Project Shops
Project shops are finding that keeping low cost staffers on board during lean times can actually be more cost effective, especially if they can utilize those resources to help market their services, rather than competing for freelance contractors that can be difficult to manage and maintain. (A big chunk of the Madison Ave. agencys creative dept. is in Bangalore.)
But fundamentally the creative services business model is still a tough way to make money (but whos in it for the money, right?)
There is hope on the horizon for marketing communications professionals that want to manage their own business but not be a slave to the project-by-project model: social business services. Since the nature of social communications is less campaign, demand gen focused and more about generating a consistent level of awareness in the marketplace with industry-relevant content, fee-based models based on service level agreements is more applicable to socially-oriented creative services than ever before. Its a business model that warrants further investigation at the very least.
If youre in the creative services business and its been awhile since youve seen Darrin Stevens in the throes of an honest-to-goodness panic attack, try watching an episode or two of Bewitched. Youll feel better.
