The Fractional Frontier: Ben Stuart on Finding Creative Differentiators

For some, ‘freelancing’ has become a loaded word. In the past, it’s been associated with insecurity - but in a climate of rampant redundancies, mergers, and restructuring, ‘insecurity’ feels more universal than ever before. In that context, it’s perhaps time to look afresh at ways of working which challenge traditional models. 

Partners in Crime’s ‘syndicate’ approach - one of fractional employment in which individuals dedicate only parts of their total working time to single employers - isn’t a new invention, but it is newly relevant. As the company says of the creatives, strategists, and talent that make up its syndicate: “some may call them freelancers, but to us they’re Partners in Crime”. 

For clients, the streamlined approach means that costs are lower, and the creative is powered by staff which are hand-picked and bespoke to them. One marketing executive with a clear view of those benefits is Ben Stuart, whose career includes advertising and marketing roles in the financial sector with the likes of American Express, Bank of the West, and presently the cooperative Rabobank. 

In recent years, Ben has witnessed first-hand how the evolving landscape in the ad industry has thrown up new challenges for brand-side marketers - but also opportunities for those with the ability to find the right creative partners. To find out more, LBB’s Adam Bennett caught up with Ben… 

LBB> Ben, what are some of the qualities you’re looking for in an agency partner?

Ben> Three important qualities jump to the front of my mind. The first is distinctive ideas - ideas that differentiate my brand from the alternatives in the marketplace. Another is that I’m looking for real-time development, an agile approach so that ideas are generated in sprints rather than quarters. 

And then finally, as a challenger brand I need the amount of resources - i.e. dollars - to be proportionate to the media pressure in the marketplace. The price has to be right, the timelines can’t be too long, and the ideas have to be differentiated. 

LBB> And do you think the traditional agency model is well-suited to meeting those needs? 

Ben> Well, I’m sure there are clients out there who are not short on dollars and not as concerned by working to long timelines. And when you have a big budget that you’re willing to spend on celebrity endorsements, you’re probably not going to end up with something that’s entirely differentiating. There may be some clients who are in that position - but in today’s economy I’d say they’re the exception rather than the norm.  

I think the norm in 2025 is that most brands are working in real-time. Most marketers are the challenger, not the leader - and they need a salient, creative approach in their marketplace. We need nimble, effective, and original ideas. I am concerned that much of the traditional agency world is no longer built to cater to that critical mass of clients. 

LBB> It feels like you’re saying the middle has fallen out of the market somewhat - is that right? 

Ben> I do think you’re seeing a lot of that, yeah. Which is a lot like what we’re seeing in wider society - the polar ends are growing while the middle is shrinking and it’s creating a very big divide. The question you need to ask is whether the ideas coming out of the premium side of that divide are truly fresher, or better. I’m not sure that they are. 

LBB> So do you think smaller, more agile creative teams are better suited to deliver those fresh ideas? 

Ben> I think so, yeah. I’ve had great experiences of mixing fractional agencies together with our own in-house teams. And I’ve never felt that I was paying a cost in terms of the quality of the creative from fractional teams - quite the opposite, in fact. 

Having worked with some of the largest ad networks on the planet, I found that some of the ideas were very ordinary and - most importantly - not ownable. In larger creative teams there seems to be a focus on ‘tapping into the zeitgeist’ without much thought given to whether an idea might be relevant for my company. I have a really specific memory of this, when the zeitgeist-y thing was murmurations of birds turning into brand logos. One agency was adamant that we should do this, but I couldn’t figure out how it was relevant to our brand or how it would differentiate us - in fact, it would likely ensure we blended into the rest of the competition. That’s where groupthink can really hold you back. 

What I’m looking for in a creative partner is something that gives me a competitive advantage in my market. So original thinking is a must. 

LBB> So if you’re often working with in-house creative teams, why is it still important for you to get the external input from an agency? 

Ben> There are two issues that tend to arise when you rely solely on in-house teams. The first is that they’re too close to the client’s internal culture to see the range of ideas which might break the mould. The second is that, often, the client couldn’t attract the right kind of creative talent to a mid-sized financial company, because that’s not where great creative talent wants to go and work. On top of that, a lot of these companies are headquartered in places that make top-tier creative talent inaccessible. 

This is an important point, because - with the economics of the industry as they currently are - if those smaller fractional teams didn’t exist then in-house teams would be the only option companies have left. And that’s rarely the optimal choice. 

LBB> With all of those changes in mind, a phrase we’ve heard repeated a lot in this series is that “freelancer is no longer a dirty word”. Would you agree with that? 

Ben> I would. Not so long ago, a freelancer was known as someone who wasn’t really ‘in’ your business and was a bit of a hired gun. But that was then, and it’s not the case anymore. I recently had a freelancer come in to create some decks for our marketing department, and they did such an incredible job - both in terms of quality and efficiency. They did a wonderful job, and I’m pretty sure they were able to get themselves a new kitchen as a result of the work they did. 

So we don’t really consider that person to be a ‘freelancer’ in the traditional sense. They acted like a fully integrated part of our team, and I’ve seen plenty of instances of that in recent years. 

LBB> Finally, I wanted to zoom out and ask a broader question. Do you think this renewed emphasis on fractional workers and small creative teams is part of a response to the pandemic? Or is it something much deeper that’s going to be permanent? 

Ben> Nothing is permanent - but I do think this is going to be long-term. I recently worked with Stephen Goldblatt and Partners in Crime, which is a creative syndicate that was founded long before the pandemic began. Those guys were thriving pre-pandemic, and they’re still thriving today. 

It’s probably true to say that fractional creatives and smaller agencies got a boost with the growth of remote working culture - but even with that being the case, there’s a clear and obvious business case for why they’re going to continue being part of the landscape for a long time in the future.