Demand for UX support remains top of the list for brands in May

Major brands are struggling to find people with user experience (UX) skills and are searching globally to plug the gap, new research suggests.

Our latest Marketers Most Wanted report found that chief marketing officers and brand owners from some of the world’s largest companies are on the hunt for people and agencies with good UX skills.

The report, which monitors the actual briefs posted by chief marketing officers (CMOs) and brand owners on the Studiospace platform, found that UX made up 16.9% of briefs. This is a two point increase from the previous report and means UX tops the list for the second month in a row.

“The demand for UX skills is simply outstripping supply,” said our CEO Pete Sayburn.

“There just aren’t that many people with the right mix of skills you need to be a UX designer. As a result, we are seeing a lot of demand and brands are taking a global approach to hiring agencies.”

Another skillset high on the list for CMOs is social media with 15.5% of requests, compared to 11.9% last month.  

“Marketing teams are handling a growing number of social media channels and are hiring agencies just to stay on top of it all,” added Sayburn.

“We are also seeing demand for specific campaigns as well as videos, graphic design and copywriting.”

The report found that demand for creative and production dipped slightly from 13.4% to 11.3%, moving from second into third place. Meanwhile, brand strategy remained fourth with 8.5%.

There was also a new entry for proposition design, coming in at joint fifth with software development on 8%.    

“Major companies are looking to innovate and want to engage with tech specialists to do this,” said Sayburn.

“In the current climate, budgets are tight but brands are exploring green and sustainability focused projects and want to work with engineers and designers to make changes to their core businesses. This trend has led to a number of briefs in the area of ‘proposition design’.”

Marketers Most Wanted is published monthly and is based upon the actual briefs posted by CMOs and brand owners onto the Studiospace platform.

To learn more about Studiospace click here to schedule a call with one of the team.