Digital Admin Frustration Costs Marketers almost £21k of Unpaid Hours and Hinders Creativity

The silent burnout trigger for remote-working teams

27% of marketing professionals are spending an extra 3-4 hours a day catching up on creative work they are unable to complete in the working day due to the overwhelming number of admin tasks demanded of their role, according to research by Imagen, a leading video management platform. This is despite 26% of professionals choosing a marketing career for its creative appeal. The accumulation of these wasted hours over the course of the year means that, on average, marketers are working enough overtime to equate to an extra £21,000 worth of hours – almost equivalent to the yearly salary of a marketing assistant.

“Our research reveals clear issues within the marketing industry as administrative tasks are preventing marketing professionals from fulfilling their roles. With 29% of professionals reporting that they don’t have enough time to pursue the reason they entered the industry in the first place, the risk of burnout and unengaged employees is high,” said Helen Aboagye, CMO at Imagen.

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While we were already conducting much of daily life from our smartphones, from banking to shopping, the pandemic meant it was the only way to work. Nonetheless, to fill the entertainment gap in both entertaining content and activities during the pandemic’s restrictions, people have let their creativity shine on social media, with user-generated content surging throughout 2020 – along with its influence on buyers’ behaviour. Consequently, managing digital assets has become one of the most time-consuming admin tasks. This is a clear frustration for marketing professionals, with 30% reporting that the top issue in their digital asset management is files stored in multiple places. A further 28% cited managing large files and a further 27% have issues with the wrong file being used. Confusion over different versions of digital content at best creates unnecessary problems, and at worst it can result in outdated or unapproved assets being shared externally – with potentially disastrous consequences for the brand and wide business.

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Even more concerningly, an additional 15% said that they didn’t know where to find certain assets and to make matters more difficult, 17% of respondents use more than 15 platforms to manage digital assets. The growth of platforms such as TikTok and new content functionalities on established apps such as Instagram’s ‘Reels’ increases the quantity of digital content which marketing managers need to manage.

“With only 43% of professionals currently using digital asset management platforms to streamline admin tasks, there is a clear potential for increased adoption of these tools. Implementation of these technologies into creative departments and agencies will ultimately reduce time spent on admin tasks, allowing for more opportunities for creativity among staff and addressing the shortfall in the industry,” continued Helen Aboagye, CMO at Imagen.

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