By Gilles Wybo, 09/2014
There’s a stirring in the air: after dropping sharply between 2012 and 2013—down 1.8%—salaries in advertising have stagnated (-0.2%) between 2013 and 2014. This stabilization should be interpreted as a gradual reversal of the downward trend, according to Marc de Torquat, director of Shefferd consulting firm and author of this exclusive salary study for Stratégies. “2013 was a dark year, with no visibility for agencies, so they made almost no effort to replace departing staff,” explains the Shefferd director. “Since early 2014, there’s been a recovery effect—things are starting to move, and this improvement will show more clearly on paychecks and in our 2015 study.” Without waiting until next year, which functions are currently thriving? And conversely, which ones are seeing their compensation decline?
First observation: the near-stability of compensation (-0.2%) masks quite different realities. “Creative functions are growing by 3.12% and they’re offsetting the steeper declines in other areas,” Marc de Torquat notes. The winners of 2014: graphic designers (+6.6%) and both junior (+3.5%) and senior (+7.3%) art directors. “Even in difficult periods—and perhaps especially during these phases—creativity is the lifeblood of winning competitions, and agencies are willing to pay top dollar to recruit or retain these profiles,” notes Shefferd’s director.
This is confirmed by Isabelle Jacquot, HR Director at TBWA France (1,500 employees): “We’ve been careful to increase the lowest salaries: graphic designers and junior art directors,” she emphasizes. The Australie agency has also revised its compensation policy for junior staff: “We’ve adjusted salaries across all our junior profiles, not just creative roles, because they seemed low compared to market rates,” explains Alexandra Gaudin, Director of Human Resources (a title she actively uses).
If senior art directors are increasingly sought after today, it’s linked to the rise of digital: “the high mobility of digital art directors drives salaries upward, which explains why their value is skyrocketing,” says Isabelle Jacquot from TBWA. According to François Garcia, CEO of X-Prime Group, a 50-person digital agency: “Roles seeing increases often correspond to new industry expertise that commands higher prices from advertisers, such as UX designers or digital art directors.”
The head of social media role is also thriving: this manager (who oversees social media at the agency) is seeing their salary jump by +9.8%. “It’s a matter of supply and demand,” explains Muriel Fagnoni, Executive Vice President of BETC Group (800 employees in Paris). “There are still very few professionals with this profile.”
Conversely, the losers this year are primarily managers: business development directors (-5.8%), creative directors (-7.4%), or strategic planning directors (-3%). “Agencies asked these management functions to make particular sacrifices during this difficult period,” explains Marc de Torquat. None of these senior executives escaped a decline in their median compensation. “Over the past decade, there’s been a trend in our sector to introduce more variable compensation in salaries,” analyzes Muriel Fagnoni from BETC. “Its release is heavily tied to the overall economic health.” Reaching targets at the end of 2013 was complicated for everyone (even though the Shefferd study accounts for contractual variable pay, not exceptional bonuses).
“A creative director always has a variable component, and often a strategic planning director does as well,” confirms Isabelle Jacquot, HR Director at TBWA France. This decline for creative directors can also be explained by a renewal phenomenon: senior (and expensive) creative directors leaving the market and being replaced by newer, more digitally-savvy profiles (less costly).
For François Garcia of X-Prime Group, the fact that the creative director’s median salary is declining should be viewed as a warning signal: “It’s a revealing indicator of the current problem with agency valuation,” he emphasizes. “The trend is rather toward price reduction, and this impacts the rate card.”
Even if the situation for creative directors remains very different from one agency to another (see the interview on the next page).
Strategic planning directors and strategic planners face the same challenge: both are seeing their compensation contract (-3%). And in this field, the shift seems more profound. “Strategic planners with strong digital skills are being promoted more often currently,” observes Isabelle Jacquot from TBWA France. Digital is reshuffling the cards and consequently disrupting compensation.
Unlucky is the community manager, whose salary drops by 3%. “Their stock had risen too high,” quips an HR director.
Similarly, the creative technologist role is declining (-9.2%), though the median salary for this non-management function reaches quite high levels: €50,000. “This role emerged 3-4 years ago, and while there was a wave of hiring creative technologists, there are fewer positions available right now,” notes François Garcia, CEO of X-Prime Group.
For technical directors, the decline (-7.2%) is mainly explained by the evolution of the study’s sample (which includes more small agencies), as this function is actually in high demand currently. This is true across all technical functions: technical project managers, developers… They’re essential to digital projects. “With technical project managers, we’re competing against IT service firms that bid aggressively to poach them,” says Ange Michelozzi, HR Director at Fullsix agency. “We can’t always match their salary offers, but we know we can offer them more interesting projects than IT firms.”
Agencies are also attempting to compete through benefits in kind:
“All our employees have a company iPhone 5, and we’ve also made efforts to improve our office space, which includes a foosball area,” boasts Alexandra Gaudin, Director of Human Resources at Australie. Fullsix agency provides
iPhones to employees who interact with clients (they’re responsible for selling mobile applications) and Autolib subscriptions instead of company cars.
Another effort being made by some agencies: reducing the salary gap between men and women. “We conducted an internal benchmark in 2013 and discovered there was a 23% salary gap between men and women,” notes Australie’s HR Director. “We made a major effort to narrow this gap, and by 2014 we’re already down to only a 14% differential.”
Fullsix, for its part, is negotiating a telework agreement with its social partners. “We’re in negotiations, but we’re confident it will have a positive impact on our employees’ personal lives,” predicts Ange Michelozzi. “I hope we can finalize this by year’s end.”