Tougher times
What advertising execs earn
Agencies are having to do more with fewer resources, and there’s more staff burn-out and pressure to transform
Though salaries in the advertising industry have improved over the past year, pay levels for top talent have remained largely flat. A new survey by industry recruitment agency Ad Talent shows the average 2016 Johannesburg salary for a client service director has gone up from R57,000 to R59,000 and that for a strategic planning director from R78,000 to R80,000. The average monthly take-home for an executive creative director remains at around R100,000 while that of a copywriter is anything between R35,000 and R65,000, depending on experience. This is much the same as 2015. The average for a Johannesburg MD has risen to R140,000 from R120,000. Ad Talent’s Brenda Bensted-Smith says: “Clients want more bang for their buck and salaries have moved little in the past year.” Pressure on agencies’ resources is immense and many are doing more with less. Of more concern to the industry, she says, is that agency staff are burning out more quickly and requesting moves to their clients, where sal...
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