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In my experience, it’s pretty unusual to come across freelance work for account folks. Hard to contract roles that generally require continuity/institutional knowledge.
ACD1, depending on level, you may be a 100% wrong:) It happens for a whole bunch of reasons, very popular ones being sudden new business win, extremely aggressive temporary deadlines that need a divide and conquer strategy, people going on maternity or other long-term disability leave, etc etc
Contract... account work? There is such a thing? Us accounts people are only worth our ability to create relationships and use those to get things done. Not sure that is a freelanceable skill.
I hear ya - but they have a need and it’s a thing. So are we saying don’t do it, because temp account work means you’re set up for failure as it’ll be difficult to make relationships? Sounds like it’s to keep the wheel churning on some hot campaigns client just signed off on...
I imagine contract or freelance account work should be similar to a client facing PM. So less managing the client and more managing the workflow internally. I could be 100% wrong tho 🤷🏻♂️
It's a thing, I have had freelance account people on my accounts, my account friends have done freelance work, there are freelance account postings, and I'm currently interviewing for two different freelance account gigs. It's far less common than creative freelance but absolutely real and possible.
Ha! I knew it! Sorry
Also happens when temporarily needing someone for a specific skill set or client expertise that is not sustainable or needed permanently. Example: when I was a Sr AE we had to launch something from scratch in 5 months. They got an account director as freelance to manage all the strategy and workshops and in person senior meetings at the client office while I was managing internally disseminating info the director was relaying after an all day of client meetings. When the brand planning and campaign got off the ground and the project were established and running, the director was no longer needed. And the clients knew she was on a contract basis. Another example is an account friend worked freelance on a brand new business win because she had worked on this exact same product category before and things had to start immediately so agency had no time to start long process of looking for and recruiting candidates. She was able to talk to clients with expertise and competence and get the account up and running immediately, and helped finding and interviewing full-time candidates.
AD2 - for those experiences you’ve mentioned, why wasn’t the account person hired on? Sounds like it was a great skill match up and also a good testing ground to see if they worked out.
In both instances, a director level wasn't needed long term. First instance, I was already reporting to a vp, who was too swamped to handle the director work for 5 months. The freelancer was, though, offered a full-time gig on another brand that opened up but she declined and preferred to work freelance only. In second scenario, my friend was also not interested as the gig was a cash flow for her but she wasn't interested in permanently working on that business either as she'd done that a lot in the past already and wanted a full-time gig about something new for her to learn.