With the Covid-19 crisis continuing to wreak havoc on the wider advertising and marketing communications industry with people being laid-off, nearly 150 people have signed up to a new database of professional talent which is being curated by Una Herlihy, the well-known client/agency intermediary and founder of BKC.
According to Herlihy the database includes existing freelancers, industry professionals who have been recently let go as well as small indie shops and agencies looking for work. The database, which she calls The List, includes people with experience across a wide range of disciplines including account management, planning, art and creative directors, SEO experts, digital specialists, photographers, brand strategists, videographers, content creators, UX/UI specialists, web developers and media consultants.
“There is an enormous amount of diverse talent out there now looking for work. I think the interesting thing is the range of expertise out there which I’ve no doubt will be incredibly important post Covid. Who is to know for sure how the chips will fall once things settle, but some things are here to stay and this will have a massive impact on how clients manage remote teams, be they their own people or creative services that are in-sourced, i.e agencies and freelancers. Remote working, people management, technology and creativity of ideas and how to implement them are going to be more important than ever before,” she says.
The idea to create The List when Herlihy posted on LinkedIn that she would try and help anyone in the advertising industry who was looking for work. “I put the post up on Linkedin and I expected that some art directors and copywriters would get in touch and I would try to help out in any way I could by listening out for opportunities and putting these people in front of those opportunities. But I totally underestimated what would happen. Since then, I have over 150 people on the list from all sorts of backgrounds and with lots of really interesting things to offer to either agencies or directly to clients,” she says.
She also points out that all the enquiries she has received to date have been from clients looking to work with different specialists rather than from agencies.
Access to The List is free but she is asking companies to make a donation to the autism charity AsIAm. Anyone looking to source talent should contact Una at unaherlihy@bkcommunications.ie
