Top marketing skills in 2024 (July)
Creative and Production skills soar in popularity
Major brands are increasingly investing in Creative and Production skills, our latest report has shown. This briefing area has grown steadily more popular since May, fighting against its usual mid-table position to be the second most popular category in July.
We’re 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.
The Creative and Production category has soared to second place on this month’s table, after its first entry into our top 3 just last month. Representing 10.7% of July’s briefs, this is no small change - a 2% increase from June and a 1.9% increase from its 2023 average.
“This is the biggest jump we’ve seen, and this category’s first time in second position since our Marketer’s Most Wanted report series began,” noted our CEO Pete Sayburn.
“Projects we’ve had briefed in this category include some large TV and digital campaigns, where our independent agencies are winning against the large incumbent agencies, so we’re exceptionally proud,” he added.
UX/UI Design briefs see biggest position drop ever
Last month’s report showed the number of UX/UI design briefs neck and neck with Creative and Production, both representing 8.7% of June’s total. This month, however, the former has taken 6th place, representing 6.3% of briefs: its lowest ever position on the table, and its first time ever out of our top 3.
This category was our highest performing, both value- and volume-wise, in 2023, and so it comes as a shock to see its investment deplete so suddenly this month. It made up over double of the amount of briefs in January as it did this month (13% compared to 6.3%).
“We have been seeing the ending of some larger-scale digital transformation programmes, which in turn reduces demand for external support in this area,” Sayburn told us. “Brands have historically struggled with recruitment in this area, but could the supply of quality in-house UX/UI design talent finally be catching up with demand? It will certainly be interesting to see if this category continues to dip for the remainder of the year or whether it will pick up again after the summer holidays.”
Strong growth in Software Development, Research, and SEO/PPC categories
Software Development has re-entered our top three categories after its first fall this year to fourth place last month, currently holding a share of 8.9% of our total briefs, a 0.2% increase from June. This constant top-table position is particularly interesting as Software Development only ranked 8th in our top 10 positions in the 2023 general report!
This growth has largely been driven by projects in the Australian market, as well as medium-sized brands in the UK. “Projects in this category have ranged from new website development projects, to retainers, to more piecemeal maintenance projects,” mentioned Pete.
Research and Insight skills, coming in at fourth place this month, has seen an 0.3% increase since June, to currently make up 8.0% of our total. This category has seriously fluctuated over the last sixth months, ranking 10th back in April, and not even featuring on our list in March.
This month’s strength is driven by brands looking to get closer to their customers to test key elements of their strategy, experience, and communications campaigns.
Our SEO and PPC category saw a huge jump up the table this month, from 8th place in June to 5th place in July. It currently represents 7.1% of our briefing total. This category is definitely the least predictable, and, like Research and Insight, has been fluctuating month on month across 2024.
Share drops for Digital Marketing, Brand Strategy, and Copywriting
Digital Marketing and Brand Strategy are both down on share this month, representing 6.3% each and falling in 7th and 8th positions respectively. This is less driven by a change in volume of briefs in these areas, but more that categories in the first half of our table have stolen share, especially Creative and Production!
Copywriting has retained its 9th place position, but has seen a slight drop in share, having made up 4.5% of briefs in July. Projects in this category tend to be relatively small, but are still proving themselves necessary to brands of all sizes.
Proposition Design hangs on to its Top-10 spot
Proposition Design stays in 10th place for the third month in a row, though this time with a share increase of 0.6%. This category has seen some serious shifts over the last month. Whilst last year it made up 8.8% of our total brief volume, taking a comfortable 3rd place position, it has sat in the bottom half of our table every month this year. Could this month’s share increase signify a rebound of this category as brands look to shape their future offerings?
Conclusions
“This month has seen some real shifts in category table positions, which has been exciting,” noted Sayburn. “We’re particularly excited to see whether Creative and Production holds its second place in the wake of UX/UI declining this month, as well as whether Proposition Design will again climb to our top three spot by the end of this year.”
Some of our StudioSpace project highlights this month have been:
- Direct-to-customer (D2C) brand film for a financial services provider
- Waste net zero event support for a leading sustainability company
- Social media strategy for a global grocery chain
- Programmatic and private marketplace campaign management for an international alternative asset management provider
- Product copywriting for a global motor manufacturer
- Performance marketing campaign for a B2B SaaS scale up
We’ll see you next month for August’s report! In the meantime, if you’ve got any questions, please do reach out to hello@studiospace.com and we’d be happy to help.
Social Media and Content briefs sit comfortably on their throne
Social and Content briefs have retained their first place position again this month, representing 17.9% of July’s briefs. This is a slight (3.2%) decrease from last month, though this is likely caused by our surprise appearance from Creative and Production.
This is this category’s 6th month in a row in this table position, and with the average difference between first and second place during this period being 6.6%, we don’t expect this to change any time soon - unless we see a big surprise shifter!
We have seen a huge increase in briefs revolving around the use of AI for content creation, as brands become more open to working smarter in this area with the right safety measures in place.
We’re currently looking to host a special panel event on this topic in the Autumn, so definitely watch this space!