With the internet attracting a bigger slice of marketing budgets worldwide coupled with the rapid convergence of technology and media, online advertising is shaping up as a great source of technical jobs. But ad agencies are still reluctant to hire what they see as “non-creative” people.

Steve Ball, managing director, The iGroup, says agencies have gone “hell for leather” with their online offerings. Many have purchased web development companies, search marketing consultancies and software development houses to ensure they stay ahead of the trend towards online media. Others are madly outsourcing those functions to specialists. Either way this has created huge demand for employees who are both advertising literate and technically capable.

“There's a need for technical people as there wasn’t before,” says Ball. “But the biggest challenge is that agency management still doesn’t understand that the technical skills are transferable and that they can drive up revenue. It’s a widely-held view that technical people are not ‘creative’, but that’s changing.”

Younger middle agency managers who grew up with technology and are comfortable with all it has to offer are starting to change that view, he says.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), representative of the online industry in Australia, last week released its March quarter online expenditure figures.  They show the category has continued to grow steadily reaching $384.5 million in the first quarter of 2008, 30.8% higher than in the same period last year.

The bureau says it’s the sixth consecutive year-on-year increase for online advertising. Media experts are tipping it will continue to grow as advertisers divert funds from traditional media in search of a more measurable investment online. CONTINUE PAGE 2