The factors that cause creative agency professionals the most concern are disorganization at work and undervaluation of their work - of the total, 66% say they sleep badly or lose sleep altogether when thinking about them. A third element that deprives more than half of agency respondents of sleep is related to clients - lack of focus, i.e. clients not knowing what they want, deprives 60% of sleep. Work overload also inhibits sleep for around half of employees (48%).

"These four factors are highly correlated. It can therefore be said that a good relationship between creative agency professionals and marketers is essential. The latter need to value the work of agency professionals so that they have a better focus and understanding of the project," explains IPAM, which adds that it is to be expected that better defined projects will lead to better organization and less work overload for creative agency professionals.

The salary outlook also inhibits sleep for more than half (52%) of creative agency employees. Career prospects, on the other hand, keep only 38% awake. "We can assume that a positive professional development is not accompanied by a favorable salary development," explains the Marketing Business School.

In the case of economic developments, only 36% of the sample slept a wink. "It's interesting that the majority of respondents are satisfied with the working environment, even if they feel that there is undervaluation and disorganization of work, and that the salary outlook is not the best," he points out.

Finally, increased competition is the factor that worries creative agency employees the least - it takes 14% of their sleep away.

As far as marketers are concerned, the assessment of their constraining factors is similar to that of creative agency professionals. The elements that worry marketers the most are undervaluation and work overload, which take 56% of their sleep away. According to IPAM, they are "highly correlated" and it can be assumed that the respondents, despite their intense work, do not feel recognized.

It turns out that marketers also suffer from a lack of focus from their internal customers. After all, 46% say they lose sleep because internal customers don't know what they want - a factor that is also highly correlated with undervaluation and work overload. "It can be assumed that there is some disorganization in companies that overload marketers, which leads to extra work and then no professional recognition for performance."

Another constraining factor is the prospect of a professional career - it inhibits sleep for more than 40% of marketers. It's also interesting to note that only a third of the participants (33%) complain about the working environment. In turn, the complexity of digital marketing and the budget available for it keep 28% and 27% of the sample awake. "We can assume that the budget allocated by organizations for digital may not be adequate and necessary for its complexity," IPAM considers.

Finally, two other elements that keep a smaller percentage awake are the evolution of the economy (29%) and management expectations (21%).

It can therefore be concluded that creative agency workers and marketers have a fairly positive outlook on their activities, both in the short and medium term. However, it is interesting to note that the long-term outlook is not so positive. Nor are there many participants who are promoting a professional career in marketing agencies or companies. "A low recommendation may be linked to the existence of undervalued and overloaded work, a not very positive salary outlook among creative agency professionals, and a not so good professional career outlook among marketers," explains IPAM.

Read the full barometer in the September 2023 print edition of Briefing magazine.