B&TB&TB&T
  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Technology
  • Regulars
    • Agency Scorecards
    • Best of the Best
    • Campaigns of the Month
    • CMO Power List
    • CMOs to Watch
    • Culture Bites
    • Fast 10
    • New Business Winners
    • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • Jobs
  • Awards
    • 30 Under 30
    • B&T Awards
    • Cairns Crocodiles
    • Women In Media
    • Women Leading Tech
Search
Trending topics:
  • Cairns Crocodiles
  • Nine
  • Seven
  • Cannes Lions
  • NRL
  • AFL
  • Pinterest
  • WPP
  • State of Origin
  • B&T Women in Media
  • Thinkerbell
  • imaa
  • Anthony Albanese
  • ARN
  • Meta
  • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • Foxtel
  • TV Ratings
  • Radio Ratings
  • Sports Marketing

  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.
Reading: The Talent Crisis Is Real, But A Solution Could Be Right In Front Of Us
Share
B&TB&T
Subscribe
Search
  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Technology
  • Regulars
    • Agency Scorecards
    • Best of the Best
    • Campaigns of the Month
    • CMO Power List
    • CMOs to Watch
    • Culture Bites
    • Fast 10
    • New Business Winners
    • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • Jobs
  • Awards
    • 30 Under 30
    • B&T Awards
    • Cairns Crocodiles
    • Women In Media
    • Women Leading Tech
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.
B&T > Opinion > The Talent Crisis Is Real, But A Solution Could Be Right In Front Of Us
Opinion

The Talent Crisis Is Real, But A Solution Could Be Right In Front Of Us

Staff Writers
Published on: 1st February 2022 at 10:28 AM
Staff Writers
Share
5 Min Read
SHARE

In this guest post, Magnite’s Australian managing director, James Young (main photo), says there’s definitely a talent crisis, but if we flip our thinking and look more closely at technological advances, a solution could be at our fingertips…

IAB’s Industry Talent Report released late last year made for sobering reading. It revealed how job vacancy rates in the advertising industry have more than doubled last year and uncovered a dearth of junior to mid-level talent, particularly in the performance and programmatic space. On top of all that, it showed that a gender skew towards males meant that nine in ten technical and engineering roles are currently held by men across the industry.

Our industry talent predicament isn’t isolated – Australia’s general labour shortages are at a record high across the board, according to a range of sources including NAB, the Reserve Bank and even Seek. To get around these challenging conditions, forward thinking advertising and ad tech businesses are increasingly recruiting less experienced talent and making up for their lack of years on the job by investing in training and upskilling from within.

But as an industry to truly solve the talent crisis, we still have two key questions to answer. Firstly, when we find employees to train up are we skilling them for today’s jobs, or are we considering the jobs of tomorrow? Secondly, have we done a good enough job at factoring in the role technology will have on new and existing employees in the near term, either by making an increasing number of today’s roles redundant or reshaped almost beyond recognition?

It’s a discussion that was unpacked during a recent panel discussion featuring Adam Coulter of OMG, Ashton De Santis of The Trade Desk and Amy Jasen-Flynn of REA Group. While the discussion was primarily centered around SPO, the panellists found themselves delving into the topic of how to develop people for the future – especially in such a complex, ever changing industry.

For example, over the last couple of years we’ve seen that agencies aren’t just media buyers anymore.  They are becoming technology businesses by building their own tech to deliver their unique outcomes. This nuanced approach has resulted in traders’ roles becoming a lot more complex and sophisticated, with individuals finding themselves wearing many hats depending on the task at hand. And of course, as job roles grow increasingly complex, so too does the task of finding the right talent to take on the challenge.

So perhaps the answer is technology.

Much has been said about automation and algorithmic decisioning having the potential to replace people, as they take up the heavy lifting for repetitive transactional tasks. While these discussions sometimes lean into how that use of technology will reduce staffing requirements in agencies, I see the increasing use of technology as an amazing opportunity for organisations to redeploy their people into new roles, while also unlocking new talent recruitment opportunities.

Agencies looking to the future should be actively exploring how to integrate data engineers and SQL developers into day-to-day operations as a start point. But freeing up people from mundane transactional tasks will also provide space for some very talented (and already employed) agency staff to focus on the more creative and innovative tasks. It will also offer them the bandwidth to provide additional value to the brands they work with, helping them make smarter buying decisions and protect their data.

It will be fascinating to look back in ten years’ time to see how our industry has tackled this employment crisis – but at least for now technology appears to be offering a strong way for us to move ahead.

 

 

Join more than 30,000 advertising industry experts
Get all the latest advertising and media news direct to your inbox from B&T.

No related posts.

TAGGED: James young, magnite
Share
Staff Writers
By Staff Writers
Follow:
Staff Writers represent B&T's team of award-winning reporters. Here, you'll find articles crafted with industry experience spanning over 50 years. Our team of specialists brings together a wealth of knowledge and a commitment to delivering insightful, topical, and breaking news. With a deep understanding of advertising and media, our Staff Writers are dedicated to providing industry-leading analysis and reporting, both shaping the conversation and setting the benchmark for excellence.

Latest News

Agency Scorecard: Special
09/07/2025
Agency Scorecard: iProspect
09/07/2025
Meet Adland’s Best Number-Whisperers In The Best Of The Best Data Scientists!
09/07/2025
State Vs State, Campaign Vs Campaign: Brands Go Head-To-Head In The Origin Decider
09/07/2025
//

B&T is Australia’s leading news publication magazine for the advertising, marketing, media and PR industries.

 

B&T is owned by parent company The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.

About B&T

  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise

Top Categories

  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Opinion
  • Technology
  • TV Ratings

Sign Up for Our Newsletter



B&TB&T
Follow US
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Register Lost your password?