The Biddable 4-Step Process

How creative agencies can survive paradigm shifts like COVID-19.

By Robb Wagner

The last time I heard the phrase ‘new paradigm’ was 2011. It meant work harder for less, or find a better way.

For the creative director and creative agency alike, working before COVID-19 was already inefficient, costly, and exhausting. 

Now add in outsourcing.

  • Posting for talent
  • Reviewing talent
  • Scheduling calls with talent

The list goes on and on.

Increased outsourcing will cause creative agencies to reach a breaking point.

As the head of a creative studio, I reached my outsourcing breaking point years ago.

To clarify, I had to start outsourcing because my clients’ creative needs rushed past the capabilities of the artists in my city.

If I didn’t figure out a way to outsource, I might burn out.

I looked at the freelancer sites that claimed to help. They just made me do more work.

Above all, I needed a way to be more creative. Not more exhausted.

Finally, I designed the system to automate outsourcing. Biddable.

It let me instantly get bids from talented, vetted creatives who were available, capable, and on board with our terms. Instead of trying to find freelancers in a pinch, now the world’s best artists bid to be part of my projects. I made the briefs. They did the work. No video calls required.

As a result, my job got better and my studio thrived.

In addition, automating outsourcing lets me navigate paradigm shifts like COVID-19.

For instance, I couldn’t film a music video. However, I could use Biddable to create an animated music video instead. So I did. Similarly, I’m pitching multiple animated series that I could not get done any other way. Clients are responding.

To sum it up, automating outsourcing will make your job this simple:

Step 1. Ask for a deliverable.

Post a brief with the details & specs of your project. You can also upload examples of inspiration & any assets needed.

Step 2. Get bids.

Instantly get bids from talented, vetted creatives who are available, capable, and on board with your terms.

Step 3. Get it done.

With two affirmative clicks, the work begins. Get your deliverables right on time. Even with revisions, you never have to set up a call.

Step 4. Get the files.

Finally, receive your creative’s largest working files through our server. No need to chat back-and-forth or set up a special drive.

In conclusion, without automation, outsourcing will cause you to reach your breaking point.

Stop searching. Start making.

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For the next two weeks, I’m sharing all that I’ve learned with the industry that I love. Let’s compare notes and see how we can help each other. -Robb Wagner

Art Director X

How to be an art director without losing yourself.

By Robb Wagner

For the art director and creative agency alike, sourcing and managing talent is increasingly inefficient, costly and exhausting.

  1. Chasing freelancers
  2. Checking availabilities
  3. Negotiating rates
  4. Explaining the job

All before even starting to do the actual work.

Multiply that times all of your projects. You become a human resources machine, project manager and freelancer-whisperer. That was me in 2008.

I was the creative studio head who missed my kids’ games, graduations, and family dinners.

My clients were Disney and Michael Jackson.

Above all, I needed a constant stream of talent with huge creative chops. But the time to source and manage them consumed my work and my life.

art-director

In the years that followed it got even worse, until finally, there was no time left to give.

Then in 2013, I created a system to automate outsourcing.

It let the world’s best designers and animators bid to do our work. In short, this changed my work and life forever.

My studio’s capabilities skyrocketed.

We moved into new markets creating cutting-edge immersive projects for some of the world’s most innovative brands. We still maintained an in-house team of designers and animators, but we outsourced all the work that was outside of their capabilities. Previously, we would waste time and money trying to bend our in-house artists into pretzels, which never worked anyway.

Over time, outsourcing increased while my in-house team size decreased. The result was a better product for our clients.

The more our work became automated, the more time I got back.

I wasn’t the only one who found this to be a better way.

Along the way, one of our best and highest-paid animators left our in-house team to join our global workforce. He made more money bidding and doing work remotely for us than he ever could have driving into work every day. And he got to pick and choose his jobs.

In the same vein, the more I increased outsourcing, the more my work and life improved.

Firstly, I found more time to be creative at work. Secondly, I found more time to spend with my family. Most importantly, I found the work/life balance.

To sum up, I run my entire studio from a laptop.

Our studio’s complex networks of creatives collaborate through my platform, Biddable. And I’m sharing it with creative agencies like yours because the future will involve more and more remote work.

Without a system to automate outsourcing, you could easily lose yourself.

Watch the one minute video.

For the next two weeks, I’m sharing all that I’ve learned with the industry that I love. Let’s compare notes and see how we can help each other. -Robb Wagner

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Robb Wagner is an experiential artist, whose creative breakthroughs have raised the bar on big and small screens. Throughout, Robb’s aim is to create a bridge between imagination and reality and collaborate on partnerships where the ask is simple: How can we do something that’s never been done before?