Do advertisers want a union?
I recently read a press release for a new advertising agency. It went through the usual "revolutionary" new ways of working that would "tear the old model apart", but part of its proposed structure made me pause. Instead of using a permanent creative department, a pool of freelancers should be used depending on the customer's wishes. This idea isn't new (see Big Al & # 39; s Creative Emporium for an excellent example of how it can work) but its spread is.
Slightly down: The advertising industry has changed over the past ten years. More money on GoogleBook means less money for the rest of us. In addition, many customers are switching from retainers to a project-based payment system, leading to greater instability, lower compensation, and fears for some agencies of spending too much money on unused resources.
Wages have been falling for a good decade, talent is finding a home in other creative industries, and the job is no longer as attractive as it used to be
And that's not the fault of these agencies. Between these changes and the effects of the pandemic, we are simply here now, and for many the choice is difficult: adapt or die.
So the freelance creative model model remains and is likely to spread further. But that also means that advertising creativity is dangerously close to becoming a gig economy.
No benefits, no stability, regular contract negotiations that tend to favor whoever provides the money, have increasingly longer payment terms, no legal support if someone cuts your contract or asks you to lower your daily rate, insists on free overtime or sends you through the Creative Services and Finance Houses, declaring to an increasing number of people that someone somewhere owes you £ 500.
Ladies and gentlemen, we need a union.