After launching an initiative to help laid off agency professionals just earlier this week, Andrew Shortt, of Toronto agency Huxley Quayle von Bismark, says about 100 people have requested to take part, 600 people have visited the site, and Just One Project’s first client has been confirmed: J. Wray & Nephew, owner of Appleton Estate Rum has come forward with a project that will be staffed entirely of recently laid off agency personnel, working on a freelance basis.
But a lot more projects are needed given the growing ranks of unemployed, so with help from Genesis Vizeum, Shortt is on a mission to find media partners who will donate space and help motivate more major advertisers in Canada to commit just one marketing project to the HQvB initiative, in order to get people working again. He hopes that newspapers and magazines will donate ad space – both online and offline to help spread the word.
‘If media companies within the industry can put aside our competitiveness for just a little while, for a couple of months, and come together and do what we can to get as many advertisers to know about this as possible, then we can get people back working,’ says Shortt.
Shortt says the talent pool across Canada is amazing and those who have been laid off could tackle a range of projects, across all platforms. A competitive rate of about $125 per hour would be charged to pay contributors, and HQvB is not profiting from the project.
