The demand for talented marketing and other creative executives is booming in the Philippines, executive recruitment company Monroe Consulting Group Philippines says.
“Monroe Philippines is seeing increased demand for marketing professionals across our five divisions, namely technology, consumer goods, industry, health, and banking, finance and insurance,” said Stuart Gatland, the managing director of the executive recruitment company. “This demand from leading companies stretches across the creative sphere, including advertising, market research, public relations, media and entertainment.”
The comments follow the latest Monster Employment Index (MEI), which measures online job hiring activities. The index found that there had been 33 percent year-on-year growth for job ads in the creative sector between July 2015 and 2016.
Stuart said Monroe Philippines had a number of job opportunities open in the creative sector, including a communications manager for a leading market research company, a sales executive for an advertising company, and a digital marketing manager for a global fashion retail company.
“The Philippines has an abundance of talented multimedia and marketing graduates available and they are good at what they do,” he said. “Creative professionals are well known for turning a simple promo into a spectacular showcase through their creative ideas and enthusiasm.”
Stuart said there were also a number of other factors that “continue to bring top jobs and companies to the Philippines,” including the impressive economy and the government exploring creating improved internet services, namely a nationwide fibre-optic and wireless network.
“Another factor is real estate costs and labour costs. Renting an office even in Makati or Bonifacio Global City [in Metro Manila] is still far cheaper than in Singapore or Indonesia,” he said. “And the Philippines still has some of the lowest salaries across Asia, making the country a simple and cost-effective choice for relocation. We have been working with a number of clients relocating their back offices and support functions to the Philippine and they are claiming cost savings of up to 55 percent.”
Jelly Ruth Villaraza, head of Monroe’s specialised Technology Division, said more and more technology companies were establishing operations in the Philippines, including software development companies, online marketing, digital advertising, E-commerce, online gaming, online payments, financial technology and start-up businesses.
She said that the increase in companies selling products and services and the growing online trend had opened new opportunities for companies to reach their target audience. This had resulted in increased demand for skilled marketers and recruitment services to help companies source new talent, she said.
“We usually get inquiries from companies in nearby countries, such as Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, but also Australia and the United States, that want to set up creative studios, development and design hubs, and sales and marketing divisions in the Philippines,” she said. “This has led to a great increase in the demand for creative people in online or digital advertising.”
She said that in addition to sales, marketing and design professionals, there was “great demand for software and mobile designers for media, online gaming and animation companies.”
“Project managers, account managers and public relations professionals are in great demand by integrated marketing and communications companies,” Jelly said. “Business intelligence and market research professionals are in high demand in the online payments and financial technology industries also.”