Creative recruiter The Pond has restructured and added more personnel – a move it says is in response to runaway demand from agency and corporate clients for creative, design, digital, and marketing talent.
“We’ve finally split our offering into two agent teams of three: one focused on agencies, and the other dealing directly with corporate and SME clients,” says The Pond founder/talent director Leighton Howl.
“We’ve also grown our overall team from seven people to 10, due to increasing freelance and full-time talent demands from agencies and corporates wanting design and digital people for their in-house operations. It’s got crazy busy in the last six months, which is great.”
New talent director Will Gregory heads up The Pond’s corporate team, while Leighton Howl heads up the team dedicated to agency clients.
“We’ve split our offering into two agent teams of three: one focused on agencies, and the other dealing directly with corporate and SME 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,” says Gregory.
“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 Pond’s agent restructure is also fresh news for the 500+ represented freelance creative and digital professionals on their books.”
The corporate market for creative and digital talent is not the only growth area for this premium creative talent agency. “Agencies are today using more freelancers – particularly in digital’s top seven professions – than ever before, while fulltime hiring in creative and design roles has remained steady, for now,” Leighton Howl says.
“We think this is because agencies, following 10 years of change, are locking in about 60% of key creative staff for fulltime while engaging the remaining 40% resource from freelancers.
“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 500+ represented freelance creative and digital professionals on their 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.
- www.thepond.net
- Phone: +64 9 373 3791
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