Social & Content Briefs Move From Strength to Strength

Major brands are still increasingly on the lookout for independent talent and agencies with Social Media and Content skills, our latest briefing report has revealed.

As an agency/client matchmaking platform, monitoring real-time briefs we receive from chief marketing officers (CMOs) and brand owners. This information gives us a unique perspective on what’s hot and what’s not that month - data which is then distilled into our monthly Marketers Most Wanted report.

March’s data has revealed that briefs looking for agencies with Social Media & Content skills remain the most popular type on our platform, representing 14.3% of total briefs this month.

This category has topped our chart for the second month running, and has been a consistent feature in our top three categories for the last year.

Within this category we’ve seen a mixture of requests, ranging from social strategy projects to retainers as well as specific campaign support - the latter growing in popularity as Pride Month nears.

“Brands often look externally when it comes to inclusive marketing campaigns, such as those during Pride Month, in order to harness expertise to help them create the right message and impact - particularly when topics like these can backfire on brands when they go wrong,” affirmed Sayburn.

We’ve seen a heightened interest in campaigns of this kind - not just in relation to Pride Month - and have heard from top agency leaders at our StudioLive February event about ensuring the authenticity of your inclusive marketing endeavours.

If you’re interested in finding out more about how to remain authentic and find success with your inclusive marketing campaigns, then you can read our blog here.

Brands’ heavy focus on content is not just limited to Social Media. After a dip in February, SEO and PPC briefs have made their move up into fourth place, with its total share increasing from 7% to 10.2%.

“This share increase is driven by SEO briefs as brands seek external advice to drive organic traffic to their websites, particularly with the recent updates to the Google algorithm. March sees this category returning to a similar level as January, so we’re interested to see if it continues at this level or fluctuates further over the coming months,” said Pete.

SEO and PPC briefs took the place of Creative & Production this month, the share of which has dropped from 9% in February to 8.2% in March.

This is likely a result of it being the end of the financial year for many brands, who are subsequently rethinking and reallocating their budgets at this final stretch.

Holding the second spot comfortably on March’s list is UX & UI Design, representing 12.2% of our total briefs for the month. Despite a slight drop in volume from February (where it stood at 14%), this category still retains its position as the largest in terms of value.

Briefs looking for agencies with UX & UI Design skills have remained one of our most popular for the entirety of 2024, and as a category asserted itself as our most popular in 2023.

“We have seen that brands are looking to external talent to bring fresh perspective and bolster internal capability in this area,” mentioned Sayburn.

As brands look to diversify their online presence across the host of media platforms available to them, bringing in a specialist agency can be the best way to ensure success. As per our 2024 Predictions Report, we suspected that this kind of talent would remain high in-demand, and this has definitely proven to be the case!

In a strong third place this month we have Software Development briefs, representing 10.2% of our total. This is a non-mover on the list, and again has frequently featured on our reports’ top three.

The majority of projects falling under this category are website builds, but there are also instances of website maintenance with brands looking to unify their digital tone and look/feel.

Also found in our report this month were continued strong performances from both Brand Strategy and Proposition Design, both making up 5.1% of our total individually: it’s been neck and neck between these two for a number of months now as they retain the same position in our top ten table as last month!

After a re-entry into the top ten last month, Copywriting requests have now risen to eighth position. Briefs requiring this kind of specialism have often been paired with larger briefs looking for support with projects such as brand development.

Interesting to note this month is a drop out of our top ten from Research & Insight.

“It seems as though brands are busy wrapping up the end of the financial year and lining up strategic projects for the next,” noted Sayburn.

“If it follows last year’s trends then we definitely expect this category to pick up again towards the summer season, though!”

Overall, this month’s most popular briefing categories have remained relatively constant in comparison to the February list. Brands seem to be investing constantly and comfortably in their digital presences, and in an age of exciting new technological development, this is unlikely to change.

“It’s great to see brands continuing to outsource talented teams for help with such a diverse range of projects,” concluded Pete.

We’re excited to see how the list changes over the coming months!