The CLT Alliance research team recently completed a study on the regional marketing and public relations industry. The study was commissioned by Chernoff Newman, a leading marketing and PR firm headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina; with offices in Charlotte; Charleston, South Carolina; and Orlando, Florida.
The study will be released in its entirety on May 8 at the CLT Alliance Regional Insights Forum, but the following three main takeaways are a preview of what can be found in the study:
The Charlotte metro has a specialization in marketing consulting services
The graph below looks at the expected employment in marketing and PR sub-industries based on the size of the market (red) along with actual employment (blue) in the Charlotte metro. The Charlotte metro has about twice as many employees as you would expect in marketing consulting services. Firms in this sub-industry focus on providing marketing planning and strategy, developing marketing objectives, new product development and pricing, and licensing and franchising planning services. This data suggests that the region has a cluster of these types of firms and talent that provide a competitive advantage for the region. Clusters of companies and talent are important as it provides a robust talent pool for companies to target, provides opportunities for knowledge sharing in the field, and provides the critical mass necessary for support services and suppliers to be built up around it.
Job growth was rapid in the mid-2010s, but has slowed
While employment growth was rapid in the Charlotte Region between 2014-2018, it underperformed in 2019-2022 compared to the nation. Employment in both the metro and the nation dropped in 2019 and 2020, but in both years the Charlotte market dropped more than the national trend. It has since stabilized with modest growth in 2021 and 2022.
The drop in employment in 2019 may be reflective of broader trends – Gartner’s CMO Spend Survey found that marketing budgets dropped below 11% of overall company revenue for the first time since 2014. About half of the largest 50 metros saw declining marketing and PR industry employment in 2019.
The Charlotte Region has a high share of tech workers in the marketing and PR industry
About 40% of the jobs in the marketing and PR industry are business and financial occupations or tech occupations in the Charlotte metro. That is noticeably higher than the national average. The higher concentration of these types of workers may be reflective of the region’s strength in marketing consulting services rather than advertising agencies which tend to concentrate more creative jobs like graphic designers and writers. As tech jobs are becoming increasingly important in the marketing and PR industry, this specialization may prove helpful for the Charlotte market moving forward.
The marketing and PR industry has grown dramatically over the past decade and is an important part of the regional economy. For more detail about the industry in the region, check out the full report upon its release on the week of May 8. In addition, you can attend the Regional Insights Forum which will provide a unique opportunity to hear more about the industry and where it is going from experts in the field. A panel discussion will feature Jen Grabenstetter, consulting director, Marketing, Brand & Experience Design at Slalom Consulting; and Kevin Howard, executive director, Digital Strategy & Growth Marketing at Ally Financial. The panel will be moderated by Carrie McCament, CEO of Chernoff Newman. For more information or to register, click here.
