Are collectives the future for creative agencies?
Writers Australia founder Sara Howard believes it’s time to disrupt the creative agency status quo with a model that brings the best out of everyone.
In a market where client budgets are shrinking, creative work is increasingly done in house (with or without AI’s assistance), and the best talent wants more control over their calendars, how much longer can the traditional creative agency model survive?
Margins are being squeezed by rising costs and the growing pressure to do more in less time. That leaves very little profit for the principals – especially those at the boutique end of the agency spectrum.
As one former agency founder told me, “If I ever started another agency, I would do it differently. I would bring in more expert partners and form a collective.” Having worked together on a successful campaign as an ‘A-team collective’, we both know working with like-minded, talented people is a joy. And it can be a powerful force for making good ideas even better, bringing fresh perspectives to create exceptional work.
Our client on that project agrees. “The traditional agency model has more overheads, more people involved, more process and red tape, and certainly more cost,” Kristie Barton, brand manager with Gilbert + Tobin told me.
“Having independent experts, leaders at what they do, really appealed. I’m dealing directly with the person who’s making the decisions and is responsible for the output. Turnaround times are faster. We cut out a lot of unnecessary communication. And I think it’s more flexible.”
Flex around the work
Imagine your team as The Avengers, bringing the right strengths and skills together to create a united superpower.
That’s how Tyler Hakes, founder of US-based content marketing agency Optimist, is operating. He started his agency in 2016 with a utopian vision for a new type of agency, one that combined the capabilities clients expected with the freedom of freelance work.
Optimist shares profits with its independent contractors, proportionate to their effort, in addition to their project fees. Tyler is the only salaried employee. It’s a lean structure, with a culture defined by autonomy.
I spoke with Tyler while researching my book, Beyond Solo, to understand what makes his collective model work.
“Because we’re so flat, we don’t have a B-Team. Clients feel they have direct access to the best talent – they aren’t being sold by one person and then handed off to the folks behind the scenes,” he told me.
Like many creatives, he’d been frustrated in the past by the layers of communication and bureaucracy.
“I was looking for a way to avoid the traditional hierarchy but still do really great work for clients. And technically, we have an infinite pool of talent.”
Making sure dispersed teams deliver
Scaling a collective doesn’t happen by accident. First, you need to assemble your A-Team, which may mean looking outside your network to find the best of the best strategists, creatives and developers. They are not always the high profile award-winners: ask your clients who they prefer to work with, and you might discover some quiet achievers.
You also need robust systems and workflow processes to collaborate, manage expectations, and fairly share the financial rewards. Tyler packages up his services, which simplifies the project outputs. But managing the inputs, including contractor hours and scope, is much harder.
Collectives can be loose – forming and disbanding around ad hoc projects – or more structured, like Optimist. In both cases one person will need to take the lead on business development and client management. Work doesn’t magically appear from the sky.
Clients also need to be confident they’re minimising their risks during the procurement sign off. They certainly don’t have time to deal with four or five different contractors, and they do see the stability of an agency team as an advantage.
As with any business model, the proof of a collective’s value is in an easy and effortless client experience.
More than one model for growth
My copywriting agency, Writers Australia, has followed the traditional agency growth path over 18 years. We hired great in house writers, kept the structure lean, and over the years started solving increasingly complex problems for our clients.
But more often than not, our capacity came under pressure – and constantly adapting to changing project needs took its toll. I began wondering if there could be another way. A more flexible model, with more financial upsides for everyone.
So I spoke with dozens of agency founders and freelancers around the world about their experiences, and wrote Beyond Solo as the definitive guide to all the different paths to growth. It’s the book I wish I’d had when I first began. The market has changed since I launched Writers. It’s defined by uncertainty, and demands far greater flexibility and resilience. That’s what a collective model offers, along with a communal approach to sharing the burden of complex client problem-solving. It’s an opportunity to stretch everyone’s skills in a collaborative network. And provide a greater sense of ownership and control for everyone involved.
Sara Howard is the founder of Writers Australia. Beyond Solo is available now at beyondsolo.co, and at your favourite online book store or local bookshop.
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