It’s hard(er) out here for a marketer.

For the past few years, job candidates across industries seemed to have it pretty good: Higher wages, WFH opportunities, and potentially even shorter work weeks, while some employers reported an uptick in “quiet quitting.”

Looking ahead: Some marketing roles are still in high demand, according to marketing recruiters we spoke to who work with brands, agencies, ad-tech companies, and more. But they also said that demand is starting to come back down to earth after a surge.

• “From the start of the rebound from Covid, there was about 27 months where I’ve never worked harder before in my entire life,” Avi Mally, CEO of Three Pillars Recruiting, which has worked with clients including Albertsons, Havas, Zenith, and The Trade Desk, told us. “We had our two biggest years in 2021 and 2022.”
• Mally said his team, which recruits talent from CMOs down, is still “busy enough” to support a staff of 30, but has about half as many roles to recruit for as they did at their peak.

With hiring in the marketing industry showing signs of slowing down, recruiters we spoke to said that job seekers might face a more competitive landscape as the market shifts.

End of an era?

That might mean saying goodbye to what Mally called a “candidate-driven market.” For some younger marketers who have “never seen an economic cycle shift,” that could be hard, he added (though he acknowledged the notable exception of the impact the beginning of the pandemic had on the job market when some now-professionals were still in college).

Lauren Lotka, founder of Lotka&Co, which specializes in placing high-level executives from senior directors to SVPs and CMOs and has worked with brands like The North Face and Adidas, said even top marketers might have to adjust their salary expectations.

“The next month might still feel like things are picking back up, but certainly not at the cadence it was last year,” she told Marketing Brew. “It was wild this time last year. Salary expectations last year were up a good 20%–30% of where they should have been, and the market demand was driving a lot of that.” Read the full story here.—AM

Each Tuesday, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Chris Marino is global head of performance marketing and media at Bloomberg Media. Before joining Bloomberg, he spent nine years in various marketing roles at American Express.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in marketing? I reach consumers on platforms where they are spending their time consuming content (i.e., social, OTT, audio, etc.) and help them discover unbiased data-driven journalism from Bloomberg through ads that they have expressed interest in engaging with.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? There are so many, but one of my all-time favorites is Michael Jordan’s “Failure” ad by Nike. The ad speaks to marketing’s ability to transcend beyond selling a product to inspiring a generation. It normalizes failure as a necessity to drive success, and years later, it’s still something I listen to when I’m in need of inspiration. Using marketing as a force for good is something I have always been passionate about.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile? My fiancé and I have two Newfoundland rescue dogs living in a NYC apartment. For those that are unfamiliar with the breed, they are each over 130 pounds! Everyday is better when you come home to them waiting for you by the door.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? While a lot of the conversation around the deprecation of third-party cookies has been largely negative, it’s the trend I’m most excited about. As consumer trust in brands reaches an all-time low and expectations are higher than ever, this creates a real opportunity for brands to move away from a transactional approach to building a lifetime relationship with their audience. This approach will force brands to put their audience first, which means thinking about creating a value exchange for every interaction. Outside of delivering more value to consumers, which should be at the core of what marketers do, I also believe it will significantly improve both efficiency and profitability by focusing your efforts on higher-intent audiences.

Least optimistic about? The trend I’m least optimistic about is the return of multi-touch attribution, given its reliance on third-party cookies, the resources and costs associated with maintaining the program, and its lack of focus on macroeconomic variables. It’s hard to imagine it can serve as a reliable source of truth for marketing measurement like it did in years past.

What’s one marketing-related podcast, social account, or series you’d recommend? I’ve really enjoyed the Marketing That Matters Visionaries podcast by Nadine Dietz and team. It’s always inspiring to hear from leaders in the industry that I admire who are committed to making a difference in the world.

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Shop talk: Get up to speed on Google Cloud’s new AI tools designed to help retailers with things like inventory management.

The ’gram: Here’s a quick primer on Instagram highlight covers, plus some tips on how to make them aesthetic.

Meet IRL: If you work in B2B marketing, check out this list of events and conferences that might be worth attending this year.

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday celebrating the birthday, life, and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated in 1968. In what year was MLK Day officially recognized and celebrated in all 50 states?

1. 1973
2. 1986
3. 1992
4. 2000

Keep scrolling for the answer.

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• Super Bowl: The game’s defining (ad) moments throughout history
• How Fly by Jing went from Kickstarter to Shake Shack partner
• As new AI tools are released, some agencies seem eager to try them