Top marketing skills 2024 (May)

UX/UI design regains popularity this month

Major brands are continuing to invest heavily in UX/UI design skills, our latest report has shown. This briefing area has topped the charts for the fourth month running, making a staggering 3.3% jump since our April report.

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 UX/UI Design category has reclaimed its second place position after a drop last month, this month representing 10.4% of our total. The briefs we’ve been receiving in this category are usually requesting support for specific products or initiatives: brands are looking primarily for collaborative UX/UI specialists to bring a fresh perspective and boost internal capability.

“It’s clear that brands are looking for external resources to boost internal capability as they focus on new strategic initiatives and experiences,” noted Pete. “We are hearing that many internal UX/UI teams are simply maxxed out and brands are struggling to recruit top quality UX/UI talent. Boosting teams with external UX/UI specialists means that they can deliver top quality work and not compromise on critical delivery milestones.”

Social and Content skills still popular as ever

Demand for Social & Content skills continues to dominate the briefs coming into our platform, representing 19.8% of May’s total. With so much demand for the creation of huge volumes of content across a variety of different channels, we’re seeing a high amount of requests for retained organic social support as well as campaign specific support.

“We’re also continuing to see more traditional brands embrace newer channels like TikTok, where they’re seeking external support to help them ensure that they’re approaching these channels in the right way,” said StudioSpace CEO Pete Sayburn.

“It’s really no wonder brands are looking to extend their online channel usage across to TikTok: the platform has almost 2 billion users, with this figure expected to almost double by the end of this decade,” he added.

We’ve seen much demand for omnichannel social media approaches, but with each platform requiring different post formats, and having different audiences, it can be difficult for a brand to ensure that it is using each channel as effectively as possible. This is where external support can be extremely helpful, and we don’t expect to see this demand for support waning in the near future.

Reclaiming our second-place spot after a dip last month is UX/UI Design, which this month represents 10.4% of our total, a 3.3% increase since our last report. The briefs we’ve been receiving in this category are usually requesting support for specific products or initiatives: brands are looking primarily for collaborative UX/UI specialists to bring a fresh perspective and boost internal capability.

“It’s clear that brands are looking for external resources to boost internal capability as they focus on new strategic initiatives and experiences,” noted Pete. “We are hearing that many internal UX/UI teams are simply maxxed out and brands are struggling to recruit top quality UX/UI talent. Boosting teams with external UX/UI specialists means that they can deliver top quality work and not compromise on critical delivery milestones.”

Brand demand for Software Development skills has fallen

Completing our top three skills, and back comfortably in its usual position, is Software Development. This month it has seen a 3.9% volume share drop, from 12.2% in April to 8.3% in this current report. The skills making up our top three have remained unchanged since October!

This month we’ve seen brands requiring ongoing support with pre-established projects, with less demand for new software development endeavours. The focus has been on more upfront strategy type projects, including brand strategy – a category which has risen 2.2% to 7.3% this month, and sits in fourth place.

Interestingly, in the brand strategy category, there have been a number of briefs focused on refreshing existing brands, whether it be developing brand positioning or messaging or working closely with brands to refresh their look and feel.

In fifth place this month is the SEO & PPC category, which has dropped one position since last month, now making up 6.3% of our total. This is the lowest volume of briefs we’ve seen in this area since last summer.

“This category has fluctuated every month since the beginning of the year, so it’s definitely one to watch,” said Sayburn.

Matching SEO & PPC’s share of briefs, we have a fight between Creative & Production, Copywriting, and Research & Insight. Creative & Production remains a solid performer with its volume remaining relatively stable for the last few months.

In contrast, Research & Insight has moved up the table from tenth position last month into tied fifth this month. This category didn’t feature in our March top ten, though we predicted its return in April and again this month: “if it follows last year’s trends, we definitely expect this category to pick up again towards the summer season,” declared Pete in the March report. And this has certainly been the case so far!

Copywriting has been a bit of an underdog in the table, with steady growth since its re-entry into the table back in February. Despite the influx of AI utilisation in big brands, it appears that good copywriting is still very much in demand.

Example copywriting briefs include support for UX/UI to help increase conversion, the development of thought leadership or educational articles, or to translate functional product copy into something more inspirational that represents a change in brand direction.

In our ninth place position, remaining unmoved since April, is Digital Marketing. Despite its position having stayed the same, this category has continued to grow volume-wise, rising this month from 4.1% to 5.2%. Example challenges agencies are responding to in this category include a brand awareness building campaign across multiple digital channels, and performance marketing campaigns.

Taking our last place position in this month’s Marketers Most Wanted is Proposition Design, making up 4.2% of May’s briefs. Despite being at the bottom of the table, this % is the same level as February, and is driven by a larger spread of briefs and some big competition in the middle of the table!

“We’re keen to see whether our top three performers retain their spots in next month’s report, as well as whether our middle competitors can fight it out for unique values. May has been an exciting month for marketing, and as the summer arrives, it’s only going to get better!” concluded Pete.