ADMA launches education curriculum ADMA IQ

ADMA (Association for Data-Driven Marketing and Advertising) has today announced it has launched a brand new education curriculum ADMA IQ. The new education offer has been developed after wide consultation with the industry in order to equip today’s marketers with the skills they need to succeed and innovate in a rapidly-changing market.

Click to view the brochure – ADMA_IQ_Brochure2016_FINAL_FOR_DIGITAL_USE_V5.pdf

ADMA IQ offers marketers a modular approach to learning, allowing participants to select courses and topics to match their individual needs. This means that ADMA’s industry- recognised certificates can now be made up of individual courses to meet specific learning requirements. Flexibility is key with modules, courses and certificates offered online, in-class or via bespoke in-house courses within an organisation. The new curriculum suits entry level to advanced and covers analytics, creative, content, data, digital marketing, marketing technology, mobile, privacy & compliance, search marketing and social.

Says Jodie Sangster, CEO of ADMA: “There is a serious gap in appropriately skilled marketers when it comes to data analytics and true data driven marketing, and that needs to change if Australian businesses want to engage effectively with consumers.

“ADMA consulted widely with the industry on what was needed to address this gap which led to a significant investment in developing an entirely new curriculum, ADMA IQ, in order to drive forward marketing and advertising excellence and innovation in Australia.”

ADMA commissioned[1] a survey of 300 leaders in the marketing industry to outline the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the sector.

When asked which skills leading marketers draw on in their current role, over a third (37 per cent) said they rely on multiple skills including data analytics, copywriting, content creation, social media strategy and programmatic. When asked which skills they’ll rely on more in five years’ time the number relying on all these skills jumped to 52 per cent.

Despite this need for an increasingly diverse range of digital skills, over half (53.8 per cent) of those surveyed admitted there are aspects of their job they’ve never trained in, with the most common areas being data analytics, social media and digital marketing.

The most important skill for the future, according to marketers, will be data analytics, with 94.4 per cent agreeing they will need to use this more than they currently do in five years’ time, and 94 per cent saying it is important or very important to use data to predict consumer needs in marketing[2].

The ability to analyse data was even placed well ahead of creativity and story-telling ability when marketers were asked which attributes will be most important for the future (90 per cent ranked as important versus 78 per cent and 73 per cent respectively).

Despite this challenging shortage of skills, there is widespread optimism that the industry will continue to thrive, with 86 per cent of those surveyed describing themselves as optimistic or highly optimistic, and only 14 per cent being neutral or unsure.

[1] Survey commissioned by ADMA and conducted by PureProfile. It asked marketing professionals a range of questions designed to highlight the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the industry in Australia.

[2] 67% said very important, 27% said important