Out in the open: Coming out of the ad agency closet

Highly qualified people offering creative services without the ad agency infrastructure; and winning accounts.

Its 9PM at the Standard, one of LAs premiere nightspots, and the team from your favorite agency just added a couple of hundred bucks to their running tab in name of "creative brainstorming session" for your new advertising campaign. Youd think what these creative types were coming up with was the next "Wheres the Beef" to save your company from the competition! Some companies today still swallow the hefty bills from "reputed" branding and advertising companies because they think the big price tag equals big success of their marketing campaign.

Get real. Where do you think the "good creative" comes from? Well, lets take our "creative brainstormers" as an example. Most likely, the next day, the leader of our "creative" group is going to call a guy at his home and ask him if he can come up with some fresh creative for his campaign by end of the week. The guy takes on this challenge. After all, hes produced results for these guys before, and with no overhead, hes willing to do it for just 20% of the creative budget. "Its just a couple of days work for me," he thinks. At the end of the week, he delivers, and the next Monday, our "brainstormers" present you with some great ideas. Youre impressed. You see the thinking, and you see the relevance to your market, and when you think of the price tag, you may cringe slightly, but hey, thats the price of good creative!

If you knew that guy in his home studio would you still have hired the big agency? Maybe you think its a necessary evil. Look, the home studio guy probably doesnt have the media relations, the PR contacts, the big office to carry out all these "complicated" functions to get your message out, so even though you know, youre willing to pay for the infrastructure your favorite agency is offering.

O.k., If you were a multinational company, it would often be more than just a necessary evil, it would probably be a feather in your cap. Youd want to boast to your contemporaries about the prestigious agency youve hired, just as much as youd want to show them up with latest diamond studded cell phone, right? Maybe if status was more important than value to your company, but what if youre the next entrepreneur, fast on the heels of the industry leader, with the game changing idea? How about the medium sized business CEO with a few production headaches to still sort out? Or the startup visionary, just getting hard earned funding after a year of working out of your garage? Chances are you know you have to get the word out, but given the choice of inexperienced freelance creative types, and the "reputed" agencies, youre at a crossroads. Whats a smart businessperson to do?

Now lets suppose, the home studio guy has a proven track record for dynamite creative, he knows the media channels, and he knows the right resources to do just what your favorite agency does, how would that affect your decision?

OK, hes not exactly like your favorite agency, I mean hes not that much fun at parties, for one! Most of the time, hes busy trying to connect your product to market, giving up his Sunday afternoon to check out your competition, and staying up nights to manage the production of your web initiative overseas. And the home studio guy is not alone. In todays economy, there are more and more highly qualified people just like him working from home supporting big agency infrastructures. There are also qualified people in less fortunate countries willing to do a lot more for a lot less. You may already know this, but how can you trust them individually to launch the core of your companys value just to save a couple of bucks? Why doesnt somebody just bring these resources together with some level of accountability?

Remember our home studio guy? Hes doing just that. With a growing client base of some of the coolest technology around, hes using the power of software to your advantage. Real-time collaboration, secure file transfers, dynamic project management are just some of the tools that allow him to compete with the agencies.

One such home studio guy is Ray Podder. Ray started his new type of creative company, because he wants you to know what his clients already know, and because he thinks its about time. Hiding the people who actually do the work, may be what keeps agencies competitive these days, but more of you already see the shortcomings of such a business model. RPMdesign (Rays company) is founded on the fundamental that you, the client, are smart. You manage to stay in business in todays highly competitive marketplace because of smart decisions, and you need smart resources keep your product or service relevant to your market. To find out more about what Ray and colleagues do for businesses today, check out http://www.rpmdesign.com.