A majority of marketing professionals across Asia Pacific will be searching for new job opportunities in the New Year.
Local talent said the main reason for wanting a new role is the desire for better pay and benefits (32%), followed by more professional development opportunities (23%) and fewer long working hours (20%).
Come early 2016, 57% of professionals across the marketing, digital and creative sector said they plan to leave their current job. Even more talent (74%) will be using the Christmas period to take stock of their career and decide what their next move should be.
These insights are derived from a study conducted by specialist recruiter font talent, which surveyed industry professionals across Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore.
The study also looked into marketing trends over the Christmas period – 87% of respondents said Christmas marketing is a worthwhile investment. However, just 54% said their company actually executes these themed projects during the festive season.
This could be because not many Christmas marketing budgets have increased this year (22%), while the same number have decreased their seasonal marketing spend.
Social media remains marketers’ preferred channel to reach out to consumers this Christmas (66%), followed by digital advertising (62%).
Interestingly, despite the rapid adoption and increased consumption of digital media, the impact of print advertising should not be ignored over Christmas. Coming in at third place, 47% of marketers said print is their most effective medium for seasonal campaigns.
Key findings from the study are:
Regarding brand awareness, Coca-Cola stayed top of mind with marketers this year (23%), closely followed by Starbucks (6%) and IKEA (5%).
“The Christmas season provides abundant opportunities for brands to get creative with their marketing efforts, fostering greater brand recall and building customer loyalty. While greater efforts have been channelled into digital platforms, an integrated approach that does not exclude print medium is still necessary and beneficial to reach a broad spectrum of consumers,” said Jacqui Barratt, Director at font.
“From an employment perspective, it is worrying that such a high number of marketing professionals are planning to job hop in the New Year. This reiterates a very real need for employers to focus on their long-term retention efforts, and for talent to speak up to their managers about their career goals and direction. Open communication is key to ensuring talent stay motivated and engaged as we move into 2016.”
While fixing job dissatisfaction requires a long-term strategy, the study revealed talent could be perked up over the Christmas period with company gifts such as cash (36%), a nice Christmas meal on the company (27%) or an extra day off (22%). Thankfully, 56% of respondents said their company will be swapping presents or partaking in a Secret Santa activity.
