Data from the tenth ‘Advertising Observatory in Spain’, of the Spanish Association of Advertisers (AEA) highlight a “historic growth” in the labor market: in 2024, employment in advertising increased by 12.9%, reaching 132,300 employed professionals. And underlines the … increase “in hybrid profiles, data specialists, AI, digital strategy, content and audience management, which reflects the evolution of the media ecosystem and new needs”.
As Silvia Bajo, Director General of the AEA, points out: “Technology offers new opportunities, but also new responsibilities. “The industry must ensure that automation does not replace creativity or erode public trust. » To what extent do professionals in the advertising sector need to reinvent themselves in the face of the impact of technology and new digital media? Bajo herself emphasizes: “The advertising industry is no longer just looking for technicians or creatives. Today, you need adaptive leaders to thrive in a constantly changing environment. The most sought-after skills combine digital skills and human qualities: creativity with analytics, strategic thinking with agility, proactivity with social sensitivity, etc.
In this process of necessary (even essential) hybridization, new training models and field work are part of a true “work in progress” scenario. This is emphasized by Gonzalo Ocio, Managing Director of the Marketing Practice at Accenture Song: “The transformation of talent in our industry is a direct reflection of the changes of the last decade. Creativity, technology and data now work in an integrated way to meet consumer expectations. We talk a lot about the explosion of channels and the possibilities of segmentation and hyper-personalization, but this would also point to the revolution in entrepreneurship and the development of new brands which push the industry to reinvent itself more quickly.
Businesses and people
In these new tasks, in an activity as classic as advertising (essentially communicating to sell), new professionals must have the support of organizations, as Ocio points out: “Companies must make available to professionals all possible training and development tools, to help them adapt their profile to the speed required by the advancement of technology”… but, in fact, and according to the latest Accenture study, “Reinventing learning: accelerating human collaboration with AI”, only 11% of Organizations around the world are truly prepared for this effective intersection. between humans and AI. The report found that while 84% of managers expect collaboration between people and AI to be common in the next three years, only 26% have received specific training.
In any case, companies face the challenge of ensuring that there are more and better ways for this way of working, of thinking, typical of the 21st century, in line with the already topical considerations according to which, for example, AI does not replace human talent, but amplifies it; that possible threats must be converted into opportunities, etc. In this sense, Jaime López-Francos, CEO of Dentsu Iberia, appeals to the relevance of the “human factor”: “We have always looked for people with technical capabilities, but the fundamental thing to be part of this team is to have the following profile: proactive and customer-oriented professionals; team players, decisive and ambitious. In our group, we have media, creativity and technology profiles. In each of them, we seek the best fit with our culture, open, sincere, collaborative and optimistic.
Balance between technical capabilities and “soft skills” which at Dentsu are cultivated through initiatives such as Boost camp, which adds 100 young people in six-month training each year (average hiring of 40%), transversal to the group’s professions such as media, creativity and CXM (Customer Experience Management). Or like School of Influence, an innovative program to professionalize young content creators. The possibility of navigating the waters of “digital curiosity” at a time when Silvia Bajo poses the challenges of the present and the future: “New challenges in measurement, responsible communication, AI integration and brand building in unstable environments”.
Digital reinvention
“Macro” design must also be taken into account, as Marcel.lí Zuazua, co-founder of IA Hub, a space that attracts startups and organizes conferences on generative AI, under the motto “When the creator’s vision meets AI, the extraordinary is born”: “The mistake is to consider doing the same thing, but faster and cheaper. We need to do different, extraordinary things that could not be done without AI. quality even more.
A performance that faces, according to the specialist, “a moment of change in the large structures of advertising holding companies, with mergers of large groups and a decline in the value of others. This causes an expulsion of talent and the creation of people who must today adapt. Companies have few resources to transform their own workers. And there is an acceleration in the transformation of the individual, not so much on the part of companies.
On the academic side, Julio Alard, director of ESIC Higher Professional Training School, highlights the need to “reinvent yourself to integrate tools for data analysis, process automation and AI-based strategies, in addition to developing skills in digital marketing, social media management and multi-platform content creation.
A new batch of talent needs (to be adapted, in the the era of “upgrading” and “reskilling”) in which Professor Alard highlights the challenge of an increasingly competitive environment between sectors of activity: “Competition for these profiles is strong, because they are in competition with sectors such as ‘fintech’, ‘e-commerce’ or ‘big tech’, which tend to offer more attractive conditions. “The sector must strengthen its value proposition with innovative projects, social impact and real possibilities for professional development.” Regardless, continuing education is ratified as a vector of development, in an era where innovation and technology do not take a break, in accordance with Douglas Coupland’s phrase “Even when you take a vacation from technology, technology does not give you a break”.
The new innovation
In the case of Jaime Sanabria, founding partner responsible for operations and processes at Advia, a startup that uses (at Advia they prefer to use the ‘squeeze’ graph) AI to study users during their active navigation, his example represents the sign of the new times: “Today the sector demands completely different profiles. Technology has redefined which skills are most valued. My background as an aerospace engineer, for example, is a natural for what the industry needs right now: analytical thinking, the ability to iterate, complex problem solving. Ten years ago, it would have been strange to find myself here. “That’s the magnitude of the change.”
“AI, programmatic, predictive analytics, emerging channels, etc. (he adds), they require a different mentality: more technical, more iterative. We must read data on a large scale, design autonomous systems, anticipate behavior… but be careful: the human point of view remains essential. Intuition is now used to know what questions to ask of data, experience to understand what a behavioral pattern really means. And he recommends how, in an age where it’s so important to know how an algorithm (or AI result) works or how to know when to be wary of it, “the best profiles combine technical rigor and curiosity.”
As Sanabria concludes: “Digital communication can compete for the best technological profiles, because it combines real technical complexity with a very stimulating environment full of possibilities. There’s something special about creating technology that you believe influences the way brands connect with millions of people. Talent comes and stays where it can create, experiment and have a real impact. It is not enough to apply technology developed by others; “We have to give space to really innovate.”
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