End of agencies?
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- shapesalad0
https://www.theguardian.com/busi…
"The company is to cut nearly 4,000 of its 134,000 global workforce but would not say how many roles or offices would be affected in the UK. It has 400 ad businesses in more than 3,000 offices in 112 countries.
WPP said it would hire 1,000 creative staff as part of a refocus on the group’s roots, meaning the net job losses would total 2,500."
2500 Ad Agency peeps are not going to have a very merry xmas.
- NBQ000
Apple recruits new creatives for its in-house ad efforts: https://www.cultofmac.com/592380…
Apple has reportedly “poached” two teams of creatives from the U.K. advertising agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO to join its own in-house efforts.
- shapesalad0
"Job description
Freelance Motion Graphic Designer | £: Negotiable day rate | London
Our client is an iconic British sporting brand. The organisation has many interests from prestigious events, a museum (with travelling exhibitions), retail outlets, restaurants, bars, publishing and broadcasting.
They want to be less reliant on agencies and have recently started to build an internal creative team. That team so far consists of Design Manager/Creative Lead, Senior Designer and Studio Manager.
We're now looking for seasoned Motion Graphic freelancers as we want to find people that the client can book again and again."
- Could be "$0 fee but you'll get exposure which you can benefit from greatly!"NBQ00
- necromation5
I jumped ship about 8 years ago... And i couldn't be happier!
The luster soon wore thin, and this idea of everything had to be "award winning" just meant make up some bullshit we can't build or make just started to make me very unhappy.
As soon a the iphone arised i knew the work we did would change. So i started working clientside in what to many where "uncool" places - Banks, Advice services... Focusing more on user and proper products - i when from CD to midweight designer - Hands off to hands on. learning all the tools, and warned my mates in them ivory tower, a cull is coming... I found myself in the start up world, and i've never been happier and the fact that i own a piece of where i am and if it continues going well (over three years they have been around) i could be looking at a VERY pretty nest egg. My bosses are so chilled, a product that actually does good, freedom to work from home, trips to Cyprus to hang out with my dev team... All the stuff agency life never could give me.
- Equity is a very good motivator.shapesalad
- sounds the dreammugwart
- I reckon the cull is coming in my industry as well. problem is I cant really jump ship onto anything else this moment.mugwart
- upwork trumpeted this horn, at the same time my friend said, "everyone is going FR, half the agency just left." - Dnver COcanoe
- Any jobs going?dee-dubs
- DaveO0
I guess one thing that smaller agencies can do is adapt and hustle across categories – rather than being at the mercy of a single brand or company's success – which means with the right attitude , any commercial business is fair game.
For instance, I look at what Preacher are doing in austin and they are a company i really admire. They do interesting work across all sorts of sectors, and it really feels like they generate culture and community.
- zaq1
the market is shifting from projects to products.
- Hayoth-3
I am conflicted on full service vs expert. I see a lot of branding agencies and design studios getting requests to do their clients digital marketing. They all tell me,
"we didn't sign up for that, we just want to brand and design but now we are at risk losing business or not having additional revenue models"
A SF brand agency told me they were changing their model to keep 3-4 expert generalists on staff and then they would partner with small digital agencies or niche companies to round out there service.
That way they didn't have to fight for freelance availability or need a deep pool of resources if someone wasn't available. They also stated some really great freelancers were just as expensive as small teams so they ditched the freelance route all together.
- Small teams based in cheaper to live places than LA/NY/LDNshapesalad
- nocomply0
I've kind of been thinking about this trend on my own recently, independently of this thread.
I have a number of friends and clients in the LA film/tv/advertising industry and I've seen many of them leave positions with major networks/brands to go freelance, or change the model of their own agencies to better accommodate specialized, 1-off requests.
My read of the situation is that brands and clients want to hire an expert for the one thing they're great at. They don't want the expense of hiring a full agency, or holding onto in-house talent that isn't being fully utilized. People these days understand the tech stuff enough to piece together a team of a couple different independent experts and make it work.
I've kind of seen the same thing happen in the web business too. Clients are realizing they don't need a huge agency to make them a website.
I've been a 1-person business for 10 years now. I've never wanted to grow into the agency model. It never felt quite right. And I'm convinced now more than ever that it has more potential risk than reward.
There are always exceptions to the rule, but my prediction is that we will experience a trend towards more independent experts and micro-agencies of 2-3 people, and fewer of the big agencies or large in-house teams.
On that note, a smart guy I follow online has a new book coming out soon called Company of One: Why Staying Small is the Next Big Thing for Business.
Super interested to read it.
- Plus behance/dribble is full of super good looking work from cheap little Eastern European studios, If I was a marketing manager I'd hire those guys.shapesalad
- you might enjoy tom goodwins book digital darwinismHayoth
- shapesalad2
Ogilvy UK offers all staff voluntary redundancy.
All staff at Ogilvy UK have been offered voluntary redundancy as part of the agency's radical restructuring drive. Employees have been issued a deadline of Friday (2 November) to apply.
The news was broken to staff at a company meeting on Monday (29 October) in which they were told they had until the end of this week to apply. A source within the agency told The Drum that if the volume of opt-ins is too low, the company may be forced into compulsory redundancies.
- Wow. Ogilvy, such a big agency is going bankrupt in the UK?NBQ00
- Brexit or the ad game has changed? or both.shapesalad
- Doubt it's Brexit. Hasn't come in effect yet. Probably just over-saturation of dinosaur agencies and more low-cost solutions for brands.NBQ00
- Many designers on their laptops can nowadays do what a lot of agencies offer. Over-saturation and not enough work.NBQ00
- Brexit has been in effect since the vote - business uncertainty, due to not even knowing what Brexit give us = budgets on hold, ad spend down.shapesalad
- Brexit already had massive effects on the city - many companies pulling out or minimising spending while its happeningThe_Reprisalizer
- Fuck me.Continuity
- Also, looking at LDN jobs on linkedin, seeing a lot of 3/4/5/6 month only contracts. Never saw those contracts before besides maternity cover.shapesalad
- Many of these roles are contract, with perhaps perm, which sounds like "we'll see if we're fucked post Brexit, if not we can commit to a hire."shapesalad
- Brexit already hit hard. Lots of companies move here to central europe from GB because of the unknown future. And they bring their ad budgets with them.Longcopylover
- Those big old agencies survive on those big retainers from the fewer and fewer businesses prepared to pay them. And brexit because it’s probably true.MrT
- "redundancy" is British for "firing" right?i_monk
- redundancy is business can't afford staff, so you get paid off depending on how long you you worked = how much you get.shapesalad
- https://www.adweek.c…shapesalad
- fate0
Haha I love it!! I had no idea you were on Newstoday, your work is great.
- DaveO2
@fate – its my sole mission to try and leave comments that are as funny as the captions. Not yet succeeded!
- fate0
DaveO, no joke - I just came across your work the other day from @dankartdirectormemes of all places.
- DaveO1
This is a really interesting topic for me right now. I've just gone in house at a massive American fashion brand, and coming from agencies my whole career, I am, on the whole, loving it! Loads more making & creating and less pitching. Production savvy people who are always on set made a change from a lot of people who are amazing at photoshop comps but can't plan a shoot and run a set. The volume of work we are doing is immense but it's a great situation to get the shoot / production craft down (and thats the bit I like).
A lot about the agency model in fashion to me was flawed in the layers and steps to CREATING the work. I had a terrible experience freelancing in NYC at a couple of agencies that all funnel into a fairly fickle and / or detached CCO and everything runs in fear of the single figurehead, how the meeting went etc.
Add to that the constant battle of trying to assess the clients taste level, and desire to do something that agrees with your taste... and then getting frustrated that they want a different photographer / director / casting choice. This ended up taking so much time that could have been spent making the work better rather than having endless discussions...
However, I really miss the agency rigor of thinking, and back end strategic work. Half the time it feels like its just nonsense and going round in circles but thats what you have to do sometimes to get to something unique. In house I've noticed can just be "okay sounds good lets shoot it!" – and I'm often left wondering if I need to make a proper presentation or just turn up on set.
I don't think agencies are over, and I think they're vital because the exterior knowledge, influences, perspective are super helpful and I can now see the benefit of hiring partners to do some of the work I've been doing as a CD – not out of laziness but more out of a grown up strategic desire for a fresh take on things.
- Let the creatives do what they do and get out of the way :)Hayoth
- Yup. Whenever i film for the in-house people i know all i need is to give them some flares in the frame and they'll be excited...pr2
- ...while the agency people (yes, sometimes easily impressed by the flares too) have seen those flares on way too many shoots.pr2
- @pr2 I've seen enough flares not to be THAT impressed ; I just know there'll be more down the road (when i was at agencies, they were the ONLY flares)DaveO
- agency or inhouse, when in doubt - use flares. This still stands true!pr2
- studderine0
People will always pay for outside expertise. Agencies need to further specialize AND provide something that clients can't do, don't want to do and find valuable.
- Most "full-service" agencies are just body shops now. Clients can do the work—they just don't have the resources.studderine
- -2? I’m surprised. I need more downvotes.studderine
- True words.nocomply
- Continuity3
I don't think that ad agencies will disappear. Media channels will change or evolve, some new ones will eventually be introduced, but I think think the agencies themselves will remain. Simply because they're required; if someone's got something they want to sell, they'll need help doing it.
Holding companies, however — the WPPs, Interpublics, Publicis, and Omnicoms of the world — I'm not so sure about.
In 2012, one of the world's biggest airlines — Lufthansa — took their worldwide creative business away from McCann (which is an Interpublic agency) after almost 20 years, and took the business to a Hamburg-based independent agency with a single office, and *maybe* 350 people working for it (the agency is Kolle Rebbe).
KR's work on the account over the last 6 years has consistently been head-and-shoulders above what McCann ever did with the brand. As I understand it, Lufthansa are still very happy with their relationship with KR six years on.
What I'm saying is: I think there's a very bright future for smaller independent agencies that haven't got an eye on being a worldwide holding network. It's those holding companies that are at risk, and we're starting to see it play out with WPP.
- But small agencies run issues not being full service. I see it over and over.Hayoth
- I think that it isn't a lack of capability, as such, but rather a case of them picking and choosing what they want to do.Continuity
- Kolle Rebbe, in my example, actually are full service, but they only have the one location. So for them it isn't a lack of service offer ...Continuity
- ... but a lack of physical reach with offices in other locations.Continuity
- fate1
NBQ00, this is so dumb. They definitely pay outside parties for design and marketing.
Tesla invests a lot in their content marketing, retail experience, their website, and PR.
Just because they aren't running a :30 ad on national TV doesn't mean they don't "do advertisment" or work with shops.
- NBQ000
Tesla does not do advertisement and does not have an ad agency.
- But, they do have a very good PR strategy. And, in this context, PR is still MarCom.Continuity
- they don't run billboards and tv spots but they do advertise their products.mekk
- https://www.nurun.co…
And that's just the tip of the iceberg bud...zarkonite
- doesnotexist0
it's how they're run. their fuckery is catching up to them. they'll always be around, but management will change.