourselves as anindustry that generates and implements creativeideas that are best for building business.”

TALENT CONTINUED FROM P. 9

MICHAELFASULO, CMO, SONYELECTRONICS

“For young talent, useyour early career as aplatform to gainknowledge of differentareas of business. Irotated every two orthree years, starting infinance, thenoperations, then sales,then productmarketing, thenleading a turnaround,then a start-up, andnow CMO. For more-seasonedprofessionals, theyshould possess anadequate amount offinancial acumen, as itwill always be a valuein any corporation andall boardrooms. It willprovide instantaneouscredibility tomarketers, whocontinue to getquestioned about theROI of their activity.The most successfulare those who canarticulate both the artand the science tomarketing and apply itto businessfundamentals. Finally,think broadly ... and tryto measure as muchas possible and tieyour actions back tothe objectives of thefirm.”

� Mr. Fasulo leadsSony Electronics’corporate marketing,including advertising,promotion and trade-show efforts ,as wellas direct-marketingand web services.

SUZIE REIDER,CMO, YOUTUBE

“Try imagining whatyour manager’smanager is thinkingabout. In the long run,thinking about yourcompany from yourboss’ perspective willhelp you to besuccessful. When I wasyounger, I attended anoff-site meeting withthe president of mydivision. During thatmeeting, he asked meif he had erred inplanning salesmeetings for twomagazines in thesame week. At thattime, I realized that nomatter how senior oneis, everyone hassomeone to answer to.You’ll be a betteremployee if you thinkabout what yourmanager and theirmanager might be upagainst. Also, useevery opportunity youhave for improvingyour communicationsand public-speakingskills. But develop yourown style that worksfor you. Get good atpresenting andcrafting stories earlyon in your career. It’sthe best way toadvance.”

� Hired as YouTube’sfirst CMO in 2006, Ms.Reider oversees adsales. She wasformerly CNET seniorVP-general managerof entertainment.

HAMISHMCLENNAN,GLOBAL CEO,YOUNG &RUBICAM

“The first big lesson Ilearned was toobserve, listen and rollup my sleeves. There’smuch to learn frompeople around you.The temptation whenyou’re just beginningin the business is tofocus on showingpeople what you know,when really thesmarter strategy is tolet people show youwhat they know.Absorb all you can,and don’t wait to beasked; make it yourbusiness to jump inand help where youcan. Find where youcan make a difference,and dedicate yourself.I’ll pass along the bestadvice I ever received:Someone once toldme to make decisions,as most people hatemaking them. But justmake sure you makemore right ones thanwrong ones.”

� Mr. McLennanbecame global CEO in2006, promoted fromhis role as head ofYoung & RubicamBrands in Australiaand New Zealand. Heoriginally joined Y&Rin 2002, after servingas national managingdirector at GeorgePatterson Bates inMelbourne, Australia.

NICOLABRIDGES, EDITOR, PREVENTION


12

BEATING THETENURE ODDS

salary caps. injuries. Frequent loss of top talent.Pressure to assemble the best team and sustain a win-ning formula.

No wonder head football coaches and baseballmanagers have short tenures. In fact, it’s not uncom-mon to see a coach or manager come under fire fromfans and the media a year or two after a champi-onship season once the winning stops.

Sounds a bit like life as a CMO, doesn’t it? It’s tough, it’s intense, but in sports, just as in busi-

ness, some individuals manage to not only survivebut thrive in such environments. Take Joe Torre, inhis 12th season managing the New York Yankees. OrTony Dungy, in his sixth year as head coach of theIndianapolis Colts. Like winning CMOs, they’re lead-ers. They’ve been able to lead their teams and main-tain a focus on their organizations’ greater cause, allwhile under intense scrutiny.

Spencer Stuart’s latest CMO tenure study foundthat the average CMO tenure is 26 months. But likecoaching winning teams, it’s important to lookbeyond the statistics and realize that marketing is acomplex function, defined differently from industryto industry, let alone from company to company. As aresult, expectations do vary, so the tenure figure

needs to be kept in perspective.Undoubtedly, there is real pressure for CMOs to

achieve strong, measurable results. But in the searchfor appropriate metrics, can the contributions of themarketer really be evaluated solely by a revenue num-ber, which in most organizations is priority No. 1?

We have to start viewing the marketing role dif-ferently. It is not unusual to see fantastic marketingexecutives post less-than-stellar top- or bottom-lineresults over their first couple of quarters. However, apeek behind the curtain can reveal meaningfulprogress toward reaching a number of importantgoals, such as developing a new initiative that willstrengthen a brand’s positioning or launching a cam-paign that will open up new channels of distribution.These activities may not show up in near-term rev-enue or profit numbers, but they will help boostresults in the long term.

Some factors are just not immediately quantifi-able, which is not surprising given CMOs’ growinglist of responsibilities. Marketing is evolving from itstraditional roots in very definable and traceableadvertising and brand development toward a broad-based, commercially oriented and demanding role. Asa result, the job of the CMO is changing faster than

SURE, EVERYONE KNOWS THE CMO JOB IS RIFE WITH RISKS AND CHALLENGES. BUTYOUR TURN AT BAT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE SHORT-LIVED. HERE’S HOW TO MAKE IT LAST

BY GREG WELCH

ROHANNA MERTENS

ABOUT THE AUTHORGreg Welch is the global practice leader for SpencerStuart’s Consumer Goods & Services Practice, alsoleading the firm’s Marketing Officer Practice. Hecreated Spencer Stuart’s annual CMO Summit and isthe co-founder of the Marketing 50 group.

STEPHENQUINN:EXEC VP-CMOAT WAL-MART


13

1.FOCUS ONCONSUMERSAt the start, immerseyourself completely in thecompany—including itscustomers. Mr. Quinn wasfanatical about getting toknow both the Wal-Martcustomer as well as thebrand. “It’s not about you—it’sabout serving customers. Ittakes the right research,getting to know associates inthe company and shoppingwith customers, and thattakes time,” he says. Andgetting to know yourcustomer is an ongoingprocess that extends beyondyour first six months. “Ifyou’re in your first six monthsand you know exactly howyou’ll go to market, you arewrong and headed to under-perform against the 26-month standard.”

2.TAKE A GLOBAL VIEWBring a global vision andcredibility across culturallines through your marketingplans and adapt to differingways of conducting businessregardless of geography.Today’s best marketers areable to collaborativelyimplement a new globalstrategy, while balancing theexisting local needs withcorporate vision. Often it’sthe little things, such asscheduling an intra-companyconference call that isconvenient for yourcolleagues in Australia,rather than what is best forthose in New York, thatmatter. It’s amazing how aglobally thoughtful gesturecan be appreciated.

3.MAKE YOURPRESENCE KNOWNBuild and maintain positiverelationships within theorganization and tie togetherthe power of diverse points ofview for the good of thecompany and brand. Identifyand pursue partnerships thatwill champion yourmarketing strategy to move itforward. I often ask CMOshow much time in theirroutine week they allocate totheir peer functional leaderssuch as the CIO or CFO.Those who are able tocollaborate closely with suchimportant allies and embedthe marketing agenda inareas such as technology willcome out on top over thelong run.

4.BE A LEADERProvide a strong sense ofcommitment and directionby managing performanceand outcomes, yet alsodelegate responsibility andkeep your team challengedand motivated. I oftensuggest to CMOs to reach outon a personal level, withintheir first 30 days, to theirmost-prized team members.A 10-minute conversation canopen new lines ofcommunication when thecurrent business agenda isn’tthe focus of the discussion.Find out how the kids’ soccerseason is going, how thingsare with the new house orhow he/she is feeling abouthis/her career development.Such conversations arepowerful and typically payhuge dividends.

5.SPARKCHANGEKnow that change isnecessary and vital toindividual and organizationalgrowth. Be an agent ofchange and be willing toadapt to a changingenvironment. And, beconfident in your ability toturn things around by rootingout efficiencies. We know ofan instance when onecompany saved $5 million onprinting costs by simplyaltering a process. Justimagine what a tiny changecan do in your company ororganization.

6.DELIVER THE GOODSDeliver results on time, everytime, without compromisingquality. Look for short-termwins to support long-termgoals, while driving thenumbers . We see many first-time CMOs undertakinglarge-scale businessinitiatives when in fact whatare most needed are simplestrategies that slowly build toa grand-scale campaign.Beyond gaining earlyvictories, don’t be afraid tocommunicate bad news too.Organizations respond bestwhen the news isn’tsugarcoated. Be open,honest and transparent inyour results communicationeven if the desired outcomewas not achieved. What youlose in momentum is gainedin credibility.

7.TAKE RISKSView failures as opportunitiesfor growth despite personalrisk or exposure anddemonstrate this bysometimes making decisionswith less-than-complete data.Consider what Mike Haaf,CMO of Food Lion, hasachieved by taking whatmany would consider asignificant professional risk:He led a major internalinitiative to garner supportfrom his CEO and several ofthe company’s top leaderswhich then directedsignificant financial capitalinto two new store formats:Bloom and Bottom DollarFood. Not surprisingly, for atraditional retailer, thisrepresented a major shift inthinking and the payoff hasbeen significant.

8.ALIGN WITH THE CEO Formulate strategies throughrigorous assessment, whilebalancing short- and long-term needs appropriately.One of the downfalls of CMOswho don’t make the grade isthat their goals aremisaligned with those of theCEO. In fact, an ANA andBooz Allen Hamilton studyfound that only 37% ofmarketers polled focus ondriving the CEO’s agenda.Think strategically and alignyour agenda with thecompany’s multipleobjectives. If you don’t knowprecisely what your CEO’stop three to five goals are, orif you do but yours are notaligned, now would be a greattime to get in sync.

9.DIVERSIFY THE TEAMLeverage the team’s power toaddress key issues andreadily solicit and incorporatefeedback. Continuallyidentify opportunities towork with others to benefit acommon goal. Adapt anopen, direct and collaborativecommunication style. We findthat the best leaders holddear the value of a trulydiverse team. This means notonly ethnic and genderdiversity, but also varying ageand functional expertise.Once you have assembled ateam that ideally resemblesyour customer base,designate time to meet as agroup to focus on innovation.

10.STAY SHARPRemain on the cutting edgeof the most sophisticatedmarketing tools andassemble teams capable ofinnovating within this ever-changing technology-drivenenvironment. Also, build arelationship with the chiefinformation officer. Fifty-twopercent of CMOs say ITdoesn’t understand theneeds of marketing. Open updialogue and be heard.

ever. Today, our clients are looking for marketingexecutives who are not only financially astute, butalso are creative, technologically savvy, culturally sen-sitive across geographies and think like general man-agers. Marketing leaders must possess the full arsenalof marketing functional skills, which is just part ofthe “ante” to get access to the C-suite.

The good news is that there are CMOs who are

prospering in their positions and defeating the omi-nous tenure odds. As Wal-Mart Exec VP-CMOStephen Quinn explains, the CMO race should beapproached as a marathon, not a sprint: “Build for thelong term. Invest in people, in both recruiting anddeveloping your team. Relationships are critical inmost organizations and it takes time to build these sothat there is trust,” he says. “Without trust, you

can’t be a high-performance team. Without team-work that leads to cross-enterprise coordination, youcan’t succeed in the hyper-competitive markets weface today.”

Although we expect CMO tenure to stay in theheadlines, CMOs who follow the 10 steps listed aboveare likely to find that they will beat the tenure oddsand have more time to carry out their plans.



14

anthony rodio, now chief marketing officer ofSupportSoft, had been at Proctor & Gamble,MSN and Amazon.com. But when he arrived atentertainment-ticket exchange StubHub, man-agement wanted him to run a search-engine-opti-mization program that had gone into the toilet.Only he hadn’t a clue of how to do it.

He had to quickly amass a lot of knowledge,going to one website after another and hiring aconsultant to get things going as well as teach him.“As you scale your career you get further removedfrom doing the work,” Mr. Rodio says.“Technologychanges so fast that if you stay away from [thedetails] too long, you can [make yourself] obsolete.You can go back to being a VP of marketing some-where, or you can explain why your first CMO gigonly lasted a certain period of time.”

Having up-to-date skills is apparently rare forCMOs.Talk to the “honest” ones, says RichardGuha, chairman of Marketing ExecutivesNetworking Group, and between 20% and 30%will say “they’re surprised at how much relearningthey have to do.”And about two-thirds of CEOsand 90% of chief financial officers think theirCMOs lack needed skills—maybe one reason aver-age tenure in the post is little more than two years.

“The question becomes: Is there anything youcan do about it?” says Jeffrey Merrihue, CEO ofAccenture Marketing Sciences. One step is stay-ing on top of what’s new, such as internet mar-keting. “The digital imperative, if it used to beoptional, it’s now mandatory,” he says.

David Trachtenberg, CMO of online jewelrymarketer LoveandPride.com and former executivedirector-marketing at MCI and president of ProdigyCommunications, keeps his eyes and ears open.“Ido spend a lot of time online and on competitivesites for my business,” he says.“When I see newthings going on from a technology perspective that Ihaven’t seen before, I want to speak to someone andsee what it’s all about.” Mr.Trachtenberg also sug-gests reading books, magazines and websites to“avoid the not-invented-here” syndrome. Or maybethat should be the I-never-heard-about-it complex.

Being behind on technology is a big danger insmaller companies, where the CMO must wearseveral hats. But technology is easy compared tothe lack of strategy and finance background hap-pening in bigger firms. “Over the last 10 years it’sbecome a major issue,” Mr. Guha says, “which iswhy, by the way, most Fortune 500s don’t have aCMO, in a literal sense.”

Only a dozen out of the FTSE 100 in the U.K.have a marketing person as a senior board mem-ber. “You have a very serious strategic shortcom-ing,” says Mr. Merrihue. “If it’s reality, then themarketer needs to get extra training out in themarketplace. And if it’s perception, then he or she

needs to express himself or herself in a way morerelevant to the board.”

The attitude change has been swift. “Skillsthat would put a CMO in good stead even two orthree years ago would leave them drowningtoday,” says Jane Stevenson, global managingpartner for the CMO practice of executive-recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles. CEOs arefrustrated with CMOs having no P&L experienceand no eye for profitability and stock price.

Good breeding is no exemption. Many of Mr.Guha’s members have Ivy League M.B.A.s andhigh income. “But I have to tell you, when manypeople get made CMOs instead of being execu-tors, they’re not ready for it,” he says. Neithergraduate schools nor corporate executive-develop-ment programs are forcing marketing people toobtain the background they need.

No matter whose fault the gap is, though,CMOs still don’t speak the same language asCEOs and CFOs. “When someone loses their jobin eight weeks, and I knew someone who did, itwasn’t what they did,” Mr. Guha says. “Butsomehow they communicated something thatcreated a lack of confidence in their abilities.”

And yet, it all comes as a shock to many wholose their jobs.“By and large, a lot of CMOs werepretty effective VPs of marketing,” Mr. Rodio says.“Then they get promoted and they don’t have thequantitative- and strategic-thinking background, andthen they’re surprised that their tenure is short.”

What’s missing—and what can help solve theproblem—is an appreciation for lifelong learning.“There’s a tendency to think: ‘I’ve been doing mar-keting for 10 or 15 years. I don’t need to learnmore,’” Mr. Guha says.

School can sometimes help, but at such a sen-ior level, the person likely has too little time andtoo many responsibilities. There are many othertools available for CMOs to continue learning:online classes and reading, or using consultantsand advisers. Some companies provide extendedorientation called onboarding that can be useful.

The important consideration is to get whateverhelp you need early on. “It’s most generally suc-cessful when the marketing exec feels they needadditional support and help to get ahead of thecurve and initiates it,” Ms. Stevenson says.

Of course, someone must want the help and useit. For example, there are CMO boot camps, wherepeople new to the position can get a crash course.That’s great if people show up, but Mr. Guha saysno-show rates run 50%.Those who pass on assis-tance may find themselves soon passed over.

“You don’t see ex-CMOs getting reappointedelsewhere,” Mr. Merrihue says. “The tenures areshort, and the possibilities of getting reacquaintedare low. It’s a tough business right now.”

TECH SKILLS: YOUBETTER HAVE ‘EM

TWO-THIRDS OF CEOS THINK THEIR TOP MARKETERS LACK THE KNOWLEDGE TOMAKE INFORMED DIGITAL DECISIONS. HERE’S HOW TO STAY UP ON WHAT’S NEW

BY ERIK SHERMAN

ANTHONY RODIO: EARLIER IN HISCAREER, THE SUPPORTSOFT CMO HIREDA CONSULTANT TO TEACH HIM ABOUTWEBSITE OPTIMIZATION. “TECHNOLOGYCHANGES SO FAST,” HE SAYS, “THAT IFYOU STAY AWAY FROM [THE DETAILS] TOO LONG, YOU CAN [MAKE YOURSELF] OBSOLETE.”

aa38pt14.qxp 9/17/2007 1:09 PM Page 1

38

DOWN FOR THE COUNTu.s. combined advertising/media employment inJune reached its highest level since the 2001 reces-sion. Now the not-so-good news:The ad industryin July lost jobs for the first time since January—and overall U.S. employment in August droppedfor the first time in four years amid growing reces-sion worries. It’s a mixed bag for ad jobs. Mediahave cut about one in eight jobs since the 2000

bubble-era peak. But advertising/marketing servic-es employment is just 1.6% below its ’00 peak; thediverse field is somewhat insulated from troublesfaced by old media.Add it up, and ad-industryemployment hasn’t kept pace with U.S. jobgrowth:Total ad/media employment is down7.4% from 2000 while the overall U.S. payroll hasrisen 4.2%.

BY BRADLEY JOHNSON

ADVERTISING & MARKETINGSERVICES

012/2000 7/2007

50,000

100,000

MEDIA BUYINGAGENCIES

+1.9%+800

12/2000 7/20070

50,000

100,000DIRECT MAIL

-24.2%-21,400

12/2000 7/20070

50,000

100,000PR AGENCIES

-9.8%-5,500

12/2000 7/20070

50,000

100,000GRAPHIC DESIGN

-12.3%-10,100

12/2000 7/200750,000

100,000

150,000

MARKETING CONSULTANTS

+57.6%+50,300

12/2000 7/200750,000

100,000

150,000

MARKETRESEARCH

-12.0%-14,300

MEDIA

-8.1%-11,200

-1.5%-1,400

+0.7%+800

-17.1%-72,300

-14.6%-24,900

-17.4%-8,900

0

100,000

2000

J FMAMJ J ASOND

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

700,000

800,000

900,000

1,000,000

1,100,000

1,200,000

1,300,000

1,400,000

1,500,000

1,600,000

1,700,000

1,800,000

1,900,000

2,000,000MEDIA1 ADVERTISING & MARKETING SERVICES2

2001

J FMAMJ J ASOND

2002

J FMAMJ J ASOND

2003

J FMAMJ J ASOND

2004

J FMAMJ J ASOND

2005

J FMAMJ J ASOND

2006

J FMAMJ J ASOND

2007

J FMAMJ J

12/2000Peakfor adjobs:1,755,700 5/2002

Start of ad-spendingrebound:1,593,500

7/2007:1,625,600

1/2004Post-bubblejob bottom:1,530,800

U.S. AD & MEDIAEMPLOYMENT

12/2000 7/200750,000

100,000

150,000BROADCAST TV

12/2000 7/200750,000

100,000

150,000CABLE TV

12/2000 7/200750,000

100,000

150,000RADIO

12/2000 7/2007325,000

375,000

425,000NEWSPAPERS

12/2000 7/2007100,000

150,000

200,000

MAGAZINES

12/2000 7/20070

50,000

100,000

INTERNET MEDIA COS.

150,00012/2000 7/2007

200,000

250,000AD AGENCIES

Employmentchange, in % and innumber of jobs,July ’07 vs. Dec. ’00

Employmentchange, in % and innumber of jobs,July ’07 vs. Dec. ’00

DATACENTER

1. TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, internet media cos. 2. Ad, media, direct and PR agencies; graphic design; marketing consultants;

market research; and other ad/marketing services. Source: Ad Age DataCenter analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data

-9.0%-18,600

THE AD INDUSTRY HAS ADDED 95,000 JOBS SINCE ITS POST-BUBBLE LOW. BUT EMPLOYMENTSTILL IS 130,000 BELOW ITS 2000 PEAK. THERE IS GROWING CONCERN ABOUT RECESSION

For deeper jobs data, go toDataCenter at AdAge.comand click on ThisWeek.

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