From Marketingmag.ca. March 18, 2009
By Jeromy Lloyd
The Just One Project initiative to get advertising projects for out-of-work marketing professionals has landed its first two clients.
Connect in Private and the Canadian Newspaper Association have offered campaigns to teams of freelancers assembled from lists of out-of-work professionals who have joined the project, launched by Toronto agency Huxley Quayle von Bismark in January.
“I never thought at our level we could realistically hire an ad agency,” said Bill Montgomery, project manager for Connect in Private, a startup online privacy company. After reading about JOP in The Globe and Mail, he met with HQvB’s trio of founders to discuss his business. With a budget of approximately $300,000 he wants to spread the work about the company’s personal- and enterprise-level privacy services to a national audience. The comparatively low cost of a JOP team was appealing, he said, as was the chance to help those who were jobless during the recession.
HQvB has assigned an art director and project manager to the account, but agency founder Andy Shortt said additional staff will be necessary as the company nears its April 14 launch date.
“We’ll probably launch it online,” said Shortt. “Our art director has a lot of online skills, so we thought she’d be good to help develop it. As we shift into execution, we’ll need a programer.”
The full launch strategy has not yet been revealed.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Newspaper Association gave the project a print campaign to promote its members to their local advertisers.
“Newspapers are still very viable,” said Suzanne Raitt, vice-president, marketing and innovation at CNA. “They make money, advertisers use them and they’re very effective. We want to help newspapers deliver that message to local advertisers. We want to personalize the message from each paper.”
Raitt said she, like Montgomery, was drawn to the project’s humanitarian goals.
“Newspapers know it’s a tough market, obviously. We have a project that isn’t a million-dollar campaign, but it’s something we’d like to get out there with some money behind it. [Just One Project] is going to do something fabulous for those who have been struck, not because they’re not talented, but because of the economy.”
Clients pay the project $125 an hour, which covers team members’ hourly wage and overhead expenses. The partners at Huxley Quayle make no money for the agency, even though owners Shortt, Mark Tawse-Smith and Chris Hall work on all projects.
“We oversee everything because we have to ensure quality,” said Tawse-Smith.
“Our agency name is attached to this,” Shortt added. “Our reputation is on the line. But we’re not taking revenue from that.”
