It’s all got a bit busy around Bedwood Towers. We’ve got a huge number of quality briefs in, and have listed a few below.

If you’re looking for your next step, drop us a line – see the Contact Us page and say hello!

Freelance

Delivery

Executive Producer 3 months+

Agile, responsive EP needed for large retail account at top digital agency.

Project Director 6 months   Singapore

Enough of these clouds. Get some sun and satisfaction delivering a new mobile project in agile for this global creative agency.

Senior Project Manager 6-8 weeks

Delivering an iOS app for a top digital agency. Must have strong technical knowledge and experience working in agile.

Project Manager 3 months+

Great, meaty project on FMCG client. Process focussed account with a fun but focussed team.

Client Services

Senior Account Manager 6 months   Hamburg

How about some time abroad? This creative agency are looking for a client-charming-plate-spinner for this lovely, busy cosmetics account. German not essential.

Creative

Creative Director 3 months+

We’ve several CD briefs for several different London agencies. If you can mentor teams,  and lead great ideas as well as generate them, we want to hear from you.

Senior Designer 3 months

Creative genius with visual interface skills and experience delivering iteratively required for this multi-million e-commerce project.

Technology

Technical Architect 2 months

Solid, passionate TA needed for an exciting global campaign at this strategic digital agency.

Permanent

Delivery

Head of Production £75k

An exciting role at this integrated agency to drive and encourage innovation. Knowledge of television production processes and experience of working on broadcast is essential.

Senior Project Manager 12 months (FTC)    Munich

Another chance to skip the country. You’d think we don’t want you here. Fantastic global agency in need of a solid SPM for this automotive account. German not essential.

Digital Producer £30-35k

Independent, enthusiastic Producer wanted for cool creative agency. This is a varied role you can really define yourself and an amazing opportunity for the right go-getter.

Client Services

Brand Manager 40-55€  +bonus scheme and client discount     Amsterdam

Brilliant client-side role for a top sports brand. Strategy and events experience with a sports clients essential, retail and digital marketing experience a bonus. Love of the brand will be handy too.

Community Manager 40-55€  +bonus scheme and client discount     Amsterdam

Same brilliance, different role. A strategic social-mediaholic needed to manage the social activity across European territories. Sports brand experience is a must.

Creative

Creative Director £80-125k

We’ve several CD briefs for several different London agencies. If you can mentor teams,  and lead great ideas as well as generate them, we want to hear from you.

Senior Designer

Wanted; someone with incredible, unique ideas and the guile and skill to see them through. Be part of something big and help transform the face of a global company.

Technology

Head of Technology

Technical oracle wanted to lead talented team on interesting, difficult, next-step projects at this growing independent agency.

Automotive client. Top digital agency.

Help with relocation.

Karen Tijani has joined Bedwood & Friends to set up the Amsterdam office, I have worked with Karen at both Grand Union and Tribal DDB and been friends ever since, I am chuffed to be working with her again.  Karen has worked with senior management in some great agencies and has first hand experience of bringing in talent and just how important working with the right people can be.  Karen is known for her straight talking and a good judge of character so she is going to do a great job of showing Amsterdam how recruitment can and should be done.

Karen Tijani – Director of Bedwood & Friends, Amsterdam.

Having worked in the advertising industry for 12 years (Grand Union, Fallon, Tribal, DDB UK, ) I have been given the opportunity to open the Amsterdam office of Bedwood & Friends. With our HQ in the UK and offices opening soon in Sydney and Berlin, this is a very exciting time for us.

Bedwood & Friends, is a group of ex-industry headhunters that specialise in finding the best digital talent for our clients – working across Planning, Project management, Creative and Technology we use our industry experience and contacts to spot talent and put the right people together.

If you are looking for top talent, and want an honest and fresh approach to recruitment in Amsterdam get in touch, I would love to try and help.  Likewise if you are looking for your next big opportunity I would love to hear from you.  karen@bedwoodandfriends.com

We have got some great roles to start 2013 and with offices opening in Amsterdam, Berlin and Sydney we hope to be able to offer a range of new roles in the best cities.

London

Creative Director – 100 – 135k – for digital agency.

Group Project Director – 85k – One of the new breed integrated role.  Needs someone who has digital and experience of TV/Film.

Senior Project Managers – 50 – 65k  - We have 4 different roles at this level at 4 very different agencies.

Social Media/Community Manager – 35k – ideally with fashion/jewellery sector experience.

Client Consultant – 60k – 1/3  Business Analyst, 1/3 PM, 1/3 AD…..a heady mix.

Amsterdam

Looking for all types of digital talent to introduce to our new clients in Amsterdam.

This year has started well and I am looking forward to meeting some good people – so email me sally@bedwoodandfriends.com and we can meet up to discuss your plans for 2013….

Head of Digital Production – successful but still friendly, Creative agency – 90 to 100k

Senior Producer – digital production company with agency and direct clients – family feel – 45 to 50k

Senior Producer - Integrated Agency – Global brand – 45k

Exec Producer - Creative Agency, great reputation  - 80 to 90k

Community Manager – freelance and perm options. (unusual client with really interesting mission)

Head of Social - Digital agency – 100k

Technical Director - digital agency – 90 to 100k

Client Side role

Salary is 55K

Key role at the heart of an great company with a great proposition.

Copywriting/editorial skills and PR background would be an asset.

” Where this is chaos, there is opportunity”

Tom Bazeley, Lean Mean Fighting Machine, 14th Nov 2012.

Really enjoyed the conference this week and impressed by how much the IPA does to help new talent get in to our industry.

Here is a summary;

Creative Pioneers

http://www.creativepioneers.co.uk/Home

Businesses offering Internships or Apprenticeships

Diagonal Thinking Test

http://www.DiagonalThinking.co.uk/

Online test to see if you are a diagonal thinker – if you are you should include your results with any job application as only 8 percent pass the test.

IPA Ad School

http://www.ipa.co.uk/page/ad-school-2012

Connecting graduates and agencies with a 8 week summer placement from 1st July to 23rd August.

Google Squared Graduate Programme

An initiative with Google, IPA and Hyper Island to get the top graduate talent in to digital.

So, freelance seems to be very quiet, in fact it’s more than that -  it’s silent.  We’ve had a few calls from our freelance pals asking why this is the case so I’ve had a go at coming up with a point of view.

Freelance is a tricky one for me , I still have flashbacks from my agency days of too much caffine, hiring freelancers in a panic, paying them more than my net salary, and then watching the project fall off a cliff as I approve the recruiters invoice.

With this in mind B&F have a small number of really good freelancers that we can put our name to without fear of a bollocking from the agencies we place them with; but even the cream of the freelancer crop seem to be struggling to find work at the moment.

Here is our take on why.

1.  Awakening

Project Management is no longer the ugly sister of Account Management.  Perm delivery roles are getting great salaries along with a wider remit and responsibility within the agency structure. As a skills set it’s finally getting the recognition it deserves, which means agencies are less willing to hire freelancers and more willing to invest in permanent delivery talent.

2. Merging roles

Many agencies are trying to merge the AM / PM function, you can construct a fairly reasonable argument for this ready for the all agency announcement (I’ve done it) but in truth we all know its about cutting agency overheads.

AM and PM’s are very different people with very different motivations and backgrounds – lumping them together may cut the agency salary bill but it won’t necessarily make people happy, provide a solid career path or make the work as good as it could be.

This role merger probably means that there is less need for freelance, with the work being piled on an AM than having graduated from Cambridge and plumed for a career in advertising, finds himself sat next to a developer for the afternoon, trying to talk about HTML5.

3. Snowboarding

Agencies lose valuable relationships and project knowledge when a freelancer skips off for their 6th snowboarding trip of the year, shouting “losers” to all the perm staff as they go.  I think it’s finally starting to hit agencies that they need to hire and retain strong producers and not use freelancers to cover a role which is so critical to their success.

4. Finance Directors

Finance Director’s are feeling the pinch and one of the only things they can cut is the freelance budget.  Some of the big pureplay digital agencies that have traditionally used truck loads of freelancers are simply saying no to freelance and waiting for perm talent to take on the roles.  The traditional now “integrated” agencies have finally either acquired or built their digital teams and again don’t need freelancers as much as they have historically.

5. Redundancies

Redundancies are coming slow and steady, albeit in very low numbers when compared to our 2000 burst (them were the days!) Going freelance is an obvious response to being made redundant so there are more freelancers on the market and therefore more competition for fewer roles.

6. Buyouts

Mergers and acquisition are also having an impact, if you’ve been purchased by a big network and you done the “nothing will change” speech, the next thing is multiple eyeballs all over your P&L and you are told to stop hiring freelancers, so you do, because they are the new boss and you have to.

I hope these are the influencing factors and its not the start of a more serious downturn….I wouldn’t even be able to jump on the freelance gravy train and I don’t want to have to get a proper job – I have 3 kids and a man baby to look after!

BUT could something good come out of this for the industry? I don’t think a reliance on freelance production and its high day rates is a good thing for the industry if I am honest, it’s a necessary evil sometimes but should be the last option as opposed to the first, so if this downturn makes some talented people consider going to agencies as a perm member of the team where they can really make an impact on the work and help juniors learn their trade – then its got to be a good thing?  I know freelance rates are a bit like crack, they feel good and are hard to give up but some of  the best people in the industry have gone freelance and I kinda want them back in the game.

Would love to hear what other people think?

Freelance

………tumble weed.

Creative

• Conceptual Creative from copy background Copywriting – 60K
• ECD – Big salary. Big Job.

Client Service

• Account Director (Charity/Pro-Social) 55K (Ever increasing digital agency )
• Account Director – 60K ( Digital Agency )

Delivery

• Head of Digital PM – 85K (Integrated/ideas agency)
• Head of Production – 65-85K (Digital Comms/social agency)
• Project Director – 75K (Pureplay digital agency)
• Project Director – 90K (Pureplay digital agency)
• Senior Producer – 55-65K
• Mid-Weight Producer – 40K
• Creative Producer – 35K
• Junior Producer – 30K
• Senior Project Manager / Project Director or an SPM who is ready for a step up – USA location

Planning

• Digital Planning Director – 100K

More

• Technical Director – 90K
• Senior Strategist – 70K
• Head of UX – Ever increasing agency in London – 65K
• Senior Community Manager - 40K
• Senior Java Developer  - 50K