Will work for all it’s worth - the launch of Agency Nil
20th May 09
Posted in transformational change
Almost everyone who works at an agency has a few favourite horror stories about the particularly tricky negotiation into their first position. The crazed lunacy of certain graduate recruitment processes (mine still gives me nightmares), the deeply uncomfortable hours spent in creative directors’ offices having your book taken to pieces, begging your way onto an intern programme, starting out in the mailroom. It’s always been tough. It’s part of the folklore. At least the reward’s in the car park.
But now it’s tougher than ever. No, really. A punchy piece by Jef Loeb on TalentZoo.com, “Same as It Never Was“, published just recently, paints a undeniably grim picture of an industry undergoing dramatic change. Loeb’s themes - structural transformation, accelerating evolution of new media trends, financial woes - are painfully familiar. As he notes, even if we’ve passed the bottom of the trough, our “shared profession is more than a long link or two from being at the top of the food recovery chain”.
Imagine now that you’re just graduating from your Ad School or coming to the end of a degree or Fine Arts programme. Suddenly the tales we recount of our elaborate scheming to get a job out of college look like some kind of joke. Where would you start today?
We met a brilliant young graduate from the VCU Brandcenter a few weeks ago who finds himself in exactly this position. Hank Leber is fresh out of this highly prestigious school, is clearly awesomely smart and is super nice & full of character into the bargain. Given we’re not taking on interns just at the moment (oh, how I wish we could), we got talking about exactly what Hank might do.
We talked about the trials of internship (Hank had previously had a very successful internship at DDB, so he knew what he was talking about when he mentioned hard work). We mulled over the crunch that agencies were feeling right now, making even internships tricky to come by, let alone permanent positions. And we noted that despite all this, many agencies were still spending heavily on (expensive) freelance resource. As Loeb notes, we’re “living in an extraordinarily deep and flexible buyers’ market for full time, freelance and project-based help alike.”
As we talked about this last point, Hank came up with a radical idea. Forget begging your way onto the bottom of a long and fairly shaky ladder, working to cover expenses. Hell, why not just launch an agency instead? But an agency with a difference. An agency that doesn’t charge. Agency Nil.
This is the rationale, straight from Hank:
———–
It’s been a while since I had an Econ class, but I remember the laws of supply and demand. If supply goes down and demand goes up, price goes up. Supply goes up and demand goes down, the price tanks. In advertising we now have a ton of supply (talented but jobless ad people) and lower demand (clients cutting budgets mercilessly) and indeed levels of fees and margins ARE coming down for agencies, for the SAME level of service, or even more.
I think there’s a pride clause to be noted. Freelancers won’t work for less than what they’re used to, and laid-off ad people can’t fathom living paycheck to paycheck.
The only ones left to do the work for cheap are interns. But interns need hand holding, at best. At worst - a reworking of their work which takes as much time as doing the work yourself.
ENTER: the young, hungry, talented, not-afraid-to-take-a-risk individuals coming out of portfolio schools, graduate programs, and those from agencies - recently laid off but not yet spoiled by a big paycheck.
We can do the work, have the confidence and skills to do it well, we’re complete digital natives, and we don’t mind taking the risk of saying “don’t pay anything up front, then. We’ll do the work and if you like it, then pay us whatever you think is fair.” We’ll prove it.
It works out nicely for both parties. The agencies can feel like they’re shaving big percentages off of their expenditures and we the workers wind up doing better in the long run than getting sporadic freelance at a high rate. And we’re learning as we go . . .
It’s a win/win. And that’s the kind of business I like to be in.
———–
Hank & his team are going to make this work. I strongly encourage you to check out what they’re saying about what they do, how they propose to go about it, and how you can get involved. Their site is http://www.agencynil.com/, their twitter feed is at https://twitter.com/agencynil and Hank’s at hank@agencynil.com.
We’re really up for seeing how this goes at BBH Labs because this is an innovative and simple new model that appears incredibly timely. And I’m just struck by - and a little envious of - their energy and their raw swagger. That alone makes Hank & his new colleagues stand out from the crowd right now and ensures that whatever the external or initial response to this new start-up, they’ll make this awesome.
34 comments on “Will work for all it’s worth - the launch of Agency Nil”
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Ben Malbon
Very, very smart model – and congrats to Hank.
My only concern is that the industry has spent years fighting an uphill battle of intellectual property when it comes to new business pitches. Some of the ballsier agencies have managed to put their foot down, but this makes me wonder whether such an open model would reverse the little progress we’ve made in getting clients not to take creative output for granted and expect “free ideas.”
Still, like Hank suggests, this may just be the inevitable reaction to the supply/demand imbalance of the times.
In response to Maria’s comment, “Still, like Hank suggests, this may just be the inevitable reaction to the supply/demand imbalance of the times.” I believe that crowdsourcing is the real inevitable reaction to supply/demand imbalance, but unlike crowdsourcing where the value is placed upfront, there is no value in this model until the client decides what it’s worth. I’m not sure if I would want to work on something and not know if I was going to get paid or not. Maybe setting a minimum if the client does choose to accept the work would be to Agency Nil’s best interest. In the spirit on entrepreneurship, I hope this agency does succeed.
[...] Will work for all it’s worth - the launch of Agency Nil « BBH Labs watching this (tags: agency business interns) [...]
Nice idea, nice model, hope it works
Love it. Great work Hank!
Dear jinal how are you thank you for the work you are doing its really good for our brothers and sisters to get out of there and go abroad and work .i have a daughter who is doing a uk diploma in uganda i would like her to go to dubai and work .thanks jinal bye.
this post makes me hungry - hungry for change and ‘yes I CAN’ despite my age, despite my position - its the world now - its not merely a ‘nice idea, a nice model’ its the fact that todays technology is democratic and gives power from the bottom up, to the masses. Now mix that glorious platform with the (slighly jaded, but extremely hungry) 20-something psyche - the new young professional that has friends up the corporate ladder as well as bohemian squaller friends living without heat - folks that can fuse their college degrees with a ‘fuck it’ attitude! While I understand brainpicker’s fear of ‘free ideas’ - what I fear more is the corporatization of Hank’s agency - looking at his client rooster - I think they should also seek clients as individuals, artists, non-profits, schools, NGOS alike…?
The problem isn’t with the creative output (which I’m sure is stellar), but with the psychology of the buyer. Human beings evaluate their options differently based on scarcity and perceived value. While I love the disruption this model represents, whenever a client needs to hire “the best,” they’re going to have cognitive dissonance in also hiring “the free.” Fantastic model for this moment in time though…
Brilliant idea that must have taken a lot of guts to put into action - and of course talent and networking to build a solid team that clients won’t be too skeptical to hire.
Aaron With regard to your statement, “While I love the disruption this model represents, whenever a client needs to hire “the best,” they’re going to have cognitive dissonance in also hiring “the free” - that’s the whole point of Agency Nil. It’s not free. Or at least, any self-respecting client should remember that they aren’t.
It’s even better that they are allowing clients to weigh their work and decide for themselves. Only truly talented folk can be so confident. All the best to Hank and team.
This heady mix of revolution and irreverence may be seductive, but its just bullshit, just another way to lure clients in before relying on traditional billing mechanisms.
You pay for what you get. One prob is some clients (and likely the ones who will be most interested in this agency) don’t really have any clue what “it’s” worth. You’ll prob have help them (and yourselves) with this. Good stuff and good luck, Hank and crew.
[...] [Via BBH Labs] [...]
I’m confused. Does agency nil work with brands directly, or just through agencies?
Thanks for the writeup, Ben. You’re too kind - far too kind.
Things are really exciting - lots of interest from businesses as well as agencies, and most everyone is being open and comfortable with the model. We all know value.
To Jeremy: Agency Nil is set up for anyone who wants good work done and is frustrated with the industry lately. Be it a big agency, small shop, global brand, or popcorn vendor. We are all smart enough to handle this idea, and the industry is small enough to keep bad treatment out of practice.
Thanks again for the thoughts and comments. Feel free to drop me a line to chat - I love meeting smart people.
Really great comments and some challenging questions too. We need more of both. No one - least of all Hank - is pretending this is going to be easy or it’s all been worked out. Please keep it coming . . . thanks for all the encouragement so far.
Immediatism begins with groups of friends trying not just to overcome isolation but also to enhance each other’s lives, soon it will want to take a more complex shape: - nuclei of mutually-self-chosen allies, working (playing) to occupy more & more time & space outside all mediated structure & control. Then it will want to become a horizontal network of such autonomous groups - then, a ‘tendency”- then, a “movements - then, a kinetic web of “temporary autonomous zones.” At last it will strive to become the kernel of a new society, giving birth to itself within the corrupt shell of the old. For all these purposes the secret society promises to provide a useful framework of protective clandestinity - a cloak of invisibility that will have to be dropped only in the event of some final showdown with the Babylon of Mediation …
The hardest part of what we do is convince our potential clients of the value of what we deliver. This model takes the hardest part of that equation out of the picture and gets you “in the door” faster and easier.
In this climate, maybe that’s a good tactic. You’re letting the quality of the work determine the financial value. With low overhead and an emphasis on never failing to deliver, it can be done.
Its becoming obvious the current model is a struggle that may not be worth the effort.
Only thing I disagree with is the part about freelancers. They can be part of a cost-effective and valuable project.
This concept is not new to young freelancers (spec work) but interesting to make it an agency model - I’ll be interested to see how it pans out for them… However, if I were the potential client, they would have lost me at the door (aprox 20 second wait to load the page on high speed connection).
Thanks for the nice notice on the “same as it never way” col. Hank’s Agency Nil notion is highly intriguing - just the kind of dangerously disruptive thinking you hope to see emerging from this kind of chaos. Whether the “danger” part overwhelms the happy disruption is the big and provocative question. Having extended, in a less formal sense, the “pay what you think it’s worth” offer in the past, I can say that it only works when both service-giver and service-getter a) truly get the “value” of what is being offered and b) have the integrity to follow through on that understanding.
Still, hope springs eternal and the seeing this kind of emergent creative problem solving speaks volumes about the positive possibilities on the other side of the darkling glass. Hell, for the right shot, who wouldn’t roll ‘em?
P.S. BBH Labs rocks.
Thanks Jef. Really enjoyed your piece so the feeling is mutual. Best, Ben
Nice job, Hank! Your energy and tenacity will power this thing. As folks have advised, set some parameters of value. Even museums with free admission suggest a donation.
Fascinating experiment. Wish Agency Nil all the best. The ad agency land is in desperate need of a shake-up like this.
One suggestion; in the web spirit of openness, sharing & collaboration, I would urge you to include a miniscule condition that all projects AND payment are disclosed on your website. That will filter the dodgy clients (well, I imagine agencies more likely) who might abuse your concept.
Go well.
While I applaud the creative initiative, I think it’s slightly off for 2 reasons:
First of all, unlike Radiohead who released ‘In rainbows’ with a similar concept, this agency has not proven themselves with actual work and results yet. The only leg our industry has to stand is past, proven results. That’s why creatives and agencies have books and reels. Otherwise, it’s all smoke and mirrors and anyone can talk a good game. So when it comes to brand building, a lot of it frankly, has to come down to trust. Metrics could help prove results later, but trust becomes the first step. And it’s an important first step.
So that means Nil would only be able to create immediate sales-driven work that isn’t part of any larger branding effort. Then their client would need to determine what percentage of those overall sales should be allocated to Nil’s work and whether that work actually affected the sales. This is something that no one yet has been able to analyze fully, so we’re in subjective-land.
That brings me to the second issue, which is kind of like relying only on an altruistic CEO to appreciate your efforts. Unlike ‘In Rainbows’, where listeners got to determine the value of the work in proportion to their listening pleasure, a business is bound by one thing to be a viable business - profit. And profit usually comes from keeping costs as low as possible, without sacrificing quality. So if I’m a CEO and you give me amazing quality - and I can pay what I want - as a smart business, I may in fact pay nil. That’s what business is all about. Sure, you can do what feels good and what is right, but when you have paychecks to cut and stockholders to answer to, I’m afraid that’s all out the window.
So it’s an interesting experiment, and I hope it works for him. But I do think there are ways of moving this industry forward that stay true to the tenets of good business practice, fairly compensate quality of ideas and work, and create a healthy environment for everyone to evolve that doesn’t undercut anyone else’s honest effort to stay competitive.
Tim G - Please step away from your agency lens for a second and try to look at agencynil from teh lens of an entrepreneur. Books, reels, work etc - is the agency language and frankly, agencynil or its thinking is probably not going to attract those types of people anyways. So no love lost. I think agencynil will attract likeminded people who like them, are willing to take a chance and are willign to experiment. I don’t agree that previous work experience builds trust - it might get you into the door but that’s about it. These kids are hungry and in a classic catch-22. Atleast they are innovating and trying. To me, that alone triumphs past work experience.
Agencynil isn’t undercutting anyone effort to stay competitive, neither is it de-valuing what you and I have built a career on. As they grow, their business model will evolve. For now, lets give them the room to breathe and make mistakes.
Oh and Hank - please get in touch. Can’t access your site for some reason. I’ve got work for you!
J
Jinal…Books, reels, work…that’s not an ‘agency’ lens. It’s the same thing as a portfolio, track record, resume, statistics, at-bats. Qualifications.
Whatever you want to call it, the reality of business is that, when someone needs to get an idea out there, made, and made well, it’s only prudent to make sure the one doing it has some references of prior work to back up their capabilities. Otherwise, it’s a crapshoot. Or call it an experiment if you like. But if I’m a business with a real problem, I don’t want crapshoots or experiments, I want results.
I’m all for experimentation. I experimented a lot in college. But my point is, this experiment has forgone conclusions. Sitting in a room for a week with a pad of paper and a pen will tell you that. It’s like chasing it’s own tail and it will only lead to diminishing returns on both quality and compensation. Now, I’m not saying Nil is a misguided idea - it’s just a little misdirected. I believe qualifications and fresh innovation are just as important as one another.
I do want NIL to breathe and experiment and make their own mistakes, but they should also be open to hearing about the issues that a lot of people have already trodden over, and focus their energy on ways to create something more sustainable rather than a wonderful ‘the old model is dead’ soundbite that so many in the communications blogosphere love to hear.
Here’s a try at a long-winded analogy: It’s like I’m the old timer who’s using the outdated pan while panning for gold. Then a bright-eyed, young man comes along with ground-penetrating sonar and pneumatic drill. The old timer points to the hill the young man is headed towards and says, ‘there ain’t no gold up in in that hill.’ The young man shrugs off the old timer, looking at his bent outdated pans (what does this guy know?) and goes up the hill anyway. Had the young man listened to the old timer a second, and asked the old timer where he’d better take his sonar, he’d point to an even more rewarding, ethical and lucrative hill (for everyone involved):
Base (just to cover overhead) + performance and goal-based compensation.
[...] PSFK, and BBH Labs have all gone gaga over Hank Leber and his startup, Agency Nil. And why shouldn’t they? [...]
[...] Leiam o texto no BBH Labs, vale a pena. E passei pelo site do BBH Labs. Coisa fina. « Mais Lebowitz [...]
[...] El lanzamiento ha revuelto el estómago a más de uno en la industria, pero también ha recibido valoraciones muy positivas. [...]
An interesting proposition, and a gutsy move by Hank.
However, I have seen this sort of thing very much abused by punters in the past, even by so-called ‘professional’ established companies who should know better.
It all boils down to what value a client will place on the work, and often with services such as copywriting and design, the client is unsure how to value such concepts and copy.
More sophisticated ‘buyers’ may well know the value of the work produced, but may still abuse the ‘pay what you feel like’ proposition.
On the other hand, as long as there are a few caveats in place, then I think it *can* be a great way for anyone new to the industry to get client samples and testimonials.
I wish Hank all the best, and would be really interested to see how his model develops.
[...] the founder’s take (via BBH Labs): “ENTER: the young, hungry, talented, not-afraid-to-take-a-risk individuals coming out of [...]
[...] the founder’s take (via BBH Labs): “ENTER: the young, hungry, talented, not-afraid-to-take-a-risk individuals coming out of [...]
[...] Crayon on V&S and Contagious takes a look at V&S here. BBH Labs on Agency Nil here and here. You can read my interview with Alex Bogusky of CP+B and Hank Leber, founder of Agency Nil, [...]
[...] Crowdsourcing a Discussion on Crowdsourcing (EyeCube) Can Creativity Be Crowdsourced? (Ad Age) Will work for all it’s worth – the launch of Agency Nil (BBH Labs) The Actual Crowdsourcery Bit (Talent Imitates, Genius [...]
[...] Googling Agency Nil leads you to a growing list of articles posted by PSFK, AdFreak, and a thorough write up by Ben Malbon, managing partner at BBH Labs, who loves the idea. http://bbh-labs.com/will-work-for-all-its-worth-the-launch-of-agency-nil [...]