Technology - Advertising Companies Fret Over a Digital Talent Gap Part 2 of 2

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Instead of coming up with one grand idea, new digitally adept workers in creative fields should be able to devise multiple ways to execute an idea. For example, a variety of Facebook ads can be devised, then tested on the fly to see which appeal to consumers, Mr. Neumann said.

The increasing ability for marketers to put specific ads in front of specific viewers at specific times, whether on mobile devices or personal computers, also creates a need for employees who can conceptualize and execute simultaneous concepts. Mr. Zawadzki said the future for creative talent would be “to come up with thousands of ideas, put them out there and see what works.”

Jennifer Seidel, the executive vice president for agency relations and membership at the American Association of Advertising Agencies, said agencies that were more general in their focus were having a harder time attracting talent with deep digital or quantitative skills.

“Part of it is to get people to recognize that it’s a viable career choice,” Ms. Seidel said. To that end, the trade organization hopes to have a Web site soon that will feature the range of people with nontraditional skill sets who work at advertising agencies. They have also formed a committee to address talent gaps at agencies and to offer training seminars for members.

Ms. Seidel and other ad tech executives said outreach to universities was also critical.

“Colleges and universities are not teaching the skills they need to survive in this environment,” said Doug Weaver, the founder and chief executive of the Upstream Group, a company that provides digital training to publishers and agencies. While some universities have advertising and marketing concentrations, “the traditional media sales or ad skill set was not built for this,” Mr. Weaver said. “You need a hybrid.”

Some agencies, like Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, part of the Omnicom Group, have put formal training programs in place. Its program, called Ed, began last July and has offered more than 100 classes on everything from “field trips to Facebook,” said Allison Kent-Smith, director for digital development at Goodby. Ms. Kent-Smith said employees were trained in areas like interactive design, social media, HTML and coding languages like CSS.

“You have to get very close to technology,” Ms. Kent-Smith said. “You have to get your hands in it.”

The Ad:tech conference will be held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan from Nov. 8 to 10, and will include a panel on how marketers can build a digitally skilled “brand dream team.”

But panels and training may not be enough. Erika Weinstein, president of the executive recruitment firm Stephen-Bradford Search, said the bigger issue for agencies trying to fill the talent gap was managing the grand expectations of what these new employees were expected to do.

“Something has gone terribly out of whack in looking for realistic talent,” Ms. Weinstein said. Many companies are looking for “a five-headed monster,” focusing on creative and highly technical skills and a strong business acumen. Agencies, Ms. Weinstein said, needed to “get realistic not only about what they want from the candidate, but what are they going to offer.”