As D&AD and Hyper Island announce our partnership bringing the Hyper Island Master Class to the UK, we investigate the skills gaps that the digital revolution has precipitated.
Most people feel a bit behind when it comes to that thing termed ‘digital’. Even hardened professionals admit that keeping up with the pace of change can be impossible. So how can agencies ensure they leverage the opportunities that digital media offer them?
There is a widely acknowledged dearth of graduates with the right skill sets and competition to recruit is fierce. A fact demonstrated by the high placement success rate of educational institutions like Hyper Island, who specialise in this area. So training existing staff is key as well.
Harry Fowler at
Cogs Agency recruits talent with a strong digital bias to creative agencies. He
thinks that training is essential if the industry is to avoid the same small
number of skilled people being headhunted around the industry. The talent
pipeline needs to be kept active and one way to do that is to retrain existing
staff. ‘A crossover of skills is needed between traditional and digital
agencies’, says Harry, ‘Digital agencies need the strong brand understanding
and conceptual approach of traditional creatives. Traditional agencies need
people who understand the process-led production of digital work.’
One agency that has taken the bull by the horns is Wieden & Kennedy London. The whole agency participated in the Hyper Island Master Class. ‘Whether we like it or not, we are all ‘digital’ now’, says Sam Brookes, Managing Director of Platform, W&K’s innovation unit. ‘We all live in that world, and we all need to be able to navigate it to a certain degree’. A sentiment echoed by Harry who points out that ‘The rules have changed and so have consumers, those that fail to skill themselves up will be redundant.’
Sounds scary, but many see it as an opportunity. Sam Brookes says, ‘One of the important things about the Master Class was that it didn’t make us feel inadequate. In fact the training affirmed that we were already fantastic storytellers and it simply gave us opportunities to do more of that, more of what we do best.’ The pay-off has been visible across the whole organisation. ‘We now have a much better idea how to act as an agency in this new landscape’ says Sam.
Here at D&AD
we were keen to work with Hyper Island given their track record; they have
placed graduates in almost every large agency in London and delivered their Master
Classes to professionals around the world. Their learning philosophy has great
resonance with our own approach to training, using experience-based learning as
a foundation. ‘It is fantastic that D&AD are working with Hyper Island to
bring this training to the UK’ says Harry, ‘Everyone should want and need
this’. If you are interested in the Hyper Island Master Classes read further or email workout@dandad.co.uk.
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