Dear Anna,

I am an experienced freelance strategist/planner and often contribute to award-winning work. A lot of the time it’s hard to say, ‘that’s my idea’, but sometimes it is very clear that the results would absolutely not exist without my input.

Some agencies give me credit in the awards, and some even thank me for being part of the team. But others, including global design agencies, which should know better, do nothing, even if my work wins them many, many awards which they use as a successful new business drawcard.

What do I do? If I say something I sound like a whiny tosspot who probably won’t get work from that agency ever again. If I don’t, then I really am a tosspot who doesn’t stand up for my own worth.

The main issue, though, is the lack of integrity and respect for the source of ideas that our industry is founded on. This just isn’t right. I am certain this is an issue for all freelancers who are overlooked and made to feel they have no right to the accolades. What do you think?

Anon

Dear Anon,

You’re spot on — integrity and respect is at the core of this question, and you have every right to the credit and to celebrate the accolades for your work. In none of these scenarios are you being whiny or a tosspot. The only people falling down here are the ones without the confidence and care to recognise the full team that delivers the work, whether they employ them full time or not.

This is important for the ethical reasons you mention in your question but also because, in today’s world, creative teams are increasingly made up of all sorts of component parts. Full-time staff, freelancers and contractors now form the teams that bring the expertise and energy that can make a project really fly. It’s an amazing feature of the modern world that you can find specific genius and buy it in to help you with a particular problem.

Everyone knows the patchwork reality of the advertising industry both in the development and in the execution of ideas

Because the big agencies are the ones that have the overheads to maintain staff, offices, development and pitching, they’re perhaps defaulting to an assumption that they’re the ones which need to own the project, to win the next project. They might also be subconsciously concerned that to acknowledge outside sources suggests they don’t have everything a client needs in house, which feels dangerous when they’re charging top dollar to clients for exactly that full-service approach. But that excuse doesn’t stand, because everyone knows the patchwork reality of the advertising industry both in the development and in the execution of ideas. No one retains whole film crews on staff to execute TV spots, do they? They’re also arguably missing a trick.

The brilliant sci-fi writer Ursula K Le Guin nails for me the importance of being open about ideas and sharing ownership in creative work: “Nothing is yours. It is to use. It is to share. If you will not share it, you cannot use it.” In this context, the trick they are missing is both executional and reputational. They’re not going to generate the best work if they don’t have that openness, and they’re not going to attract the best people if they don’t celebrate credit where credit is due.

Who’s going to argue against kicking off a business relationship with foundational elements of respect and integrity?

In your specific case, and for any freelancers, the fact that you need to share your input on a project is as true for you as it is for the agency. In fact, as a freelancer your portfolio of specific projects and awards is arguably more important because you don’t benefit from any ‘brand halo’ of an agency name, or other clients your colleagues look after and the work they have done.

There are a few ways I suggest you approach this. To kick off, I’d say work with the agencies that communicate with you, give you credit and say thanks, as much as possible. They’re the good ones actually delivering that integrity and respect. It is also worth thinking about what drives this difference to leverage it elsewhere. Is it the ethos of the company? Do you have a different relationship with them in any way? Is there anything you’re doing with them that helps deliver this result? Take anything you can from this positive experience into strategies for changing things elsewhere.

Then I’d think about how you can enter into new projects with this as a key pillar of how you work. After all, who’s going to argue against kicking off a business relationship with foundational elements of respect and integrity? If they did, that would start to ring alarm bells for me and I might not be so attracted to working with them (if I have the luxury of choice, of course).

I’d counsel my nan’s advice of “don’t ask, don’t get” and put something in. What this does is help you to go in with credit and respect as a basic operating standard

You can ask about having credit cited in your terms, just like you would reference late invoice payment fees. Put together a deal memo for your partnership with an agency you use as an engagement template. It can have the days you work, the project brief, all the usual stuff, but also a line on inclusion of work and awards in portfolio, on your website and so on, for marketing purposes. Ultimately, you’re a company too and this is a reasonable ask for any B2B transaction.

If you want to ensure you’re credited on an awards entry that’s potentially a bit more fiddly, given that roles and input often evolve over the course of a project, here I’d counsel my nan’s advice of “don’t ask, don’t get” and put something in. What this does is help you to go in with credit and respect as a basic operating standard. It is more than a fair assumption, so have confidence in that. If the agency starts to question that, or tries to strike it from your deal memo, then it’s time to get curious – a really powerful tool when looking at problematic positions like this.

Ask them for their reasoning for wanting to strike that principle from your partnership. More often than not they won’t be able to give a valid reason, and that should help you reinforce the reasonable request you’re making.

Partnership is really important, but in reality the likelihood is, whichever agency that work relates to will never notice

If they blanket refuse, and if citing other agencies that are comfortable doing this fails to embarrass them, then you have a couple of choices. You can agree to remove that right, but try to negotiate that as a material value loss and charge them more. After all, script doctors often get paid more because they’re not getting the public credit for vital behind-the-scenes work. Or, after the project is done, you can take Admiral Grace Hopper’s approach and decide it’s “easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission” and start citing it in your portfolio regardless.

With this tack, I’d always celebrate the agency and your teammates (or you risk becoming the tosspot here), but take fair and accurate credit for your work. I wouldn’t normally advocate this approach because partnership is really important, but in reality the likelihood is, whichever agency that work relates to will never notice, and you get what you need as a freelancer in terms of winning new work. But if they do notice, and you’ve taken pains to recognise their brilliance alongside your own in the write-up of the work, then you should be OK. Only a real rotter would ask you to take it down, but in doing so they would at least helpfully call themselves out as folks that don’t deserve your award-winning time in the future. So, good luck to them on their next project without you!

Anna

Anna Higgs is head of entertainment at Facebook. If you have a question for her, send it via CR’s social channels, or email [email protected]