Agencies’ Demand for Free-Lance Talent Growing as Ad Staffs Shrink

Many folks have eyed those oh-so-suave billboards that tout BMW’s sexy convertible, under the bold banner, “The Ultimate Tanning Machine.”

But few people know that a Los Angeles advertising woman--who isn’t even an employee of BMW’s ad agency--played a big role in designing that ad.

What’s more, not all of those pun-filled Marie Callender’s billboards around town were the creative gems of the restaurant chain’s ad agency. In fact, one billboard that promotes its pasta dishes with the clever slogan, “Yankee Noodle Dandy,” was actually the brainchild of a free-lance copywriter.

The use of free-lancers--who work temporarily for ad agencies on special projects--has become common practice at ad agencies from Los Angeles to Manhattan. In Los Angeles in particular--where the free-lance talent is thick but the ad budgets are often thin--glitzy ad campaigns sometimes benefit from obscure free-lancers.

The big push for free-lancers began two years ago, when a rash of mergers in the ad industry resulted in sudden layoffs of full-time employees. While the work demand at ad agencies has been growing, the agency staffs have been shrinking. In fact, executives estimate, some of the same ad shops that 20 years ago hired up to three full-time employees for each $1 million that their clients spent on advertising are today hiring just one.

So, free-lancers are being tapped in growing numbers to pick up the slack. And while some of these people are free-lancers out of choice, others were laid off from the very agencies they now work for as free-lancers.

“There is a culture of free-lancers in this town that is probably as big as the number of people who have agency jobs,” said Hy Yablonka, executive vice president and creative director at the Los Angeles office of Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt. “In Los Angeles, free-lancers can do extremely well.”

When Chiat/Day won the ad business of the giant Japanese car maker Nissan, it hired large numbers of free-lancers to help produce ads. And in E. & J. Gallo Winery’s search for better ads, it has temporarily bypassed some large agencies and gone directly to free-lancers for help with several of its campaigns.

Advertising free-lancers can be writers, artists or even computer operators who are usually hired for short-term assignments--like developing ad ideas for new clients, producing art work for ad campaigns or perhaps helping agencies hang on to unhappy clients.

But in almost all cases, free-lance ad agency workers are usually brought in as a last resort. “Most of the time, it’s a fairly desperate situation,” said Yvonne Smith, the Los Angeles free-lance art director who helped oversee the photography for the BMW billboard and print ads. “An agency will usually call me when they’re in trouble time-wise or just burned out on a project.”

In Los Angeles alone, ad agencies spend millions of dollars annually just on free-lance work. Of course, not all free-lancers make big bucks. Some say they barely make enough to get by. But a top free-lance art director--who helps design an ad--can pull in up to $1,500 a day. And top copywriters, too, can earn up to $1,000 a day.

“The pay can be extremely good,” said John Annarino, a Studio City-based free-lance copywriter who recently produced a brochure for Sitmar Cruises. “But it can be uncomfortable when, after all those years of the security of working full time for an agency, you suddenly find yourself paying your own life insurance and Blue Cross.”

Although the paycheck for a single assignment can be large, there’s often no telling where the next one will come from. And free-lancers have about as much job security--even on special projects--as frequently fired New York Yankees manager Billy Martin has with George Steinbrenner. “It’s a continuous hassle,” said Jerry Box, a Santa Monica free-lance creative director. “You have to keep proving yourself.” What’s more, many free-lancers complain that their work seldom gets produced into finished ads.

Still, advertising executives estimate that there are more than 5,000 full-time advertising free-lancers in the Los Angeles market alone. Nearly 1,000 are listed with the free-lance placement service, Advertising a la Carte, a sort of temporary service that matches free-lancers with local ad agencies.

“We’re an ace in the hole,” said Buddy Weiss, who opened the placement service three years ago. “I was a creative director for years, and it became more and more apparent to me that it was unprofitable to staff an agency to handle your peak periods.” Although free-lancers are placed on his company’s computerized list at no charge, they must pay the firm 15% of the money they earn on any temporary job at which they are placed.

But ad agency employees with full-time jobs often free-lance, too. “Just about every person I know does free-lancing of some kind or another, but they just don’t like to talk about it,” said Bill Ford, who as a free-lancer wrote several Marie Callender’s billboard ads, but is now copy supervisor at the Los Angeles ad firm Kaiser McEuen.

Similarly, most ad agency executives refuse to talk about their use of free-lancers. “It’s very awkward,” said Robert Giamo, senior vice president and executive art director at the Los Angeles office of Grey Advertising. “It’s just that clients want to know who the people are that are working on their accounts.”

In fact, some even require free-lancers to sign contracts that promise not to reveal to anyone that they even worked on certain accounts. “An ad agency’s credibility is its creativity,” said Box, who refuses to reveal even one of the half-dozen or so agencies that he works for. “They want you, but they don’t want people to know they use you.”

Perhaps one of the biggest raps against free-lancers is that they are often forced to approach assignments ice cold. “It’s almost impossible for a free-lancer to immediately get into the swing of what an account is all about,” said Bozell’s Yablonka. Perhaps because of that, said Brandy French, creative director at Evans/Los Angeles, “the stuff that really blows your socks off rarely comes from free-lancers.”

But one ad agency chief says that up to 20% of the work at his agency is done by free-lancers. “Agencies shouldn’t be so shy to talk about it,” said David Suissa, whose relatively small Santa Monica ad agency, Suissa & Associates, has hired free-lancers to help produce campaigns for Marie Callender’s, the Four Seasons Hotels and the Tropicana Resort & Casino.

“Los Angeles is one of the top free-lance communities in the country,” said Suissa. “As long as the use of free-lancers doesn’t become a dominant part of your agency, it can be a good thing.”

Sig-Alert Sandwich for a Delicatessen

“Major pileup at Beverly Drive and Dayton Way.”

Sound like a traffic report? Try again. It’s actually the headline on a giant billboard ad that will be erected on Sunset Boulevard this spring.

The billboard is for the Beverly Hills Carnegie Deli. And the “pileup” is a reference to the photo below the headline--a giant pastrami sandwich. The delicatessen, reknown in New York for its massive but pricey sandwiches, now hopes to nibble into the Los Angeles market.

The billboard was created by the Los Angeles agency AC&R;/CCL Advertising, which last week was named the delicatessen’s ad firm. How else will it promote one of New York’s best-known eateries? Well, many Los Angeles customers will already be familiar with New York’s Carnegie Deli, said Eugene Cofsky, president of the ad agency’s entertainment division. “Over the past 10 years, there’s been a major migration of the New York entertainment community to Los Angeles,” said Cofsky. “It’s become almost like a suburb of Seventh Avenue.”

49ers Made Singletary a Bad Luck Bear

It’s a good bet that Chicago Bear linebacker Mike Singletary wishes he had Cher’s luck. And so does the Los Angeles health club chain that he represents.

Even before Cher won the Oscar for best actress, Health & Tennis Corp. of America featured her in a number of its advertisements. The day after she won the award, Health & Tennis, which owns the Holiday Spa chain, even placed a full-page congratulatory ad in several newspapers.

But no such luck with its newest spokesman, super hunk Singletary. Before last month’s National Football Conference playoff game, Health & Tennis had a newspaper ad created that featured Singletary. The ad had a mug of Singletary’s face under the headline, “Bring on the Main Course.”

But the ad, which was scheduled to appear in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, was yanked at the last minute. After all, there was no main course for the Bears, who failed to make it to the Super Bowl. They were soundly trounced in the playoffs by the San Francisco 49ers. As for Singletary, said Arthur Quinby, vice president of Health & Tennis, “Mike is a singularly outstanding player.”

Back to Drawing Board for the Chicken Corps

Although the restaurant chain Hamburger Hamlet will break a new, $1-million advertising campaign this week, its ad agency’s original concept didn’t fly.

One billboard would have shown a photo of chicken breasts under the headline, “Some of our hamburgers have breasts.” Instead, the chain’s ad firm, Evans/Los Angeles, has taken a slightly more conservative approach. One billboard shows a half-dozen chicken wings pictured above the headline, “Some people only order hamburgers at Hamburger Hamlet. Chicken.”