Insights / Agency

Expanding the team with freelancers

It's about scaling up when the right project comes along. So it's like in the film industry, you're creating a film, obviously you go find the right director, the right props folks, the right talent, so we try and treat different projects in that way. We're tasked with creating the conceptual idea, that unique idea, and then we figure out from there who to bring in.

There's so many super talented great freelance folks in town, everybody from writers, to art directors, and directors, editors, people that focus on digital, or on motion graphics, there's so many different people that we're constantly reaching out to, but make sure that the project that they're tasked with is appropriate for them. When we're working with someone that's on a different continent, we have different schedules, but anyone that works in the creative industry knows that you're not always on the clock, it's important to turn off, but there's lots of flexibility and how we work with with other people. If creative folks want to create amazing work that's new, interesting, and unique, we've been very fortunate, most of our suppliers and partners have been incredible, and really do go above and beyond.

It's up to us to be really clear about our expectations, and how we write briefs, whether they're agency briefs or creative briefs, how we brief freelancers. Our job is to be communicators, to communicate ideas, to communicate products, so if we can't communicate with each other then there's challenges. So I think it's really important to be clear with freelancer expectations right up front and say "this is the level that we're working to, this is how we work, this is how we schedule check-ins". We make sure everyone is very clear on timing, budgets, scope, and make sure everyone is all in before we really engage in a project.

Our bar is high, we have high expectations, and we make sure that the people we're working with are also excellent, and that they achieve a high creative status. I think it's pretty evident in the work that people deliver and how they communicate if they're going to be all in or not. We want to make sure that we're getting something great out of it, the client is getting something great, and also whoever we're working with is really proud of the work they're doing.

Expanding the team with freelancers

Clients: Vancouver Airport AuthorityLululemonCanadian Media FundKoho