- Companies are still desperate to fill advertising roles, despite a slowdown in ad spending.
- A lot of roles were left vacant by the Great Resignation.
- Insider rounded up 15 top recruiters that companies like Zoom and Instacart rely on to fill key advertising positions.
This article was originally published last August and has been updated.
Layoffs and hiring freezes are starting to hit the ad industry as companies cut marketing spending in the face of economic uncertainty.
Companies reliant on advertisers hit hard by inflation or the downward-trending areas of finance and crypto have been especially impacted. Among those cutting staff: R/GA, Huge, and NextRoll.
Still, some companies are scrambling to fill hundreds of advertising and marketing jobs left open by The Great Resignation. In addition to tech companies, which are known for higher compensation, they're also facing competition for talent from a new area — retailers that are building ad businesses of their own.
A new study from the World Federation of Advertisers and media advisory MediaSense found nearly half of advertisers, agencies, adtech companies, and media owners think the industry is facing its "worst-ever" talent crisis, a figure that rises to 54% among agencies.
Here are 15 top industry recruiters advertisers and marketers are turning to to fill roles during this uncertain period.
Maryanne Martire, partner, Daversa Partners
Martire locates talent who can excel in top marketing roles.
She's placed CMOs and other senior marketers for companies including Zoom, Salesloft, Hubspot, Hippo Insurance, Instacart, and Checkout.com.
Companies are expanding their geographical reach to find talent outside metropolitan hubs like New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Boston. Martire said their main focus is "accomplishments over location."
Demand for top candidates is strong, so companies must make their offers quickly and be fully involved in recruiting to secure top hires, she said.
"Those firms that are ready to act are winning the war on talent," she said.
Diane Domeyer, managing director and SVP, Managed Creative Solutions
As part of the recruiting behemoth Robert Half, Managed Creative Solutions has an advantage in its scale — its onsite staff in 40 cities is backed by its parent's 300-plus locations.
Launched in 1999, it's also one of the oldest firms in the space, with deep relationships and experience weathering business cycles.
"What's changed over the years is the transition to virtual workplaces," said Domeyer, its managing director. "Hiring and onboarding are happening remotely. Employers are lifting geographic boundaries to find top talent. That will be a permanent shift."
Despite economic uncertainty, Domeyer is optimistic: "The future's very bright when you think about what organizations have to do to communicate with and engage their customers."
Manuela Guidi, founder, Manuela Guidi LLC
Veteran advertising recruiter Guidi hires for every kind of need but specializes in finding professionals like art directors, writers, and designers. Chicago-based Guidi handles searches worldwide, including in China and Russia.
"When the firm was born, it was much more agency-slanted," she said. "Now, brands are hiring more actively to create in-house departments."
Guidi said job candidates demand much more of their employers today.
"Candidates are as discerning as employers right now," she said. "More than ever, they want to know about a company's culture and commitment to issues. It's been a wake-up call."
Serena Wolf, founder, Wolf Creative
Wolf Creative is a go-to headhunter for US ad agencies of all sizes. Founded in 2004 by Wolf and Walt Landy, the firm places professionals in various roles across agencies including account managers, business developers, producers, and chief strategy officers.
Wolf Creative works primarily in the US, but has partnered with headhunters in other countries if hired by an international client.
Wolf Creative prevailed during the pandemic by expanding to other areas, like startups launching in the influencer and social space.
Wolf said remote work is starting to lose steam in big advertising markets like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
"Hiring at the executive and leadership level remote-only isn't ideal and companies are requesting talent to relocate and get more facetime with colleagues, help with building culture and true collaboration with other leadership," she said. "Hybrid is here to stay and is more desirable for those with longer commute times."
Jay Haines, founder, Grace Blue
With 20 headhunters in the US and 30 more around the world, Grace Blue describes itself as the largest independent executive search firm in marketing and communications. Worldwide, it handles 140 C-level searches every year, with an emphasis on seniority, said Haines, who founded Grace Blue in 2006.
Clients are split between agencies and brands, Amazon, Ogilvy, and Spotify among them.
Haines said economic uncertainty has companies pulling back on hiring for roles in new areas but they are still hiring new executives for their core businesses.
"The Great Resignation has now passed as people are hunkering down and trusting in the security of their business rather than looking for something new but I would expect that to change again just as soon as the market opens up and confidence returns," he said.
Lauren Lotka, founder, Lotka & Co.
Started in 2017, six-person Lotka & Co. primarily handles executive searches for brand marketers. Its first client was The North Face and it has also worked with Google and Timberland.
Founder Lotka said 70% of her business is building teams for clients, which includes recruiting as well as creating organizational structures. After placing talent, Lotka continues to work with her recruits to help them succeed at their new company.
Lotka also works with companies on sustainability and DEI programs through a partnership with Bleeker Talent, a talent firm that helps organizations become more inclusive.
"My job is relationship building from all sides," Lotka said. "It's about really understanding there are gaps in this space that need to be filled. What does a successful hire look like? What would they need to be successful when they get hired? There is an incredibly vast equity gap when it comes to gender and race."
Sasha Martens, president, Sasha the Mensch
Martens founded the talent firm Sasha the Mensch in 2006 with a focus on headhunting internationally.
The firm recruits for advertising agencies, brands, and tech companies, specializing in creative, account, strategy and production. Clients have included agencies Publicis, WPP's Ogilvy, and Omnicom's TBWA. In the past year, Sasha the Mensch placed hires in cities from New York to Milan to Paris. Martens said everyone on his team speaks more than one language, and he himself is fluent in English, Spanish, and German.
An early adopter of remote work, Martens said his recruiters are always ready to fly to clients wherever they're based to understand cultural nuances and to make the best hiring decisions.
The biggest struggle between job candidates and companies right now is candidates not being willing to relocate and companies wanting people back in the office, he said.
"Agencies need to be aware of this shift and set their sights on embracing a regional hiring strategy, or one based on timezone flexibility," he said. "Talent doesn't need to live in the same city, just as long as they are either in the same time zone or one over, ideally within a day's drive."
Ashley Jahn, cofounder and creative recruiter, Creative Search Consultants
Half of a rare father-daughter act in creative recruiting, Jahn founded Creative Search Consultants with her father, Stephen, in 2001.
"We've had clients that long," she said. "Your success in this business is measured on the companies you work for, who you represent, and for how long."
Jahn's roster includes Disney, Meta, and ad agencies The Martin Agency and 72andSunny.
Ad agency employees can no longer specialize in a single area as companies look for people with holistic skill sets, Jahn said. She said that the pandemic had created a buyer's market for talent, with turnover constant in advertising, and "everyone's looking for the latest, greatest, hottest, newest person — a lot of opportunity and growth comes from moments like this."
Christie Cordes, founder and CEO, Ad Recruiter
Cordes founded Ad Recruiter in 2002 to help art galleries and advertising companies "locate niche talent, anywhere in the world," she said.
Now, she mainly handles executive searches for ad agencies. Unlike other headhunters that rely on email and databases, Cordes primarily relies on social media to recruit talent — which also helps her headhunt internationally.
More recently, she's begun consulting CEOs and marketing execs on how to attract candidates in The Great Resignation as part of Ad Recruiter's new branch, "Consigliere, Talent Advisory." Cordes said companies struggle to hire when they solely focus on bonuses and perks, which aren't the only things people want.
"Human beings, especially the passionate and talented ones, go where they are respected, appreciated, and trusted," she said.
Sally Jones, founder, Tangerine
Jones, who founded her 15-person firm in 2002, works in the US and Europe for advertising agencies as well as startups and private equity firms. Clients have included the US Tennis Association, Foursquare, Daily Harvest, and WeTransfer.
She said the firm prioritized diversity long before it became a matter of urgency. "Before we introduce candidates, we're always conscious of how the pool looks and that we've vetted talent that's both diverse and creative," Jones said.
Jones said recessionary concerns have led companies to take employees' needs more seriously and employees to return to the office, at least part-time.
Diana Qasabian, managing director, SyndicateBleu
SyndicateBleu is a Los Angeles-based arm of the recruiting giant Career Group Companies. Qasabian, its managing director, said it handles "hundreds" of placements for studios, ad agencies, and design firms in a typical year.
"Brands are pivoting and need to promote themselves," she said. "But the trend now is more freelance or temp-to-hire. Clients are getting a little more conservative. And they want more of a chemistry check before they commit."
As work has gone remote, Qasabian has seen high demand for virtual teams for clients.
For the job hunter, flexibility is key in advertising and creative fields, and skills are transferable, Qasabian said.
"If you were a fashion copywriter, you can write for beauty or lifestyle," she said. "If you worked on car accounts, you can work for an automotive brand."
Tony Stanol, president, Global Recruiters of Sarasota
Stanol ran global accounts for agencies like BBDO, FCB, and JWT for more than 20 years before switching careers in 2008. A longtime Ad Age columnist, he averages 10 executive placements annually.
"My breadth of experience is my advantage as a recruiter," said Stanol, whose Florida firm is part of the 240-office Global Recruiters Network.
Stanol said agencies make up most of his client base and have kept his business humming as they try to staff up.
"Coming out of the other side of the pandemic has left the ad industry in a talent feeding frenzy of sorts fueled by the Great Resignation," Stanol said. "As a result, agencies are screaming for talent and calling on recruiting professionals who can provide the surgical precision to find them."
Gilly Taylor, founder, Gilly & Co.
Now in the third decade with her Los Angeles boutique consultancy, Taylor's worked with young creatives who've become CMOs, small agencies that have become huge agencies, and startup brands that are now giants.
"We're very much relationship-bound," said Taylor, who worked at agencies in London and Los Angeles before launching her firm. "I've never had an issue where someone hasn't worked out."
She's seen a big uptick in clients looking for freelancers, among other changes.
"It's now a serious ask, and a couple of larger agencies will only hire diverse candidates," she said. "There's more flexibility in that someone doesn't always have to come from an agency background."
Barbara Tejada, owner, Mighty Recruiting
Tejada was a longtime in-house recruiter who founded Mighty Recruiting in 2013. She handles big and small ad agency searches.
Tejada said the talent market — coming off of pandemic layoffs in 2020, to the talent war last year, to now layoffs again — is experiencing whiplash.
"I am honestly sad to see so many companies laying off again so quickly," Tejada said. "This industry still has a ways to go in terms of remembering that their talent is people."
Despite the layoffs, she said some job candidates are still juggling several offers at once, and she advises them to be transparent about that in interviews.
"My advice to talent is to be as transparent as possible about your job search. How many other companies are you speaking with? Are you expecting an offer from any of them soon? Is there a place you are leaning toward?" Tejada said.
Owen Williams, founder and managing partner, Unknown Partners
Williams worked as an internal recruiter for ad agencies like 72andSunny and TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Apple's longtime ad agency, before starting his own five-person talent firm. His clients include ad agencies, brand marketers, design firms, and startups.
Though it's young, the firm has seen enough shakeups in the talent market for a lifetime — including a shift to remote work, a wave of pandemic-related layoffs, and The Great Resignation that had people leaving the ad industry.
"All of these factors have led to companies doing any and everything they can to both attract and retain talent in ways that, in most cases, were long overdue," Williams said. "Flexible or hybrid work offerings, better benefits, more focus on mental health are all things that have resulted from one of the most tumultuous times we have seen as both an industry and as human beings."
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