The marketing industry finds itself at an interesting crossroads.

On one hand, agencies are embracing AI to automate tasks that have traditionally formed the foundation of many entry-level careers. On the other, youth unemployment is climbing, entry-level opportunities are shrinking, and employers are increasingly concerned about where tomorrow's creative and strategic leaders will come from.

The recent Milburn Review warned of a ‘lost generation’, with almost one million young people across the UK currently not in employment, education or training. At the same time, graduate and junior hiring has slowed across many sectors, leaving talented young people struggling to gain the first opportunity that every career depends upon.

For marketing agencies, this presents a challenge that extends well beyond social responsibility. It is also a commercial one. The industry cannot afford to hollow out its early careers pipeline.

Today's graduates become tomorrow's account directors, strategists, creative leaders and client partners. If businesses reduce investment in junior talent because AI can perform some entry-level tasks more efficiently, they risk creating a significant capability gap within the next three to five years.

Technology may complete individual tasks, but it doesn't replace the process of developing commercial judgement, creative confidence and client expertise over time. Nor can agencies hope to stay culturally relevant if they aren't bringing in the very generation they're trying to understand and connect with on behalf of their clients. 

This year, VML’s flagship early careers programme, The Catalyst Academy, celebrates its 5 year anniversary. Since launching in 2021, it has become a cornerstone of our talent development strategy, growing nearly threefold and spanning 20 markets across EMEA and APAC.

The impact of the programme is profoundly felt across the entire business. Since launching, it has a 79% conversion rate to permanent employment with particularly strong pipelines into Strategy, Creative, and Account Management. 42% from the 2021-2024 cohorts remain in the business today and the average tenure is 30+ months, with top performers reaching five years with the company. Perhaps most crucially, Catalyst Academy members have an average billability of 56% within 9 months of starting the programme, showing that young talent are actively contributing to client work, revenue generation and team delivery very quickly.

Like most agencies we're experiencing large application volumes, so we’ve had to re-evaluate how we’re screening talent. The traditional graduate recruitment process was designed for a different era. Today, candidates have access to increasingly sophisticated AI tools helping to produce polished CVs and carefully crafted cover letters at scale. Not only does this contribute to a rise in application volume, but it has also made many candidates sound remarkably similar on paper - a challenge for agencies to differentiate the great from the good. 

As recruiters, we're often left comparing documents that demonstrate work experience but reveal very little about curiosity, creativity or potential. This is problematic, especially in the early careers space where candidates don’t have a huge amount of work experience, so we really are looking for raw talent, drive, initiative, original perspective, and fresh ideas, qualities that matter now more than ever.

I'm also concerned by the growing reliance on judgement tests and psychometric assessments as the primary way of evaluating early-career talent as a replacement to the CV. While these tools certainly have their place, they shouldn't become the only lens through which potential is judged. The people who will thrive in creative industries are often those who think and communicate differently and approach problems from unique perspectives. Many of those qualities are difficult to capture and assess through standardised testing alone.

We’ve discovered Vizzy - a talent platform that’s built a more dynamic application experience for next gen talent, which allows candidates to showcase who they are - not simply what they've written on a CV. Through personal profiles, candidates can introduce themselves creatively, share projects and passions, showcase side-hustles, explain what motivates them and demonstrate the initiative they would bring to the agency. 

The results have been extraordinary.

When candidates are given more opportunities to showcase who they are, the most-engaged candidates grab it with both hands. We've seen applicants produce photo blogs, self-made videos, graphics and animations and even mock news broadcasts where they report on why they should be hired. One candidate reimagined the popular ‘What's In My Bag?’ social media format, unpacking the creative and marketing skills they carry with them alongside the everyday contents of their favourite consumer brands. 

None of these examples were mandatory. And that's precisely the point.

They demonstrate curiosity, initiative, creativity and genuine enthusiasm - qualities that can't always be captured on a CV or a blended assessment test but are already starting to lay the foundations to predict success within a creative business.

For last year's Catalyst Academy EMEA intake, candidates hired through their Vizzy profiles delivered 100% retention and zero offer reneges while saving our recruitment team the equivalent of five days of administrative work.

Importantly, this doesn't create unnecessary barriers to entry. Instead, it introduces what we like to call ‘good friction’. Candidates who are genuinely excited by an opportunity often welcome the chance to invest a little more effort if it gives them a chance to stand out from hundreds of near-identical applications.

When employers gain a fuller understanding of someone's motivation, personality and creative thinking, they're far better placed to identify future potential. As AI continues to reshape the workplace, human qualities will only become more valuable. Curiosity. Adaptability. Creativity. Initiative. Collaboration. These are the attributes that will define the next generation of marketing leaders.

If we want an industry that remains innovative, diverse and culturally connected, we need to continue investing in early career development and recruitment processes that recognise relevant qualities from the very beginning. Because the future of marketing won't be built by cutting early career programmes or by hiring people with the most polished CVs.

It will be secured by investing in digital-first generations that will one day lead our agencies, shape our clients' brands and define what's next.