It’s inevitable in an economic downturn. Clients using pricey creative agencies dump them and pull the work in-house. OR outsource it, as we’ve happily discussed in this forum (and elsewhere: check out the GREENS course at this link) to a more economical, low-overhead writer and designer team.
Well, thanks again to commercial freelancer Robin Halcomb (who steered me to a cool resource I included in a comment on my last post) for bringing a most intriguing article to my attention. Entitled “In-house and Outsourced Aren’t the Only Options for Your Clients,” and penned by Sharon Napier, the piece first appeared in Advertising Age on 11/2/09.
The premise was simple – and one with all sorts of positive implications for folks like us. Napier, an ad agency professional, established the challenge:
Losing business because a client takes its work in-house can be a very frustrating challenge for a shop that’s put its heart and soul into coming up with innovative ideas. But what agency folks sometimes forget is that a client’s decision to go in-house usually isn’t driven by creativity or quality of work, but instead by the need for a new operating model, lower costs or faster turnaround. We didn’t want to stand by and watch our clients take that work in-house, nor was it in their best interest for us to try to force-fit it into our standard agency model.
Now, read this next part about her proposed solution to this quandary, and tell me if it doesn’t have a familiar ring…
So, a few years ago, we created a second model, one we call the “in-house outsource,” or studio model. How does it work? Like a traditional model, the clients have a dedicated team to serve their business, one that’s steeped in the client’s brand guidelines, process and work flow. However, for the studio model, the process is streamlined.
There are no account executives or trafficking positions; clients work directly with a designer who is responsible for every aspect of the project, from the first request to the work getting out the door, much like having an on-staff designer. The studio team works as an agency within an agency — it has its own leader, its own process, its own job description and career path.
Sounds a whole lot like a simple freelance copywriter/graphic designer team, no? Napier describes a model that meets a client’s need for lower costs and faster turnaround – something many clients in our world have been getting from talented writer/designer teams for a long time.
So, these creative pros know what clients want and have started bending their business model to deliver just that. With us? No bending required. That’s already who we are. And this new evolution on the part of agencies just reaffirms – in case you had any doubts – the fundamental legitimacy of the freelance model.
Of course, Napier’s premise appears to cover several scenarios: 1) clients pulling in-house ALL the business they’re doing with an agency; or 2) clients pulling certain pieces that many agencies long ago deemed not worth pursuing.
As I’ve pointed out in The Well-Fed Writer, while we commercial writers are unlikely to pick up the high-profile branding work from Fortune 500 firms that’s been the domain of Big Advertising (mainly because, let’s face it, the typical writer/designer team can’t deliver everything a full-service ad agency can…), we can certainly cover the, 1) the “collateral” projects agencies don’t want or aren’t set up to handle; and 2) branding work for relatively smaller firms with the bucks to hire that agency, but which are now tightening their belts.
Of course, Napier’s unspoken message – one that can’t help but elicit a smile – is this: Given the client exodus many in our industry have experienced of late, we can’t afford to be as elitist as before. Translation: We need to figure out how to hang on to this business we previously turned up our noses at. And give them credit for adapting successfully, as Napier’s firm certainly has.
Though you have to wonder whether Napier’s clients, once they get a taste of the lower-priced, streamlined business model on some of their work, don’t start wondering – however illogically, perhaps – why that same model can’t be applied to their other work. Something we commercial freelancers, given our cornerstone value proposition, will never have to wrestle with.
Have you run into a similar scenario with your business?
Have you benefited from a client’s belt-tightening to replace a more expensive creative resource?
Have you approached creative firms (e.g., ad agencies, marketing design firms, etc.), to pick up work they don’t want to deal with (and haven’t adapted to be able to handle)?
Is this giving you ideas you hadn’t previously considered?
Peter, since I’m still in “listening” mode, I don’t have any specific examples to share, but I’m going to keep being a quiet part of the discussion because I want to receive followup comments in my inbox. 🙂 Additionally, I’m taking notes, because I think it’s always better to be proactive, and if I can foresee some of the arguments that might come my way before I’m fully in the channel, all the better, methinks. Thanks for continuing to feed us helpful food for thought through your insightful posts.
It certainly is giving me ideas! Two writers and I are considering a consortium approach to businesses as it is. We’ve located a number of local possibilities – we offer them outsourced help in the form of one of us sitting in-house doing the necessary work. Each of us has a distinct specialty and strengths, so we’re able to offer a more comprehensive package of talent. Need an editor for insurance-related text? That’s me. Need an expert writer in business or job retention? That’s him. Need an editor for consumer or healthcare? She’ll handle that.
We see it as a win-win. The company gets three times the talent they were considering hiring at half the price (no benefits necessary). We’re in the process of launching this now. It’s taking advantage of the market we’re in and capitalizing on strained budgets – they get what they need at a decent price and we get what we need at our rate.
I used to work with a designer. I am not sure how this is new…let me think about it.
Thanks Roxane for weighing in and glad you’re finding the discussion useful! And great stuff Lori – keep us posted on how it goes. Would love to include a success story about it in the ezine at some point! 😉
And Star, it’s NOT new. That’s the point. What’s new is how some agencies are retooling their model in the face of a tough economy, and conjuring up new-found enthusiasm for types of work they routinely passed on before as being beneath them… And offering a model to clients that’s pretty much like ours has always been. I just see it as further affirmation that the freelancer model is becoming more and more attractive…
PB
As a video script writer, I look forward to working with video producers working in various specialties. Some can do animation while others may handle montages.
So Sorry! Somehow I clicked “Submit” without finishing.
Anyway, my point is this: if a company can no longer afford a video with fancy graphics or animation, they can create a montage of photos set to music with onscreen text (that’s where I’d come in). Or, rather than hiring actors, they can use webcam where it’s just them and the camera (and me, the script writer, of course).
Great possiblities!
This is a great article Peter because it just hammers the point home to me that I need to keep showing up in front of the creative directors, marketing directors & other marcom folks on both sides (as I’m choosing to market towards agenices too). Without being a part of the daily workings of a company, you might not know when they decide to pull back from the agency they’ve been using. However it seems to me that if you’re in the right place at the right time (not being a pest though) you’ll make a great pitch for your services. My prospecting needs to be consistent– things can change fast.
I market myself as a copywriting “go-to guy” for marketing entities, not only to give them an alternative to permanent in-house staff but to help them accommodating rapid growth, unusually large projects, or retention of little fringe clients. I also get together with freelance graphics professionals and marketing consultants to create collaborative products and packages.
I just see it as further affirmation that the freelancer model is becoming more and more attractive…
I hope this is true. I seem to see less and less appreciation of the talent and flexibility a virtual agency or freelancer can bring–but maybe that’s just me. I am not saying this isn’t a good approach, but I am leery of partnering with other writers–have done it and it’s can be tricky. I will shut up.
Thanks for the awesome insights, and the reminder that the opportunities for FLCWs are more abundant than ever, Peter! I, and I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say this, appreciate your positive spirit and constant encouragement for newbies and veterans alike.
It shows that the alarmist rhetoric about the “bad economy” and lack of work for the freelance set is just that -rhetoric. Although part of me wants selfishly to keep that a secret – so many former full-timers are launching their own businesses out of necessity, and that means increased competition! But evidence shows, there’s more than enough work to go around. So as you are so fond of saying, Peter, let’s eat! 😉
Personally, I am grateful, for the opportunities, and all of you for your wonderful wisdom!
And Lori – I love the idea of a collaborative consortium of writers with different areas of expertise. What an incredible value-add! That’s the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that leads to great success stories. I can’t wait to hear more about yours. Best of luck.
This is precisely why my clients hire me. They’re tired of the poor quality and slow turnaround from their agencies in terms of content and lead gen materials.
Twice in my freelance career I considered creating a very small and nimble boutique agency of sorts that retained the freelance culture and quality but added the breadth of a small agency. I saw it as a combination of content development, lead generation and PR. However, I gave up on the idea when I realized that it wasn’t well-aligned with my long-term goals. This would be a great combination of offerings for the right team with the right message and biz dev strategy.
Roxanne, welcome aboard! Keep going for it: you’re going to make it!
Well, all I can say is that I’m blowing up, in part because of my positioning as a fluent generalist, and in large part because outsourcing looks good to a lot of clients right now. I really think buyers are thinking of dollar signs more than ever right now, and outsourcing just sounds better, even if our rates as specialists are higher than what they might pay otherwise. That psyche means it’s time to dive in and go for it.
As Star and Peter said weeks ago, this is not really new. For the first half of my nearly 20-year freelance career, the vast majority of my work was subbed out to me by ad agencies, PR firms and design studios. In the case of design studios, it’s easy to see why they would have to buy copy outside: copy is not a regular part of their business and clients using design studios typically provide copy. But some clients use design studios as alternatives to ad agencies, asking for a whole creative package from one source. Studios wanting to compete for that business build relationships with a few copywriters. The advantage that gives them over ad agencies and PR firms with in-house copywriting is that a studio can hire a writer with proven knowledge and talent in the client’s business or industry.
One D.C.-area ad agency that was my largest source of work for over 10 years didn’t keep any copywriters on staff. They had account execs, artists, a production/traffic manager, and several PR practitioners. But they bought all their marcomm copy outside. Other agencies and PR firms came calling when their in-house writers were overloaded, on vacation or maternity leave, or just not quite right for particular jobs.
Perhaps the only thing relatively new in the example provided in Peter’s original post is the quoted agency’s creatives-only approach to delivering service, which requires trusting the lead art director or copywriter to be the client’s project manager. That certainly streamlines things for the client and eliminates the often needless expense of account executives or supervisors. But it also puts a lot of profit-loss responsibility into the hands of people that an agency might not otherwise entrust with that. Not saying it can’t work. But it requires the people doing the work to understand concepts of budgeting, billability and agency gross revenue that we as freelancers live with, but that can be totally alien to salaried creatives.
And even this isn’t entirely new. One design studio that has been my major client most of this decade has for years had a flat structure in which clients could deal directly with their individual artists, any one of whom were routinely calling me in on their projects. And my first ad agency job in 1980 was as in the “copy-contact” role, in which the copywriter was the client’s main point of contact throughout a project’s development.