How Freelance Marketplaces Can Help Agencies through the Financial Crisis

The current harsh economic climate is wreaking havoc in adland. The cost-of-living crisis is having a significant impact on businesses and the way people work and the advertising and marketing industry is not immune to the challenging environment.

 

As often happens during times of financial hardship, brands are clamping down on their adspend and reducing their marketing budgets as they try to ride out the storm. As a result, we have recently seen a number of agencies, including some of the big six agency holding groups, report revenue declines for the first half of 2023.

 

The situation seems to be particularly dire for agencies with clients in the technology and finance sectors, and some agencies have announced plans to reduce their own costs in return. Unfortunately, we all know what that means. Job losses will follow.

 

But it is not all doom and gloom in adland, because while the cost-of-living crisis brings a set of challenges, there are opportunities and solutions to be found. When the work does come in – and it will – agencies will still need to deliver for their clients, which is where freelancers will play an increasingly important role to make up the numbers needed.

 

While the use of freelancers is certainly not a new occurrence in the industry, the number of people in advertising and marketing who choose to go down the freelance route is on the increase.

 

It is true that layoffs do of course play a role here, but so does the pandemic and the continuing digital transformation. Agencies are increasingly asking people to come back to the office full time, but the past few years have given people a taste of the benefits that more remote and flexible ways of working bring.

 

Research from Fiverr Pro published in September, showed that more than half (54%) of marketing leaders in the US have more freelancers on their team now than last year, while 80% know of people who have become freelancers as a result of either layoffs or return-to-office policies. Similar trends can be seen in the UK.

 

We are also witnessing the rise of the freelance marketplaces - websites that connect freelance creatives with businesses and agencies that need them. And as the number of freelancers grows, we are likely to see these platforms gain even more traction.

 

It’s a fortunate position to be in for agencies, because using freelancers will allow them to save money by hiring people to work on specific projects as and when they are needed. At the same time, an increasing number of high quality talent will have chosen to go freelance, which in turn will take competition for these jobs to the next level.

 

But where can agencies begin their search for the right people in an increasingly crowded field?

 

The biggest and arguably most well-known of the freelance marketplaces are Fiverr and Upwork. Kind of like the eBay of work, both Fiverr and Upwork allow companies to procure one-off services such as logo design and PR. As large, global businesses they connect freelancers and businesses across a range of sectors, including graphics and design, digital marketing and creative.

 

Similar services include PeoplePerHour and Toptal. While these places can be useful for agencies looking to find temporary creative workers, there are other platforms that are specifically geared towards the advertising and marketing industry.

 

One example is Moonshoot.inc, an invite only community for creatives, independent agencies and brands. This is also where post-production specialist POD comes in as an alternative to the larger platforms. Our on demand model has all the benefits and infrastructure that agencies are used to when it comes to working with post houses but operates on a competitive day rate like a freelancer.

 

As agencies grapple with the economic crisis, freelancers and freelance marketplaces can be the answer they are looking for when it comes to finding talent without having to pay full time employees.