The Future Of Advertising: Temporary Help On A Continuous Basis
The advertising world is in flux, and so is the way we think about utilizing creative talent. Good talent is expensive and hard to find, the talent an agency already has is maxed out, and to top it off client budgets aren’t getting any bigger. In fact, clients are rejecting those lucrative "agency of record" relationships and are, instead, dipping in and out of agencies as they build up their in-house teams. What is an advertising agency to do in this environment? I’ll tell you. Agencies need a way to recruit temporary help on a continuous basis.
productization and Freelance.
Let’s look at how agencies are responding. Portland, OR, agency North, recently announced how “productization” is changing their agency model, allowing for more flexible, project-based engagements (see “Embracing Change: Why We’re Productizing at North”). And they’re so smart to do this. In today’s market, agility is king, and productization allows them to offer specialized skills on-demand and temporarily. North isn’t alone. Method1 is doing the same thing, only they’re calling it “Solutions” and not products. But it’s the same concept—bite sized projects that are temporary engagements with clients.
In this week’s AdAge there’s an article advising agencies to productize, “AGENCY ROSTERS ON THE RISE—WHY MARKETERS ARE ENLISTING MORE SHOPS.”
Now let’s look at the freelance market. The global freelance market is now valued at over $1.5 trillion (source: Upwork), proving that freelancing isn’t just a trend; it’s a massive market force. In fact, 67% of ad agencies (source: ANA and WARC) are using freelancers for project-based work. The reasons are clear: it’s cost-effective, provides access to diverse expertise, and allows for a level of flexibility that permanent staffing simply can’t match.
In the same AdAge article, Greg Paull, principal of consultancy R3, said, “We’ve seen this trend before in places like Japan, where half of agencies’ creative departments are freelance. I think that’s a model more U.S. agencies are going to have to look at.”
Making temporary freelance continuous.
Okay, so it’s easy to say agencies need to depend on freelance, but it’s not that simple today and can even be a bit haphazard. Sure, agencies may have a list of a few go-to freelancers they depend on. But then there are those projects that require experience that none on the go-to list have. Where to find them? And remember agencies aren’t like normal companies looking for a “temp” to come in and answer phones all day. They must have real creative talent. The Picassos of the advertising world. That’s not easy to find.
Then there are the NDAs, the W9s, the 1099s, to worry about. Bringing in freelancers is way more difficult than it sounds.
This plight is exactly why we started IX Freestyle. We already had a hand-picked stable of top creative, strategic, and media talent in the industry, who are pre-vetted, pre-NDA’ed, and pre-W9’ed from the Ideasicle X web-application side of our business. Why not give agencies one place they can go for traditional freelance help? One place where the talent has seen a thing or two with experience at creative powerhouses like Wieden & Kennedy, Goodby, Crispin, Arnold, Mullen, and countless others. And one place where an experienced advertising exec (me-see my bio) knows the talent intimately, can quickly understand the agency’s needs, and within hours have the perfect talent or team of talent ready to go.
We have strategists, writers, art directors, designers, and industry specialists in retail and tech, so we’ve got variety. We currently have over 20 Ideasicle Experts to choose from, and that list will continue to grow. We’re even open to adding your “go-to” freelancers so we can maintain the 1099 relationships for you. They are available to work alone or in teams on any kind of creative or strategic need. You can see the ranks here.
All of this is what we mean by “temporary help on a continuous basis.” It’s temporary in that you hire our talent, they do the work, and then they step away. It’s continuous in that you have one reliable source you can turn to whenever you need the right creative talent.
I’ll leave you with this. Freelancing isn't a trend, it's the future. And with IX Freestyle, we make bringing in top-tier freelance help as seamless and effective as possible for agencies.
We’re here to help—temporarily, continuously, or anywhere in between.
Will Burns is the Founder & CEO of the revolutionary virtual-idea-generating company, Ideasicle X. He’s an advertising veteran from such agencies as Wieden & Kennedy, Goodby Silverstein, Arnold Worldwide, and Mullen. He was a Forbes Contributor for nine years writing about creativity in modern branding. Sign up for the Ideasicle Newsletter and never miss a post like this. Will’s bio.