Member Article

Coding identified as top ‘superskill’ for future creatives, as areas like VR and 3D lag

Tomorrow’s creatives will need to have their feet firmly on the ground, with a working knowledge of coding, augmented reality, public speaking, trend identification and user experience cited as key skills, according to new research from in-house agency OLIVER.

The agency canvassed 200 creatives working across FMCG, beauty, finance, media, healthcare and automotive, to identify which key skills they believe the next generation of creatives will need for success. These top five skills comprised nearly half (44%) of the vote. Aside from an almost unanimous consensus on ‘creative thinking’, 10% of the vote sided with coding for the top score, 9% for augmented reality, 9% for trend identification, 8% for public speaking and another 8% for user experience.

The in-house study also found:

• 19% of creatives working on beauty brands believe coding is one of the top skills, with none of them opting for 3D or VR. 17% of them identified user experience as the key skill

• On a similar note, FMCG’s top scorers were 3D, AR and VR, each taking up 13% of the vote, amounting to a total of 39% for these three skills alone - despite scoring low in other sectors

• For creatives working in finance, public speaking and trend identification took top billing, both scoring 15% of the vote

• Creatives in media named the three strongest skills to be writing, trend identification and Adobe Suite, each amassing 17% of the vote

• Writing is considered the top skill by 33% of automotive creatives

In terms of qualitative response, even those voting for ‘technical’ skills such as AI, AR, VR and coding agreed that heart and emotion is vital for any creative. The automation of certain manual jobs is inevitable, but creatives aren’t keen on bestowing AI capabilities with a right side to their figurative brains.

When it came to bespoke skills, creatives in media desired what they called a ‘hacker mindset’, urging newcomers to go far and beyond to solve challenges rather than just take the easy route. In terms of trends, media creatives pointed to the growing voice assistant market as something newcomers should invest their ‘superskills’ in.

FMCG creatives are eager to hire new team-members with both computer science and creative qualifications, which attests to its scientific but ultimately ‘big idea’, customer-centric preferences when it comes to 3D, AR and VR.

While most industry creatives expressed interest in hiring those with behavioural science backgrounds, healthcare’s focus was almost entirely centred here.

The research was undertaken over several months by Frederico Roberto, EMEA senior creative director at OLIVER. He said: “This research needed to be done. We always hear from the C-suite when it comes to the next generation of creatives, but I always thought it made more sense to ask the current crop. Who do they want stepping into their shoes? It’s a fascinating peek behind the curtain, and affirmation for those currently on course to join the ranks in years to come.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Alex Sampson .