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The Pond restructures its offering, responds to increased demand for freelancers

Good news for creatives on The Pond’s books – the company is growing bigger due to demand from agency and corporate clients.

The Pond’s talent director, Leighton Howl, says the company has split its offering into two agent teams of three: one focused on agencies, and the other dealing directly with corporate and SME clients.

The overall team has grown from seven people to 10, due to increasing freelance and full-time talent demands.

“It’s got crazy busy in the last six months, which is great,” Howl says.

New talent director Will Gregory heads up The Pond’s corporate team, with Howl heading up the team dedicated to agency clients.

“We’re experiencing unprecedented demand from the corporate sphere, especially in the area of digital, so the time is right to launch this direct HR service for the corporates,” Gregory says.

“Coming from an account service background where I was the connective tissue between creatives and clients, heading up our corporate direct team is the perfect opportunity for me. With support from Celine Ji for all things digital, and new junior agent, Brooke Telford, corporate clients can expect even higher levels of service plus access to the best, proven, and vetted creative and marketing professionals whenever they need them.”

The corporate market for creative and digital talent is not the only growth area for The Pond. Agencies are today using more freelancers than ever before, while full-time hiring in creative and design roles has remained steady, for now.

“We think this is because agencies, following 10 years of change, are locking in about 60 percent of key creative staff for full-time while engaging the remaining 40 percent resource from freelancers,” Howl says.

“This is due to many reasons, including their changing client needs, massive digital growth, reduced media commissions, fewer retainers, and more lumpy projects, with all of this creating more inconsistent revenue. In turn, this creates a headache for pinning resources against projects.”

The Pond’s agent restructure is also fresh news for the more than 500 represented freelance creative and digital professionals on its books, because it promises to expose them to more clients and bring them more work, especially nationwide – plus it has the potential to expand their portfolios and exercise their talents on a wider canvas.

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