Gybe Fortnight: the junior marketer isn't dead, the job just changed

Welcome to this edition of Gybe Fortnight - our round-up of what's moving in the marketing, digital and sales market, the roles and talent we're working with, and the headlines worth your attention.

Market overview

Over the past two weeks, we've seen an influx of overseas talent entering the Brisbane market. With many employers still reluctant to sponsor, or finding the government process difficult to navigate, contracting is proving to be the most realistic pathway for many of these candidates.

Insight of the fortnight: the junior marketer isn't dead, but the job has changed

Nearly 1 in 5 marketing leaders have already cut roles because of AI. That's according to Gartner, who surveyed 1,303 senior marketing leaders.

But here's the part we find more interesting: 16% have created new roles, and nearly a third have redesigned the ones they already had. So it's not just a story about cuts. It's a story about roles being rewritten.

• The problem with automating the learning. Some of the work AI is absorbing is exactly the stuff most of us learnt on: research, data clean-up, first drafts, basic analysis. Take that work away and you create another problem - how does a junior become a senior if we automate the work they used to learn on?
• Don't cut the pipeline. Change it. Gartner believes most high-performing marketing teams could remove traditional entry-level roles by 2030, but their advice isn't to cut the junior pipeline. As Gartner analyst Kristina LaRocca-Cerrone puts it, "CMOs should give junior marketers exposure to higher-value work earlier." We think that's the important bit. Give juniors AI, absolutely, but also give them the chance to question its output, understand why something worked, find the insight, and sit in on the strategic conversations. That's how they build the judgement that used to come from the grunt work.
• What we're seeing. From a recruitment perspective, we think that judgement is going to become increasingly valuable. Coordinator roles are being absorbed into specialist positions, with a focus on both critical thinking and creativity. AI can get someone to a first draft much faster, but knowing whether it's actually any good is a different skill altogether. And if you're mid-career, you're probably the one who'll be teaching the next lot. That's worth thinking about now.

The bottom line: are you hiring fewer junior marketers, or changing what you expect them to do? Either way, it's worth having an answer.

Jobs in market

• Digital Marketing Manager | TerryWhite Chemmart | Milton, hybrid | fixed-term (maternity leave) contract - take the reins of digital marketing and ecommerce trading as the newly launched online operation scales, owning the trading calendar, promotions and merchandising while driving paid media, SEO, CRM, email and app performance.
• Content Manager | Milton, hybrid | full-time | up to $110k + super - own content planning and direction for a collaborative Brisbane marketing team, managing a small team while still getting behind the camera across video, social, photography, campaigns and longer form storytelling.

Other roles worth knowing about right now:

• Wendy's Australia - Head of Retail Marketing & Commercial Performance, ANZ, owning the commercial engine behind Wendy's rapid ANZ expansion, from the promotional calendar and pricing strategy to retail marketing readiness for new stores.
• S. Kidman Clothing Co - eCommerce Manager, leading online commercial performance across three established Australian apparel brands, including the Shopify Plus platform and a team of two specialists.

Interview question of the fortnight

"Name a marketing area you'd happily get into an argument about?"

Talent worth knowing

• Content and Social Media Manager | $110k + super | available immediately, permanent or contract - 6+ years across digital marketing, social, content, email, web and e-commerce, most recently managing organic social for 15+ hotel, lifestyle and F&B brands and lifting average engagement from 1.9% to 3%.
• Digital Product & Delivery Lead | $130k + super | available immediately, permanent or contract - close to 10 years across digital product delivery, business analysis and quality engineering, with 4.5+ years as a Product Owner and Product Manager in telecommunications and retail, delivering a 200% conversion uplift and 40% faster product delivery.
• B2B Marketing Manager | $110k + super | available immediately, contract - 4+ years in B2B, most recently for a global retail design and manufacturing business serving luxury, beauty, fashion and consumer electronics brands, who has just relocated to Brisbane from the UK.

Headlines we're watching

• Impending changes to Australia's digital privacy laws may require user consent for all programmatic targeting, putting pressure on digital platforms to help marketers stay compliant.
• McDonald's has launched McDonald's Media Network, targeting a slice of the burgeoning commerce and retail media market.
• Gartner's latest findings show nearly one fifth of surveyed marketing leaders had eliminated some functional roles due to AI as of last spring, and the trend could pick up speed.
• Australian-built Diploria AI has launched, helping marketers measure how their brands appear in responses from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and other leading AI engines.
• Owned versus rented: for most of the past decade the smartest marketing dollar went to someone else's platform, and the dependence risk hiding in that marketing stack is now worth a hard look.

Get in touch

Whether you're hiring, exploring your next move, or just want to talk through the market, we'd love to hear from you.

• Libby Kidd: 0401 784 670 | [email protected]
• Michael Johns: 0406 210 924 | [email protected]
• Cass Barker: 0431 625 791 | [email protected]