Creative, Marketing and Digital salary survey

Creative, Marketing and Digital salary survey

The Drum has published a survey that sheds light across salaries, bonuses, job satisfaction, job security and gender differences. The study has also found some distinct trends across our key specialisms.

The political turbulence that characterised last year - such as Brexit and the US - has had a minimal impact on recruitment and hiring. Although there was a small setback in the latter part of 2016, confidence in the UK economy has recovered.

There is a high demand for good people across all business types and specialisms, particularly in agencies and for those working in digital and creative. There appears to be a trend in which clients bring teams in-house as well as using agencies.

According to the Financial Times, UK Government's Strategy Unit has drafted a report which concluded that the creative industries in London are now more important than financial services to the economy. While there is more employment in the creative industries, it is decreasing in financial services.

All disciplines have seen pay rises, either by progression within the same company or by moving jobs. The highest pay rises were witnessed in planning & strategy (14 percent), account handling (38 percent) and tech/UX (37 percent). Every category received a pay rise over 10 percent above the national average of 3 percent.

The study found that the major reason for people wishing to leave their jobs limited career progression in their current role. The second one was remuneration.

The report forecasts a good future for tech companies related to software. Automation, programmatic, AI and continued integration are all areas that are expected to grow.

There is a high satisfaction across creative marketing and digital disciplines, with 70 percent being largely satisfied in their current role. Content, editorial and social report the highest satisfaction levels, followed by PR and marketing.

As to the benefits, "the need for a better work-life balance has become increasingly more desirable for all, with flexible working the most sought after benefit. This was favoured even over a bonus," reported The Drum.

Those in the industry are also well-educated, with an average of 84 percent with a degree or Masters.

The industry with the highest budget is digital market. "33 percent of our survey working in digital marketing have a budget of £1m+" stated The Drum.

The survey was put together by Major Players, which used data collected from 3,200 respondents combined with savvy provided by industry experts.

Major players also found certain trends in the industry. For instance, there is a higher proportion of men in the industry at a 65/35 ratio. Also, 25 percent received a pay increase of more than 10 percent, about average across all areas. The study also shows that most 35 percent see their career progressing within a medium-sized agency.

The study also found that workers value flexible hours and a greater holiday allowance more than a bonus.

Another study by Morgan McKinely shows that 2016 was a great year of growth and opportunity for marketing professionals across financial services, technology and retail industries.

"Marketing is becoming a higher-priority on C-suite executives' growth plans, with team sizes increasing up to 50% and budgets becoming healthier. This stands in stark contrast with previous years and moves away from the trend of cost-cutting and redundancies," it states.

"There is always an element of seasonality to marketing recruitment, with permanent hires being more prevalent in Q2 and Q3 following bonus season as well as in the lead up to appraisals and salary reviews in Q4, and contract hiring being busier in the first few months of the year, Q2 and Q3. In 2016, due to a lack of predictability in the economic climate there was an element of unpredictability in marketing recruitment trends, with August being the busiest it's been in a while."

While traditional marketing, branding and event management have been slower areas of recruitment than content marketing and external communications in London. Given that we live in an information-driven society, content and communications have been at the forefront of marketing strategy. As a result, there has been a demand for skilled writers and communicators to lead organisations both digitally and off-line in their marketing communications strategies.

Content writing has been rebranded. What used to be an integral part of a marketer's responsibility is now seen as a job in its own right.