New research puts more than A$183 million a year in Australian freelance marketing spend flowing offshore, just as experienced local operators are made redundant. For business owners that is a sourcing opportunity, not an industry problem.
The Take: New research says more than A$183 million a year in freelance marketing work is leaving Australia for offshore, at the same time experienced local operators are being pushed out of the industry. For a business owner that is not an industry problem, it is a sourcing opportunity. The senior talent that used to sit inside a big agency is now available directly, and cheaper offshore is not the only option on the table.
The numbers: The Experience Advocacy Taskforce estimates more than A$183 million a year in freelance spend flows offshore, as Campaign Brief reported. Its research, The Silent Exit, found more than half of experienced departures from the Australian advertising and media industry happen between the ages of 45 and 54, with involuntary redundancy the leading reason people go, according to B&T.
Zoom out: Two things are happening at once. Senior marketers with 20 years of scars are being made redundant, and small businesses are sending work overseas to save on rates. The gap between those two facts is the whole story. Australia has around 2.6 million small and medium businesses, most of which cannot afford a full-time senior marketer but could very much use a few hours of one.
Estimated annual Australian freelance marketing spend flowing offshore while experienced local talent leaves the industry
The trade-off: Offshore freelance wins on hourly rate and loses on judgement. A cheaper operator who has never sold to an Australian customer will execute what you ask, not tell you when what you asked for is wrong. Experience is the part you cannot write into a brief, and it is the part being made redundant right now.
For Australian operators: If you are about to send marketing work offshore on price alone, price the mistake as well as the hour. Trial an experienced local freelancer on one high-stakes job, a pricing page, a launch or a quarter of paid media, where judgement pays for itself fast. Separate the thinking from the doing, buying senior judgement for strategy and cheaper hands for production, rather than paying junior rates for both. The experienced talent leaving the big shops is the same talent your competitor is quietly hiring by the hour.