BITE asked our CEO and Founder Jon Williams about the future of talent… He talks about the need to redefine the way creativity is bought and sold. How we all love brilliant talent and brilliant ideas, but how the business model is broken right now. He’s got some ideas about how we fix it. And what comes next. Which is where it gets really interesting…

(3-minute read with a mug of tea and a Jammy Dodger)

Creative Moment asked us ‘What’s next for the agency model?’ Clients and holding companies alike know the current model’s broken. Mark Read and WPP corroborated that it in Campaign yesterday.

In this article we highlight some new doors which have opened whilst the doors to the agency have been shut. And a few pointers to help us flourish as we rebuild and retool for the post-Corona era.

(2-minute read with a strong coffee and a sense of hopeful determination)

The Drum asked us what we thought about big agencies' relationship to talent. We know Covid has accelerated the global growth of the freelance market. And that the really good talent that isn’t already ‘independent’ is thinking about it. They can charge a premium, work from wherever they want to and control their own diary. The lure of ‘culture’ doesn’t cut it anymore.

That talent and their ideas are why we got into this business. It’s time to look after them properly before they leave altogether.

The Marketing Society asked us for an opinion about the role of brands in today’s crazy world. We wrote about how brands used to step up where society failed. Civic responsibility and social duty of care were big with the Victorian philanthropists, the brand owners, in the heat of the industrial revolution. But that all faded. However, one unexpected side effect of Covid seems to be that Brand Philanthropy is back on the agenda. And the supermarkets are leading the way. What do you think?

(6-minute read with a cup of tea and a biscuit)

So here comes 2021 and we all find ourselves confined to quarters, waiting for a jab in the arm.

A kind of hibernation for some of us. Seriously stressful for others. And for those of you locked up with kids…

Well, being a teacher on top of parent/entertainer/breadwinner is next level juggling right.

So we’ve produced FreeTime (attached) in the hope it might help a little. For the ‘witching hour’ between 3.30 and 5.30ish when school sort of ends before you do.

If you've got kids, see if this will keep them out of your hair for a while. If you don’t please feel free to pass it on to anyone who might find it useful.

We started off a long time ago asking our friends what freedom smelt like for them. It’s such an evocative shortcut. Anyway, it became a thing, and it’s been made even more poignant by the global lockdown. By our collective loss of freedom. We tried to capture some of them, and we will capture more. Here is the first in the series.

On every brief, these fashion-forward trendsetters spent big. But they’ve had it tough. 2009 left the ‘snowflakes’ struggling to get on the property ladder. But through it all, YOLO kept them spending.

Now Covid is hitting hard. And unless there’s a housing crash, they’ll lose out again. But this time they’re older and wanting stability.

Who knows what’s happening to consumer attitudes and behaviour? COVID, lockdowns, elections, vaccines, Brexit, natural emergencies, fake news… it goes on.

So you thought lockdown was tough? Well this party’s just getting started. Just as we start to open up again from social lockdown, financial lockdown slams the door shut in our face. Are you ready? Are you sure? We’ve got research that shows predicted behaviours are misleading.

Wow. It feels like ten years of digital acceleration just happened in as many weeks. But now, life is slowly emerging back into the high streets of the world. And with it something at once kind of familiar, and yet also hugely alien, has been given new prominence. Welcome. To the All New Queue…

Our recent consumer survey focuses on Covid-19 advertising reality vs desire and confirms that we’ve all had enough of the big ‘lockdown togetherness’ films!