As part of our ‘In the Spotlight’ series, we are shining a light on our teams at Major Players, finding out more about them and the sectors in which they serve. For our next instalment in the series, we caught up with Richa Arora, who manages our Marketing, Comms & PR team, to find out a more about the industry and what we are doing here at Major Players!
Tell us a bit about marketing, comms & PR, and what your team covers?
Marketing, PR & Comms form the backbone of customer engagement with brands. For a company, this team sits right between the business objectives, and the sales division therefore bridging the gap through campaigns that aimed at customers making a purchase. Our team works with brands across different stages of their lifespan (start-up, scale-ups, corporations), sizes (micro-businesses, SMEs, and multi-national corps) and customers (D2C, B2B, enterprise) helping them recruit their marketing and comms talent and also PR agencies in and around London.
What attributes make someone suitable to work in marketing, comms & PR?
Marketing is a skills-based role. More companies are looking for analytically minded creative individuals who can not only think outside the box but also supplement their actions with plausible justification (for a campaign idea) and proof (return on investment). We encourage our clients to include opportunities for junior staff to be exposed to budget management and running analytics as a part of their learning and development as these skills are becoming more essential than desirable as the industry is upskilling as a whole. Personality fit is extremely important. Our clients lay emphasis on D,E&I however it is important that the candidates’ personal goals and vision are aligned with the employer’s and they believe in the proposition (product or service). Having said that, the word ‘personality’ has been used very loosely to date so our clients emphasise on making sure that they aren’t perceived as cookie cutters and want people from all backgrounds to ensure a diverse, equal and inclusive workplace.
What are the biggest trends you’re seeing currently?
If I had to pick one thing that CoVID-19 has taught us, it would be adaptability. Businesses had two options – either adapt or fold. Therefore in these difficult times, the ones that survived are the ones that were smart about their processes and operations. They took the time to upskill their staff, pivot their product online, become more tech-savvy. In turn, they needed their employees to adapt quickly enough too. As a result, this year has seen a lot of our candidates take on more responsibilities than they had in their traditional job titles blurring the lines of specialisms.
We also felt that with the unfortunate folding of a number of businesses, the market is candidate rich giving prospective employers a lot of choice to hire their right candidate therefore competition is more fierce than ever. We are expecting that the balance will be restored by the end of Q1 2021.
With more candidates per job, the average salary has taken a bit of a dip across the board however the smart employers aren’t dropping their salary levels as they know that talent will get snapped up any moment!
What advice would you give someone thinking of moving into marketing, comms & PR?
There’s too many to think of! I’ve compiled a useful list below.
1. Have an online presence! Your LinkedIn should be your career passport – informative about your journey.
2. It is a competitive market so resilience, creativity, curiosity and knowledge is the magic mix right now!
3. Always write a “motivation statement” for a role! This must be tailored. It shouldn’t be a cover letter. It should be more creative talking about your biggest achievements that align with what the employer is seeking. It is a competitive market out there so candidates must think of novel ways to engage the employer from the outset.
4. Don’t let your CV be more than 2-3 pages long (depending on experience). For 10years and under, 2 pages. For 10+years, 3 pages. Have your LinkedIn link on there.
5. Always give tangible evidence of achievements for example percentage increase in sales, audience outreach, impressions, coverage secured, profits.
6. Take up some voluntary work or some mentorship if you are not in a role. The marketing world has changed and changing at an unprecedented pace. Keep up by networking as much as possible.
7. Read on industry news – keep up with the trends on foreign companies coming into the UK – there has been a huge influx of these recently and they are looking for talent creating new opportunities.
What do you predict for the industry in 2021?
Tech businesses and SaaS providers, telecoms, media platforms, e-commerce businesses are hiring more aggressively than ever and they will continue to rise. As the vaccine develops and becomes accessible and lockdown eases, there will be an increased romanticism around going out to eat, and shopping. It also looks like that restrictions on events will be eased which is good news for us as we are now covering events and experiential too.
Which roles are you recruiting for at the moment?
We have been hiring for a number of Director, VP, CMO level roles. Executive and Manager roles are few and far between but it’s definitely picking up month on month. Like I said, business that are thriving are the ones that have adapted. Others are slightly late to the party therefore the increase in number of jobs is slow, but it’s steady.
If you'd like to learn more about our Marketing, Comms and PR division or how we can help you further, then get in touch with us today.
Richa.Arora@majorplayers.co.uk
