wfh – good for our people and pepper
our agency, pepper advertising has wfh since March 2020 on the arrival of the covid pandemic.
we took some pretty hard decisions then. to cut staff. to cut salaries. to look at every line item of our expenses, to reduce costs.
we moved from 2 floors to one floor. eventually from one floor to half a floor. then we rented a floor to turn it from an expense into revenue.
back then, we also started talking about the flavor of the month: digital transformation. we were not so sure what it meant, so we reached out to a pro for help. and it’s a good thing we did. we started then and continue down the digital transformation road.
our embrace of digital has saved our hide. so far. because the agency model is broken. agencies can no longer afford to have the size of team they once had, plus expensive lodging and the costs that attend it.
freelancers work from home or starbucks. the artist in the Philippines is doing the same and so is her colleague in China and India.
in house agencies are popping up and we are all drawing from the same talent pool. but clients have their core business to run and that’s a huge challenge these days. so not many can make an in house agency work. that’s outside of their reason for being, and also an addition to fixed costs, at a time when they are looking to reduce overheads. so in house agencies in the T&T context is tough to pull off well.
in this perfect storm of new competiton from all angles, agencies also face declining revenue with the switch from traditional to digital. so it’s a blow to the right jaw and another to the left.
so wither the agency biz. i believe there’s a place: smaller teams with an extended team model, flexed when needed. sector, skill and subject specialisation, not jacks of all trades. developing alternative revenue streams. sharpening the ad agency’s strategic advantage = the ability to help clients differentiate brands, not merely execute tactics.
and wfh. it’s a win for employees. i think. employee costs make up 85% of our agency cost of operating. our employees are the agency. we don’t sell anything else but their time and talent. the commute especially is a big issue. a big relief for those living far from where pepper is located in POS.
we have tech tools to keep us connected. people are accountable for their work and their time. we have worked hard on making pepper a good place to work and continue to do so. our salaries are competitive and comparable to other agencies our size. and wfh has helped us reduce the costs of running an office.
i can’t think of too many categories of business for which wfh is better suited than ad agencies. collaboration and brain storms? join meeting now. agencies like pepper need to be more agile to respond to declining budgets and declining margins.
we have no plans of going back to the office and will maintain a small foot print for administrative type work and periodic staff meetings.
wfh is working.
for our people.
for our clients.
and for pepper.
