Marketing professionals are never at risk of boredom. There are constant new challenges : new delivery channels, new initiatives, new data and our favourite topics, accountability and measurement.

CMOs recognize that to drive brand further forward it’s going to need people who are innovators and strategists, the people who see the why rather than the how, to make their team successful.  But implementation is still important. And so the classic dilemma arises, particularly, as it seems that CEOs still look to marketing as the easy target for budget cuts in a recessionary period.

The recent survey by Marketing and Major Players suggested that 42% of respondents believe there is a talent crisis in the industry. It’s harder to recruit for roles where, as the marketing director of UK retailer Wickes pointed out, “You have to choose between someone very commercial and someone consumer-led”.

Marketers have to be sure that deal with this new world by finding a way to develop both sets of skills: business-focus plus traditional marketing disciplines, including the new technology understand and channels that we all need to embrace, and companies want to hang on to that talent wherever possible.

Perhaps we should look at the talent crisis differently and consider that the Creative Services Exchange, with its crowd of experienced professionals can provide the ‘creative and traditional skills’ needed to complement the harder business skills of the new look marketing team. You can outsource the creative and insource the commercial. That’s a different model indeed.

That’s it. When your marketing talent crisis is overwhelming, you have no alternative. Brief the Creative Services Exchange now!