Demand from chief marketing officers (CMOs) for social media support has increased significantly, with many more brands keen to gain access to communities and influencers, a survey has found.

The second Marketers Most Wanted report from Studiospace, based on the actual briefs posted by CMOs on the matchmaking platform, also found big demand for brand strategy specialists during March.

The report found that 13.7% of CMO briefs were requesting social media support for campaigns, events and management of feeds and groups. This represented a significant increase from 7.3 percent in January.

Studiospace CEO Pete Sayburn says that specialist social media agencies are bringing skills, as well as access to communities and influencers.

“Agencies are not only supplying skills and knowledge but also access to communities and influencers. We’ve seen agencies win briefs where the ability to connect brands directly with customers was the differentiator.

“Brand owners are also keen to find agencies which have abilities that complement what they already have inhouse and social media is no exception.

“In particular I think that content skills, especially video, remains a very attractive part of the mix which agencies can offer brands.”

Brand strategy support also gained 13.7 percent, up from 12 percent in January, making it joint top with social media. This suggests CMOs are focusing on longer-term issues, rather than just customer acquisition.

“We are encouraged to see that CMOs are still committed to longer-term brand building and storytelling as evidenced by the number of companies asking for help with brand strategy,” Sayburn added.

User experience (UX) and creative and production skills were next in line both at 9.7% of total, the survey found.

Other big in-demand categories for CMOs were software development and proposition design (both with 7.8% of total) and digital marketing (with 5.9%).