Without the agency-freelance relationship, the modern creative marketing ecosystem would grind to a halt. Naaman Brown, Community Events Manager at LucidLink, offers his tips to fine tune the relationships that can supercharge results.
Whether it’s scaling for a big campaign, bringing in specialist skills or hitting a tight deadline, the union between agency and freelancers is central to keeping the industry moving.
But while the partnership itself has stood the test of time, the way we work together hasn’t.
Endless email threads. Drawn-out downloads. Tools that don’t play nicely together…It all adds up to lost momentum, wasted time and dulled creative mojo.
For freelancers, these collaboration bottlenecks mean less time to create (and fewer billable hours). For agencies, they hold up delivery and pile pressure onto already-stretched timelines.
It doesn’t have to be this hard. Better tools, and a rethink of how we work together, can make collaboration feel more creative and less like hard work.
At this year’s Northern Marketing Festival, experimentation, tech and Northern grit certainly shaped the conversation. But all roads lead back to one big idea: using tech to make more time for creativity, not replacing it. Here’s how.
Time to experiment
We’re deep in marketing’s efficiency era. ROI is king and short-termism trumps strategic plays and creative ambition.
This is only exacerbated by the way we collaborate. When agencies and freelancers spend hours battling technical roadblocks — waiting for file transfers, playing detective with versions or troubleshooting access issues — the energy for experimentation evaporates. There’s simply less space for the playful thinking or procrastination that creates the conditions for great work.
But imagine if you removed the burden of admin-heavy tasks. When internal and external collaboration flows smoothly there’s more room to experiment, to refine, to push the creative further.
If you’re an agency, that could look like more time to refine a campaign idea. For freelancers, it might mean an extra couple of hours to try something novel, rather than sticking to what you know gets the job done — but isn’t setting anyone’s world alight.
Tech that helps collaboration, not hinders
As AI hogs the agenda, it’s easy to overlook how other types of tech are shaping our industry. The most powerful tech usually works behind the scenes — making everyday tasks smoother, faster and more secure.
Rather than replacing creative thinking, tech should make more space for it.
At LucidLink, we think creative tools should fit around how people already work, not the other way around. That means no steep learning curves, no changes to your favoured tools and no more waiting around. Just a fast, secure and flexible way to work with collaborators, wherever they are.
Save the Northern grit
Northern agencies are known for creativity, straight-talking and ability to roll with the punches. But just because you can work around messy workflows, doesn’t mean you have to. Rather than wasting that Northern grit worrying about the mundane, save it for when it matters.
By simplifying how you share files, give feedback and collaborate with external teams, you can free up more time for the important stuff — whether that’s crafting a killer campaign or clocking off on time.
Whichever side you sit on the agency-freelance relationship, the Northern creative industry has always thrived on its ability to adapt and evolve. It’s time the way you collaborated caught up.
