I stumbled across an interesting piece today about the growing number of marketing firms struggling to adapt to the apparent lack of mobile marketing talent.
A great example provided was that of Minneapolis and New York-based interactive agency Space150. Some time ago when they decided to establish a mobile division, one of the company’s executives found the talent pool surprisingly dry. As a result, “the recruiting process was more difficult than expected.”
Even though mobile was already a part of Space150’s offerings, they were eager to expand with the market itself and hire one or two mobile marketing specialists. That’s yet to happen.
But according to some, Space150’s situation is not unique. “As agencies seek to grow their mobile offerings in a tight talent market, many have lowered their expectations and begun to hire anyway.”
If you’re bouncing around the same question that I was after reading that excerpt, I couldn’t get past the idea of having to find bare minimum traits in a field of unqualified candidates. And what exactly would those bottom of the barrell traits be anyway?
“Where direct experience in mobile is lacking,” said Maria Mandel, senior partner and executive director in Ogilvy’s Digital Innovation group, “a demonstrated interest may be sufficient — especially if the candidate in question has worked in digital. From an agency perspective, I would pick somebody that has interactive and a strong desire to learn about mobile than someone with a mobile marketing background, and train interactive.”
This may be the only course of action desirable until the supply of talent catches up with the growing demand for mobile marketing services.
