The Quills

We just joined Bluesky Social. Please follow us there at @thequills.bsky.social?. We intend to share our thoughts on writing, recommendations for other people's writing and, of course, relentless self-promotion of our own writing. But, yeah, it'll be mostly about writing. Man, it's great to find a new platform that, so far anyway, is free of the vitriol, hate and noise that plague so many of the social platforms these days. We are loathe to open too many social channels because no one needs to hear from us *that* much, but it's a good opportunity to be a part of something that has a real possibility to change the tenor of public discourse. #bluesky #socialmedia #writing

Sometimes, you work on a project with so much purpose, that it doesn't feel like work at all. That was the case for us with Emerson Collective's Positive Sum Magazine, which featured 7 long-form articles including one for Midi Health, an incredible company that provides midlife healthcare for women. One of our many incredibly talented writers, MJ Deery, not only researched the subject matter extensively and did multiple interviews with patients, she also used her own experiences with and knowledge of women's health to create something very, very different. Much like the company itself. You can read it, along with several of the other pieces we helped to create, here: https://lnkd.in/eCHUbFXE We started The Quills to bring a new level of writing to every aspect of business. To be able to work with visionary companies like Emerson Collective, who want to constantly push what is possible, on a project of this magnitude, is something we never dreamed of this early on. A huge thank you to them for trusting us with it.

?? NEW WORK FROM The Quills AND Emerson Collective ?? When we started The Quills, it was our dream to bring a high level of quality to *every* type of writing, not just advertising and marketing. Dream unlocked. We were asked to provide editorial writing for Positive Sum, the annual magazine from Emerson Collective, the company founded by Laurene Powell Jobs, featuring their many funded startups, and we couldn't believe our luck. The outcome is the most beautifully designed, thoughtfully executed, and, if we may say so, well-written magazine we could have ever imagined. We feel incredibly privileged to be a part of it and to have a client who really, truly believes that great writing is essential to doing business. A huge thank you to Gabe Kleinman Jon Willard Nicole Radford Elena Hale Kim Jacobs and the whole Emerson Collective team for trusting us with this hugely important project. And a massive thanks to our team of writers, Liz Gumbinner MJ Deery Spenser Mestel Gia Mora and Laura Bolt for absolutely crushing these phenomenal editorial pieces. If you can't get a copy, you can see it digitally here: https://lnkd.in/eCHUbFXE

The Fed cut interest rates a half point yesterday. I'm no economist, but I am somewhat of an optimist, and I do think this will spark the end of this shitty marketing slump. I just hope we build our industry back more sustainably. About a year ago, I asked one of my best friends, who is a CMO, why he thought marketing and advertising were suffering so much. His answer, which was the smartest take I've heard since this all started over 2 years ago, was that marketing is inherently an investment in the future. When companies are trying, in the face of historically high interest rates, to prove that they're profitable for The Street, their first move is to cut costs, slash staff, and end benefits. They have not been thinking beyond the next earnings call. Marketing is the very last thing on their minds. Now, with a rate cut, the calculus begins to change. Growth, not just profitability, becomes more of a possibility with cheaper money. Of course, over the last two years, we've seen an explosion of new ideas and models in advertising and marketing while we've simultaneously watched the legacy holding companies slash, merge and consolidate their way to marginal profitability. The new models (shameless plug for The Quills goes here) have reimagined not just how to get work done in better and more efficient ways, they have changed how the industry is staffed, how to utilize the vast number of super talented freelancers out there and how to price for a market where there aren't a lot of $2 Million spots being created anymore. The holding companies are investing the money previously used to employ real people into AI, so they no longer have to employ anyone. This, of course, means more money in their own pockets and less money in the pockets of the people who make our industry work. Today is the first day of the next wave in our industry.?I really believe that. I sincerely hope that those who are investing in marketing and advertising with hopefully refreshed budgets and optimism for the future consider those new models (yes, like my own) that are trying to create change for the better rather than trying to revive an old industry that is no longer built for how things work today and is instead trying to compete in arenas in which they have no real expertise. Thanks for the cut, Jerome Powell. Now, let's get back to work.

Last week, I was asked why you rarely see marketers touting their agencies anymore. It kind of blew my mind because I hadn't really noticed. When did people stop getting excited about advertising? Or even talking about it? I totally get that we're in the middle of a now 2-year cycle of shitty news in the industry. There are staff cuts, hiring freezes and consolidation and that, of course, leads to malaise and a lack of motivation. But that shouldn't make an entire industry less interesting. When I got into advertising seven bajillion years ago, it was at the start of a golden age of creativity in music, film, and, yes, advertising. We were in constant competition to see who could do something that would blow everyone's minds. Yes, the budgets were bigger, but so was the need to just do something, anything, different. There were rockstar writers and art directors. There were directors who you worshipped who would only do two spots a year. Even radio spots were fertile ground for embarrassing your fellow creatives. Clients put the work first and, when they bought something great, they couldn't wait to tell the world about it. Today is, yeah, different. If you read the latest article about Nike losing its way and its marketshare along with it, at least part of the blame can be laid at the feet of walking away from the brand (the work) that made them a juggernaut. You can say the same thing about our entire industry. We shifted our focus from building brands to increasing "performance," and with it, we shifted away from the real value that we bring: Excitement. And we're going to continue to go down that road with AI if we're not careful. Performance marketing ain't going away. Budgets will likely never return to the levels they previously were. The ways in which we communicate are much more niche. But come on. We're the most creative people in the business world. We are more capable than anyone else of making things interesting at the very least. I started The Quills because I thought writing was something that was undervalued in the business world. But I also started it because I was fucking bored by the industry's descent into data and analytics and robots and shit. I wanted to do work again. I wanted that exciting feeling of creating something new. Of building something from nothing. Of challenging conventional wisdom of what "works". And you know what's awesome? There are so many other people who are starting amazingly cool new models and even old school concept-first agencies who have the same idea. Advertising and communications aren't dead. They're just lost. And while the holding companies are busy trying to compete in arenas that they have never even entered before to save some dough on staffing, the rest of us remember that feeling of making something that made our friends jealous, our rivals insane and our clients tell the world about us. Let's, and excuse the inconvenient reference here, make advertising exciting again.

Marketing might be broken, but I'll bet you a million bucks that it will be the *independent* agencies, consultancies and freelancers that are going to fix it. The contraction in our industry is real. Literally almost all of my friends are looking for work right now. But many of them are also considering how to make this business work for them and, really, work better for the industry. And they are succeeding. And it's awesome. You can't escape the idea that what our industry has done to itself over the last decade is at least partially self-inflicted. We fucked ourselves by marking up our work to almost unbelievable levels against actual costs, we carried three times the staff we actually needed to create relatively simple work and we gathered a bunch of disparate agencies into holding companies that perform no actual marketing functions, just deal making. Now, as the funding gets squeezed off, it has laid bare these colossal structural problems. Marketers need marketing. They don't need to pay for real estate holdings and dividend checks for shareholders. It doesn't buy them anything. The independent models that are arriving on to the market make an almost ridiculous amount of sense for where we are now. They have light teams. They use the best talent on the market, which is mostly freelance right now. They are able to do the same work for a fraction of the cost. They enable clients to directly interface with the people directly working on their business. They are able to be more nimble because there are not a dozen layers on every project. Don't get me wrong. I miss $2 Million productions and 8 week timelines for concepting. That shit was amazing. I'm so happy I got to live through that. But it's over. The new world moves much faster and leaner. When I started The Quills last year, it was to harness all of the absolutely incredible creative writing talent I knew to handle work that was actually needed in the marketplace. Is it all sexy brand campaigns and product launches? No. Some of it is. And some of it is editorial, white papers, content curation, thought-leadership and web copy. The little stuff that companies need everyday. For our clients, it has been incredibly useful. Emphasis on the word "useful". We, like so many independent shops, are able to do this because we were able to rethink what is needed for this market rather than keeping our shareholders happy. We also have a massive pool of talent that holding companies are unable to use as they've put an arbitrary cap on freelance workers because it's just not as profitable as full-time workers. There are more models coming into the market everyday because there's an opening for innovation and, contrary to the doom and gloom we see on this platform everyday, it's actually really exciting. It's like a controlled burn to help us grow back stronger than before. So shout out to all of the indies trying new things right now. Yes, even if you're our competition. You're okay, too.

Before starting The Quills a year and a half ago, I had never had the opportunity to pay someone for their work. I have to say that it's an absolutely incredible feeling. It's wild that so many companies in our industry seem to dislike it. Let me also mention that I have not been paid very much over the last year, and that part definitely is NOT awesome. Going from a 15-year run of freelancing during advertising's heyday to being a startup founder of a new, unfamiliar model for writing during a marketing bloodbath has been a brutal reality for my checking account that I was definitely unprepared for. Paying other people when you're not paying yourself is an act of trusting that the future is bright. So far, though, we have managed to pay over 50 writers for their work during some very tough times. It hasn't been very much. These have been small projects with short timelines. But the act itself is pretty fucking great. At this moment, it feels like this is not a widely shared belief in our industry. Yes, times are tough right now in marketing, and believe me, I get that in a very real way. But each day, there are more stories about massive staff cuts, criminally low salaries offered for senior-level positions, freelancers being offered half of what they were making before for the same job, and corporations making agencies wait 3 or 4 months to get paid just...because. It seems like we're in a race to the bottom on all sides of our industry, not only putting ourselves out of work, but truly devaluing what it is that we do every day. What we do as creatives and strategists and producers and account people changes the fortunes of agencies and makes brands famous. What we do as an industry makes corporations billions of dollars and moves markets. We have real, tangible value. So why are we insisting that it doesn't? Right now, corporations are betting that slashing marketing budgets and reducing headcount will help them squeeze profits and keep their stock prices aloft. In turn, holding companies are demanding their agencies cut freelancers and staff and investing in AI in the hopes that they will be able to get out of paying human employees in the future. Agencies, trying to survive all of this, are offering ever-lower salaries and cutting day rates to the bone to do the work they need to do. It seems like no one likes to pay anyone for their work anymore. It's a downward spiral that we will only escape from if we start realizing our value again. And I assure you that we have real, quantifiable value. I wouldn't have started The Quills if I didn't believe that writing had real value in business, just as I wouldn't pay other writers if I felt they didn't have real value to mine. The act of paying talented people what you can and, even better, what they're actually worth might not always be helpful for the stock price and shareholders in the near term, but it will help lift all of us in the long run. Pay people, people.

NEWS: For the past year, we've been helping our friends at guide:human build a revolutionary new social network with content curation from our phenomenal writers. In a time when most social platforms are as toxic as they've ever been, guide:human is dedicated to creating a safe, super creative and collaborative space for all of us. We couldn't be more proud to be involved.

Goldman Sachs just published a piece saying that the emperor may be wearing significantly fewer clothes than anticipated when it comes to AI. After a year and a half of running The Quills, which employs human writers, I concur. I am not an AI hater. I believe it will very likely change how every industry works and it will definitely change ours. It's fruitless to argue that it won't or that it's inherently good or bad. The future is unknowable. Trying to hold it back is also an exercise in futility. But according to Goldman, the hype does not match the predicted benefits at this point in time. Remember, these are cold, calculating investment professionals. They don't care if AI can write the greatest story ever told or if it puts us all in the soup line. They care if it's worth the investment. Last year, they said AI could raise the global GDP by 7%. A year later? They're singing a different tune. From where I am sitting, for whatever it's worth, I am seeing the same thing. When I launched The Quills the same day as ChatGPT launched a subscription model, there were a nonzero number of people who thought I was crazy, stupid, or an equal combination of the two. If I'm being honest, I had doubts myself. Today, after working for dozens of companies, from startups to corporations, on scores of writing assignments, I can say now with reasonable confidence that a decent part of what we writers do for a living is not going away any time soon. This is probably because writing isn't just the act of putting words on a page. It's listening, thinking, synthesizing, conceiving, and then, when all of that is done, putting all of it into words, sentences, and paragraphs. Will some lower-lift writing tasks be swallowed whole by AI? Probably. Will a good number of writers in our industry become redundant because of it? Hate to say it, but it might. But will AI replace our craft in its entirety? I guess I don't see it. Perhaps this is because it is difficult enough for companies to describe to us in literal spoken words what they need, let alone write prompts into an algorithm, that results in a piece of writing that meets or exceeds their expectations. Despite what the hype machine is saying today, what we do is actually quite nuanced and difficult. It is developed through years of lived experience, human perspective and an understanding of the problem that needs to be solved. I'm happy that there are still people in the business world who know that and see great ideating and writing as a strength and an advantage. Will Goldman's prediction, that the value of AI might not meet the overwhelming hype, hold true? We will probably not know until at least several years into the future. All I know, simply through what I hear from our customers, is that the value of real writing conceived by real people has significant value right now. Like now now.

The advertising model is breaking. It's not because agencies have been doing too little. It's because they've been doing too much. I just saw an article today in Ad Age that agencies are rebranding as "creative consultancies" or "marketing accelerators", which obviously isn't going to fool anyone, but the idea that "agency" has become a loaded term is real and it has nothing to do with the label. It really has to do with the fact that agencies have become synonymous with overcharging, layers of management and upselling more and more offerings clients don't need and aren't asking for. When I got into advertising, you became known for something. An agency could be great at TV. A creative could be an incredible art director. A consultant could be phenomenal at UX. Today, that is no longer the case. Agencies and holding companies (and individuals), in an effort to vacuum up as much cash as possible, have tried to become experts in everything everywhere all at once. To that end, they've ensured that they are the very best at exactly none of it. And clients can tell. Especially when budgets get tight and shit gets real. There are approximately 12034727 million ways to market products and services right now and it would be impossible for anyone to be great at every single one, let alone, like, 3 of them. And yet, holding companies are trying. You can't be exceptional at TV and social and PR and VFX and also try to beat Silicon Valley at AI all at the same time. The same phenomenon applies to individuals in our industry, who do this, too. How many times have you seen "interdisciplinary" or "multi-faceted storyteller" on here? It makes it nearly impossible for anyone to actually know what to hire them to do. We have all generalized our way out of working on specifics. In fact, over the last year and a half of The Quills, I've heard that same complaint over and over from customers. The "everything model" doesn't work for them, so they come to us for the very best writing. Not design. Not motion graphics. Not apps. Writing. And that's what we give them. In a variety of forms, yes, but largely, yeah, just writing. And, if I may say so, we are fucking great at it. Look, this isn't convenient for everyone. I'm not deluded enough to think that agency networks and holding companies are going to scale back their offerings just to be specialists. It doesn't make a lot of sense when you've got so much overhead. Plus, when you're a public company, you have enough cash to try to buy your way to generalization. But I do think, with the sheer number of jobs there are to accomplish now in marketing, and the staggering number of incredible minds currently outside the four walls of agencies, there is an amazing opportunity to, once again, do one thing really well and absolutely crush it. Or you can change your label to "marketing accelerator" and see if that works.