The role of an agency media planner and buyer is going through an evolution. Deals over the phone and signed IOs are shifting to big data, predictive modelling, and real-time bidding. As a result, the typical agency hires are required to diversify to ensure they can not only keep up with, but also lead the charge in this changing environment. 

The IPA have recently launched an admission programme designed to address this shift, offering paid internships to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) students this summer. The IPA are partnering with Step, the UK’s leading organiser of paid student work placements and graduate internships and working with leading ad agencies, such as Mindshare, VCCP and BBH, to discover new talent designed to fill the up-and-coming roles created by big data, online advertising, and predictive planning and performance measurement. 

This raises an interesting question: are STEM students the right fit for a media agency environment?

Robin Kennedy, director, Step, commented: “As Sir Martin Sorrell has said, rather than ‘Madmen’, today’s advertising industry needs 'Maths men’ and 'Maths women’; and we’re delighted to be helping the IPA and its member agencies find them. Companies across the UK are recognising that they need to be more creative in the war for outstanding future talent.”

The ‘madmen’ versus ‘maths men’ analogy is a popular one, and it highlights a common aim of the ad agency: to culture an environment where STEM graduates can thrive amongst a sea of agency veterans who may have come from slightly different educational backgrounds.

The breadth of internship roles being offered by participating ad agencies range from data analysts, to user experience planners, to econometricians; so it’s important to note that they would be placed in data-heavy environments, which would very much be in their comfort zones.

Janet Hull, director of marketing strategy, IPA, and executive director, Creative Pioneers, said: “For our industry to thrive, we must master big data, for which we need the scientifically-minded, statistically-driven, analytical brains that STEM students possess. Competition for these students from other sectors is, however, high – and even then, we estimate that only around 20% of them will also have the necessary cultural fit for ad land.”

The point about 'cultural fit' is extremely important. STEM degrees are typically fulfilled by students with personalities very different from students that take graduate roles in the advertising industry. It may be an outdated stereotype; but it is one to consider when placing STEM students in an agency environment that may be outside of their comfort zone.

Those in media agency roles that require heavy data analysis, but who haven’t graduated with STEM degrees, could question whether STEM students are even needed to fill those types of roles. If people with degrees in humanities are comfortably able to fulfil these roles, then surely a STEM graduate would find them dull and monotonous.

Lan O’Connor, corporate vice president, Capgemini Group, with a degree in civil engineering said: “In general, STEM grads spread out to all kinds of work and careers eventually; so there should be no essential reason why online media would be less relevant to these grads than any other numerate/structured kind of work.” O’Connor went on to describe some of the internships that engineering students specifically experience, which could be anything from counting lampposts to learning to use a theodolite (a type of surveying instrument). She qualified that engineering students just like to solve problems: “In my experience, they are not extroverts. They may not have much common sense, but they love a problem statement.”

This is a valuable skill to have in an ad agency. The premise of data analysis in search, social, display, etc is to improve the performance of a campaign using historical data, predictive performance, and digging deep to get to the root of a problem.

However, the ability to thrive in an agency environment goes deeper than the ability to problem solve. Jenny Thompson, head of data & advanced analytics, Forward3D, and an applied scientist who started her agency career as a paid search executive, said that being technical is not enough: “In order to make an impact in any private sector industry, it is important to know how to translate skills learned in academia into skills that solve marketing and business problems. The ability to do this, and then communicate what you have done clearly to non-technical colleagues, is an incredibly valuable (and lucrative) skillset.”

Thompson went on to say that, in her experience, the most successful STEM grads are those focused on understanding how businesses operate. This insight then allows them to apply their technical skills and build elegant solutions to the problems they face. She qualified that bypassing this base level of experience could lead to a misapplication of skills.

With that in mind, to find the 20% who will have that necessary cultural fit, agencies will need to work quickly to set and manage expectations to ensure STEM students get the most out of their short internships, and keep the momentum well into the start of their careers in media. If STEM students find the work too boring, or too different from what they are expecting, they will discount the industry upon graduation and move into another field. If they are attracted enough by the prospect of a career in an ad agency, their skills need to be applied and developed from the outset to allow them to fulfil their career potential. It's one thing hiring a graduate as a data analyst, but as that graduate moves up the career ladder and is required to focus more on theory and strategy and communicate that effectively with clients, gaps in the fully rounded skill sets required in the agency environment will start to show. Agencies could find they lose STEM graduates to other industries once they reach a certain point in their agency career.

Lan O’Connor, corporate vice president, Capgemini Group, referred to the hot houses or incubators that are cropping up across universities to encourage students from STEM and humanities backgrounds to work across environments and experience different personalities and cultures. These types of initiatives should help to prequalify the 20% who would be a good fit for ad land.

Referring to personality fit, O’Connor also said that to encourage technical people into varied careers, we need to start earlier than university. Coding Dojos, where children can learn to code, are appealing to those with a technical affinity; but they also encourage them to use both sides of their brain. They are able to meet new and different people and solve problems relevant to the real world in a collaborative environment.

O’Connor gave the example of Lauren Boyle, crowned European Digital Girl of the Year in 2014, to show that the future is bright for the agencies looking to transform their intake of employees with diversified skill sets. Lauren Boyle claimed to see herself as the vanguard for the STEAM generation – STEM, with an ‘A’ for ‘Art’.