The simple reason adland is short on wisdom

With the average tenure of a marketing person now less than two years, adland needs to get to grips with how to integrate both wisdom and youth into its workforce, argues Ben Willee, GM of Spinach.

At the age of 43, I’ve reached an interesting stage of my career. Working for an independent, I’m in the unusual position of working alongside experienced people in their 50s, but I also get the pleasure of mentoring people in their 20s who take me out of my comfort zone every day.

With the majority of agencies owned by one of five listed entities, the people with the most power are often the accountants. Their remit is to worry about getting the profit numbers for the next quarter, not about fulfilling the needs of the agency’s clients. That relentless quarter by quarter pressure can mean replacing experienced hands with younger, cheaper employees so they can turn more margin.

Very few of those agencies have many people left over the age of 45. If they do, they’re exclusively in management positions. There aren’t a lot of diverse, mature people working day to day on a client’s business solving problems.

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