Displaying Ads, Carat and Isobar are working with GoThinkBig, a partnership between O2 and Bauer, to get young people into jobs in media.
The three Dentsu Aegis Media agencies played host today to 30 young people interested in careers in media by giving them a full day immersion into life in an agency.
As media businesses evolve and diversify so do the skillsets needed to drive those businesses forward. Unfortunately the talent pool is not keeping up with the pace of change and the industry is heading towards a skills shortage. Discover media directly targets eager teenagers from GCSE age upwards to help engage a younger talent stream.
As well as hearing talks from senior agency heads from all three agencies, attendees also listened to presentations from teen vlogging superstars Mandem on the Wall and Google’s head of marketing Nishma Robb.
After this they were split into groups, assigned a mentor and given 60 minutes to answer a live brief. Upon completion they were asked to present this to a judging panel of senior media figures.
Chris Whitelaw, CEO Displaying Ads UK, said: “Media skills are more in demand than ever, but the talent pool is simply too small. We need to address the long-term thirst for talent in the industry, but the short term grabs all of our attention.
“This is why we have recently created the Discover Media programme, in which we bring GCSE students to the agency to give them a taste of the media business. With support from clients and media owners such as adidas, Twitter and Google, we aim to inform, entertain and challenge them and then give work experience to those who want the opportunity.”
