In advertising, I think the future is going to be small. As in small advertising agencies, boutique firms, and virtual creative hubs. As I sit here in our downtown Seattle WeWork office looking out at a slew of plugged-in workers that must be doing very substantial and exciting things, I think to myself, “I’m a part of this,” the small business, start-up co-working thing. I know it’s trending because, in Seattle, WeWork will have eight buildings online at the end of 2018, with plans for more. And also because we’re on the wait list for one of those interesting glass-walled office spaces that remind me of an aquarium. Everyone seems to want one. We’re all here, all of us independent business, co-working, kombucha-on-tap-drinking go-getters!
I see how well it works because this lean model is so adaptable to an ever-changing, project-based advertising business. From our standpoint, we have a small senior staff and our go-to specialists (that’d be super awesome freelancers in real-speak) that we partner with for particular projects. Those wonderful people are an integral part of our team, yet they are virtual—which makes everyone happy. And when we meet in Seattle, they get to have kombucha, too. Expanding and contracting with the needs of our ever-evolving clients, we work from home, co-sharing workspaces, or any wired place on earth. In fact, our most extensive account is 2,340 miles away.
This small but ever-connected ecosystem of seasoned creative thinkers is the new big advertising agency thing. And we’ll drink our rooibos kombucha to that!