One of our copywriters, Miriam Young, enjoying after-work drinks... she's writing for the Olympic organisation, reviewing events.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Saturday, July 07, 2012
Ad agency vs. freelancers: When to hire freelance creatives direct?
- Ex-Head of Copy at Lowe, and CD at Leo Burnett London. Now international consultant for hire.
Ad agencies or bespoke teams?
If you're a marketing manager and have an assignment, you now have two realistic options: you can decide whether to hire an advertising agency, or you can use key people direct.
It partly depends on your experience, your own expertise, and your company culture. Many would say that if you've always worked with agencies, why rock the boat? Unquestionably, the best communications agencies offer fantastic expertise in one or more media comms skills, and if you’re a mega-brand the sheer hassle of trying to do it all yourself can make the cost of an agency seem worthwhile.
But the key word here is ‘cost’. Not everyone wants to pay for an agency’s overheads as well as an agency’s expertise. Because in an online, globally-connected, communication-savvy, post credit-crunch world, that expertise is now available worldwide in freelance form. In abundance. A new world, in other words, has opened up for brands who want to go direct to the talent.
Ad agency or direct to the talent? Looking at both of these options and helping you weigh up the pros and cons is what this article is about.
Option 1 The advantages of working exclusively with a comms agency
1. Complete service
An ad agency offers a start to finish solution. You go to them with your problem and if they're good they’ll understand your business, provide the right strategy, the right idea, in the right medium, and create the work. Then they place the advertising, send out the viral ad, do whatever else is required, and all you have to do is pay the bill.
2. Less risk, more dependability
You have more security when you work with an agency. Like an accountant or a trusted supplier, they become like another department of your company. You know
They’re there for you. With an appointed agency there’s always someone to answer the phone and be accountable for your work.
3. Continuity
Permanent staff in an agency are what the name suggests: permanent. In theory at least, the team working on your business will be made up of the same people over a period of time. Continuity means they can develop an understanding of you and your business, and a feel for your brand. And you can develop a dialogue with them.
4. Coordination
If it's a large communications campaign with multimedia strands, coordinating all the elements can be challenging. One of the strengths of comms agencies is their ability to get to grips with these complex elements.
Option 2 The advantages of hiring creatives directly
1. Cost
It’s cheaper. That’s the No.1 reason in the current economic client that people hire creatives directly. You can make big savings while still getting equally good results
2. Control
With fewer people in the chain you can see exactly what's happening and have direct input, so the end-result should be closer to what you want.
3. Speed
Thing happen faster. That’s the other benefit of improved communication – things take less time. Fewer people need to free their schedule for a meeting. You can simply call your freelance individual or team, ask when they can deliver, and get it directly.
4. When you know what you want
If you know exactly what you want, whether it's a press release written for a new product or a label designed for a bottle, then it makes sense to hire an individual with specialist expertise without paying his employer’s overheads.
5. You’ll know who you're getting
You get to choose the creatives you want to work with. They're not assigned to you by the agency. You've seen their CVs, their portfolios and their personalities. You know if they're right for your brand. And you can talk directly to them – you’re dealing with the people who are actually doing your project.
6. Experience and expertise
With agencies cutting their budgets due to declining margins, permanent staff are becoming more junior and less experienced. Carefully chosen freelance people can
often provide a level of expertise no longer easy to access through an ad agency.
7. Free with a freelancer
When you hire an agency, often you sign a contract for a year or more. With a freelancer you can stop working together at any time if the results aren’t what you’re
looking for.
8. Concentration
An ad agency has many clients and only so many resources and your project can be ‘de-prioritised’. A freelance individual or team is likely to be focused entirely
on your project.
8. Agencies hire freelancers. Why shouldn’t you?
If you work with ad agencies, you’ve already got freelancers working for you – ad agencies use freelance people all the time. Why pay advertising agency costs and a commission for their freelancers?
9. Fun
It’s more rewarding when you are a partner in the creative process. You work directly with the creative team and can bounce ideas off each other. More productive, more fun.
How can you maintain control when working with freelance people?
I’ve already touched on some potential downsides when it comes to working directly with freelancers directly. But these can be negated when you work with them via a specialist freelance agent. Good agents only work with tried and trusted freelancers and can co-ordinate multiple freelancers to form a team to work on your brand. You might need planners to create a brand strategy, creatives to hatch the concept, designers to make the website ... perhaps local to you or the country you're targeting. Obviously there is a fee for this extra guarantee and service, which is included in the freelancer's rate, but this is significantly lower than agency commission and you only pay for the hours worked.
Smart brands go direct
I work with communications agencies of all types: advertising, design, branding, direct marketing and so on. But working solo or alongside carefully chosen team partners, I also work direct for brands. Because more and more brands are looking for small teams of people at the very top end to fill in for a comms agency. Often they have an in-house brand director who came from an agency background. They know how the business operates and want to run the show themselves. They cherry-pick the top creatives and form a small and elite team to create concepts they know will work for their brand. This is how it works for me. I specialise in top-end creative concepts. We don't work for the brand - we work inside the brand. Between us, my team partners and I,have worked directly for Apple, Nike, Education First, Diesel, Paul Smith, Caterpillar and others.
How to access top freelance consultants through an agent
I'm represented by The Collective, an international agent that provides freelancers to Nike, Apple, Philips, Tommy Hilfiger and many more. As well as the above-the-line campaigns I work on, where they team me up with an art director to form a creative team, they also provide a regular supply of designers and copywriters for below-the-line or direct to consumer marketing, who create printed or online communications materials. Copywriters also provide transcreation (translation by a copywriter into their native language) and it's for jobs like this, where you need a large network of external freelancers - potentially problematic and time-consuming to source - that an agent like The Collective is useful.
In conclusion
Freelancing works for me then and the companies I work for, but for others it's up to them to decide. It depends on the company and how good the agency or freelancer is. My recommendation is to try a small project with each before you commit to a big spend and see which works best... agency, freelancer or agent.
About the author:
Simon Carbery (Personal website / Collective profile) trained at Saatchi's, was Head of Copy at Lowe, and CD on Barclays at Leo Burnett London in 2009. He has won more than 20 major awards, been a D&AD judge on 3 occasions, a Member of the D&AD Executive Committee 2006-09, and had his own column in the advertising press while in Australia. He freelances all over the world as both a creative director and brand planner, and has unusually wide experience in all media, from TV advertising to digital.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
The Collective at Cannes
Our souvenir stickers were all over Cannes this year... courtesy of Adformatie and Creatie magazines
Monday, June 25, 2012
Thoughts on how to brief a copywriter: Why should I care?
Do you find it hard to brief a copywriter? Do you worry that you give them too much information or not enough? It's important to get it right because the better the briefing, the better the copy. Miriam Young, an English copywriter in the Netherlands, offers some advice on how to get the best from your copywriter.
Letting a good freelance copywriter loose on your advertising and marketing materials can be like waving a magic wand over your promotion strategy. Throw your marketing wishes into the air and watch as we transform them into profit-inducing communication. But the quality of what we can produce depends on how well we are briefed to begin with.
Briefing a copywriter incorporates many different aspects. From describing the marketing materials you want to create and defining the people you want to reach through to explaining what the product or service you’re promoting is and what you want your marketing materials to achieve. Oh and let’s not forget.....what it is that sets you apart from your competitors.
Does any of this seem too obvious to be worth going into detail about? Not if you want to get the best out of your copywriter.
Can you make a space alien care?
To brief a copywriter, imagine you are explaining your proposition to a just-landed space alien (that happens to understand Earth languages). No, I’m not suggesting copywriters are a different species. But if we’re to successfully convince others about your message, we first need to ensure it really does make sense. From a true outsider’s point of view. And when you’ve poured your heart out about your wonderful business and its products, we’re going to put ourselves in your customers’ shoes and ask “Why should I care?”
Why should I care about that special feature? Why should I care how long you’ve been in business? Why should I care how many employees you have? Why should I care that you’ve got a new range coming out this year?
You see it’s all very well to spout facts and figures. But if you want to win the hearts, minds and custom of all your potential clients, you need to make a clear connection between everything you want to say and how it makes their lives better. As copywriters, we can communicate this like you would believe. If you can tell us why you’re worth it, we’ll convince the world.
The magic formula
What exactly do you want me to tell you, I hear you cry? Most agencies and some copywriters have a fixed set of questions. I’ve listed a few food-for-thought items at the bottom of this article. This is far from exhaustive and the line of questioning needs to be developed organically to discover the individual qualities of every different business. But it is a good starting point. Try it. Can you give answers that convince a true outsider to understand and buy into your proposition?
Know your FABs
The perfect way to explore the relevance to others of the things you think are important is to put them through the FAB test.
F=Feature = something you want to mention about your product or company
A=Advantage = what advantage this offers
B=Benefit = how this benefits the customer
For example
Feature = Business has been operating for 25 years
Advantage = The business has amassed plenty of experience
Benefit = I feel confident that these people know what they’re doing and can trust them to deliver on their promises.
Feature = this phaser has a safety lock
Advantage = it won’t go off when the user isn’t expecting it to
Benefit = I won’t kill or stun anybody I don’t mean to. Including myself. That would be both inconvenient and embarrassing.
Hopefully you get the picture.
FABs are key to selling your proposition. The more FABs you can share with your copywriter, the better the job they can do for you. No cheating though.....if it’s not logical enough for Spock, it doesn’t count. And yes, human emotions are valid benefits.
Getting the best value
Copywriters have to be paid for their time. Every minute of it that’s devoted to thinking about your project. If your copywriter is working with you to discover your best marketing qualities it’s all money well spent. But if you want to keep your costs to a minimum, make sure you’ve thought your brief through properly. The more completely and concisely you brief your copywriter to begin with, the less time they have to spend on defining and refining your story. So come prepared by asking yourself “Why should I care?”
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
How well can you describe your products? How well do you know your customers and meet their needs? Could you convince a just-landed space alien to choose you over your competitors?
Know your products
What are you trying to sell?
How are your products different from your competitors’?
Know your customers
Who are your customers?
What customer needs do you meet?
How do you fulfil these needs differently from your competitors?
What keywords or phrases would customers for your products enter into an online search?
Know your image
What are your company values?
How do these enhance the desirability of your products?
Know your promotional strategy
How do you already promote yourself? How do you want that to change?
What materials do you want to create? What purpose will they serve? How will they be distributed?
Know your follow up
What do you want customers to do as a result of reading your new marketing material?
About the author:
Miriam Young (Personal website / Collective portfolio) is available for copywriting, content strategy, editing, Dutch to English translation and other associated marketing related activities. She has many years' of international experience in marketing, sales and PR (and first-rate English language skills) and is a copywriter for both online and offline.
- Miriam is an English copywriter based in the Netherlands
Briefing a copywriter incorporates many different aspects. From describing the marketing materials you want to create and defining the people you want to reach through to explaining what the product or service you’re promoting is and what you want your marketing materials to achieve. Oh and let’s not forget.....what it is that sets you apart from your competitors.
Does any of this seem too obvious to be worth going into detail about? Not if you want to get the best out of your copywriter.
Can you make a space alien care?
To brief a copywriter, imagine you are explaining your proposition to a just-landed space alien (that happens to understand Earth languages). No, I’m not suggesting copywriters are a different species. But if we’re to successfully convince others about your message, we first need to ensure it really does make sense. From a true outsider’s point of view. And when you’ve poured your heart out about your wonderful business and its products, we’re going to put ourselves in your customers’ shoes and ask “Why should I care?”
Why should I care about that special feature? Why should I care how long you’ve been in business? Why should I care how many employees you have? Why should I care that you’ve got a new range coming out this year?
You see it’s all very well to spout facts and figures. But if you want to win the hearts, minds and custom of all your potential clients, you need to make a clear connection between everything you want to say and how it makes their lives better. As copywriters, we can communicate this like you would believe. If you can tell us why you’re worth it, we’ll convince the world.
The magic formula
What exactly do you want me to tell you, I hear you cry? Most agencies and some copywriters have a fixed set of questions. I’ve listed a few food-for-thought items at the bottom of this article. This is far from exhaustive and the line of questioning needs to be developed organically to discover the individual qualities of every different business. But it is a good starting point. Try it. Can you give answers that convince a true outsider to understand and buy into your proposition?
Know your FABs
The perfect way to explore the relevance to others of the things you think are important is to put them through the FAB test.
F=Feature = something you want to mention about your product or company
A=Advantage = what advantage this offers
B=Benefit = how this benefits the customer
For example
Feature = Business has been operating for 25 years
Advantage = The business has amassed plenty of experience
Benefit = I feel confident that these people know what they’re doing and can trust them to deliver on their promises.
Feature = this phaser has a safety lock
Advantage = it won’t go off when the user isn’t expecting it to
Benefit = I won’t kill or stun anybody I don’t mean to. Including myself. That would be both inconvenient and embarrassing.
Hopefully you get the picture.
FABs are key to selling your proposition. The more FABs you can share with your copywriter, the better the job they can do for you. No cheating though.....if it’s not logical enough for Spock, it doesn’t count. And yes, human emotions are valid benefits.
Getting the best value
Copywriters have to be paid for their time. Every minute of it that’s devoted to thinking about your project. If your copywriter is working with you to discover your best marketing qualities it’s all money well spent. But if you want to keep your costs to a minimum, make sure you’ve thought your brief through properly. The more completely and concisely you brief your copywriter to begin with, the less time they have to spend on defining and refining your story. So come prepared by asking yourself “Why should I care?”
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
How well can you describe your products? How well do you know your customers and meet their needs? Could you convince a just-landed space alien to choose you over your competitors?
Know your products
What are you trying to sell?
How are your products different from your competitors’?
Know your customers
Who are your customers?
What customer needs do you meet?
How do you fulfil these needs differently from your competitors?
What keywords or phrases would customers for your products enter into an online search?
Know your image
What are your company values?
How do these enhance the desirability of your products?
Know your promotional strategy
How do you already promote yourself? How do you want that to change?
What materials do you want to create? What purpose will they serve? How will they be distributed?
Know your follow up
What do you want customers to do as a result of reading your new marketing material?
About the author:
Miriam Young (Personal website / Collective portfolio) is available for copywriting, content strategy, editing, Dutch to English translation and other associated marketing related activities. She has many years' of international experience in marketing, sales and PR (and first-rate English language skills) and is a copywriter for both online and offline.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Round-table discussion or charity work
Dear freelancers, we have narrowed our anniversary celebration ideas down to two... we could do one or both depending on you. What are your thoughts? Would you participate in either?
OPTION A: Round-table discussion
Fraser suggested a round-table event at De Kring in Amsterdam to discuss. 'What do agencies look for from freelancers and freelance agencies, and what are the industry trends in using freelancers?' The initial idea was for it to be one of those discussions that appears in print, in Adformatie and other magazines, but this might be difficult as the magazine is a lot smaller now. We could even expand it to a day with more than one round-table, a freelancing seminar day. If we had enough interest and participants. Are you interested in being on the panels or attending? What would you like to discuss or learn more about?
OPTION B: Charity work
We wrote this article about free freelancing for charities. A 10 year anniversary special idea would be 10 freelancers volunteering 10 hours (or more) free for charity. Could you volunteer your time? We would promote you online and in press releases with your skills and portfolio, so you get publicity as well as good karma.
OPTION A: Round-table discussion
Fraser suggested a round-table event at De Kring in Amsterdam to discuss. 'What do agencies look for from freelancers and freelance agencies, and what are the industry trends in using freelancers?' The initial idea was for it to be one of those discussions that appears in print, in Adformatie and other magazines, but this might be difficult as the magazine is a lot smaller now. We could even expand it to a day with more than one round-table, a freelancing seminar day. If we had enough interest and participants. Are you interested in being on the panels or attending? What would you like to discuss or learn more about?
OPTION B: Charity work
We wrote this article about free freelancing for charities. A 10 year anniversary special idea would be 10 freelancers volunteering 10 hours (or more) free for charity. Could you volunteer your time? We would promote you online and in press releases with your skills and portfolio, so you get publicity as well as good karma.
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