“UK ad market will not grow again until 2010”

Says Publicis: UK ad market will not grow again until 2010, says Publicis chairman | Media | guardian.co.uk

Just out of interest, how many of you regularly get work from creative ad/digital agencies? Have you noticed any changes in their use (hiring more/less) of your freelance services as the recession starts to sink its teeth in?

Maurice Levy says they will “endeavour to maintain staffing levels” but does not “not rule out.. job cuts.” Is the amount of work outsourced to freelancers suffering as a result? Is there a silver lining in that you’re finding clients previously using the larger agencies realise they still need to advertise/promote/update their website etc so are now coming directly to you for a more cost-effective solution?

Would appreciate your experiences..

Thanks
Freelance UK

 

Well I've been doing really well since the 'credit crunch'. Of course it may not last. I'm finding that boutique size agencies are holding off hiring perm staff and so are feeling safer in using freelancers to work on the overflow, as and when. They pay a bit extra but there's no commitment and no one to pay when there's no work coming in.

Of course next week... ...who knows.

Alison
Pingsweetie

 

Yeah I'd also say an increase in traffic these past three months...........a lot of effort's being generated out there. :happy

The future feels completely unpredictable though.........I wouldn't be surprised if 2009 was either a wasteland or bumper year.......how can you tell when things are so crazy? :confused2

I do a regular amount of work for a certain car company......will they still be with us in '09?

Hope so......

 

Bump!

We're a year and a half on from this last conversation so I thought I'd bump this one up to see how everyone's doing?

How's business everyone? Did 2009 pan out better or worse than expected? What about this year? Did election jitters affect your business?

Interested to hear how you're all doing :bye

 

Last year was steady for me - I had a good amount of work in and, other than during the typical quieter months of December and Jan, I had very few days when I had nothing to do. Work was often being confirmed at the last minute though, so I frequently didn't know what I'd be doing from one week to another. Most of the work was for direct clients or marketing agencies that didn't employ any designers though rather than for design agencies where I would have been going in as an extra pair of hands.

Since February of this year I've been flat out :banana - it's been a bit of a juggling act at times. It's probably a 50/50 split between direct clients (gained as a result of referrals and work put in over the last year prospecting and networking) and agency work. To be honest, most of my work on this side of things is for just two or three creative agencies/marketing companies, the main one being my previous employer. While I don't want all eggs in one basket I'm happy with this situation for the time being as I see the direct client work increasing. I know there's a fair amount more work around freelancing for other creative agencies (I've had to turn some down and I know other friends who are busy on this side of things). In part, I think that's as a result of the design agencies holding off recruiting permanent staff until they are confident that the economy is well on the way to recovery - I'd anticipate that they some may look to recruit around September time, once the new government has settled in and after the quieter summer months/holiday period are done.

I remain optimistic about this year but I think it's still very important to remain cautious. Overall though I think now is potentially a great time to take advantage of opportunities that arise from the recovery