Coronavirus - What next for Design and Advertising agencies?

With weeks of lockdown stretching into months and a constant parade of hastily assembled, piano-led brand pieces filling up the space between endless rolling news, we have to ask the question what next for the design and advertising industry? Rapid adaptation to problems is within our DNA after all, surely we can adapt and survive this crisis? Once we’ve finished cobbling together edits of video calls and stock footage anyway.

Let’s face it until we have a widely available vaccine there will be no immediate return to business as usual. Offices will become very different places, meetings kept to a bare minimum to avoid face to face contact and confinement in small meeting rooms. Staggered shift patterns and screens will keep us apart for some time to come. 

What we make and how we make it will also change, with shifting markets, sectors bouncing back at different speeds, not to mention a recession of epic proportions in the post. Many industries are due a shakeup, but maybe none more so than ours.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while and not just since the current crisis, but a rather interesting article drifted into my feed today with strong opinion from Sir Martin: Sorrell: COVID-19 will trigger 'Darwinian cull' of ad industry | Analysis What’s interesting about this piece and his standpoint, is that the big group agency model he attacks as being outdated and outmoded is exactly the one he helped build and is not a million miles away from his new S4 group of companies, even if they have a more digital focus. He raises interesting questions about legacy agencies, 4A’s and the big guns, can they adapt, are they nimble, agile and ready for a very new reality, can they even survive this latest crisis. His position is the industry as they know it is dead and digital is now king. (I do wonder if he would have held this position if he was still at the helm of WPP) I’m going to somewhat disagree with my erstwhile employer. It’s not the media that is the issue, it’s the model. There will always be TV/Cinema advertisements, there will always be outdoor, and even print will play a part in our lives for a long time to come. But the agency model is busted we all know it but daren’t speak it. 

As Mr Sorrell admits the big agency model is done. It’s not what it used to be iconic founders who gave their names to agency land, Ogilvy, BBH, JWT, Saachi et al, producing amazing work with craft shaping an industry to today’s bloated commodity. Inflated costs, overstaffed accounts and servicing teams have left many clients frustrated, not to mention the creatives for whom the big agency machine can suck the life from. 

This same agency model has thrown out, furloughed and in the main been rather fast and loose with its teams in this crisis. We can imagine it will take an awful lot for the industry to restart where it was, for staff to trust their employers again or to return to work on cut-price salaries. 

It’s likely we will see a glut of amazing freelance talent on the market free from their shackles and ready to work in new ways, many remotely, leaving those bright shiny adland buildings somewhat empty. Alongside this big clients will see their budgets slashed and require a more cost-effective option or agency who offers more bang for their buck.  

We’ve always been fans of remote work and indeed itsnotrockescience was set up to be a haven for remote work, for disenfranchised creatives who wanted to work on quality projects with craft and real autonomy. We feel this gets the best from our teams and remote hours can be done around life events, like a trip to the vets or bath time with the kids. It opens up a more holistic approach to working, maximising creative productivity and reducing those hours sitting in front of the keyboard waiting for the clock to hit 6 pm so you can leave the office. 

Working remote and still delivering work to our high standards takes time to implement and is not without its challenges, we’re lucky that our core team and favourite suppliers have all worked together previously ensuring we have good communication and a trusted relationship. We make sure that we do face to face day-long kick-off sessions to ensure we all know our roles and what needs to come together to deliver. Our systems and processes have been honed over the last few years to ensure smooth execution of projects using a range of remote/cloud-based solutions that have exploded under lock-down. 

This could be the future, the next wave of creative agency will be agile, lean, with lower overheads allowing the same quality of work at a reduced cost, whilst not compromising the final output is something we can all get behind. As creatives, a more flexible and open routine brings its own advantages and opportunities to utilise non-working hours for life-enriching experiences and inspiration. For clients, this means better work and reduced overheads, with a team that is passionate about what they do. It really is a win, win. 

Traditional shops will adapt but it will take time to adjust to a new reality and processes that come with this new model, the transition will not be painless and will take considerable time. In the meantime, new small businesses will arrive already set up for the new reality, just like itsnotrocketscience. 

Stephan Roux is Executive Creative Director of itsnotrocketscience and Co-founder & CCO of Genus.media