Freelance collaboration: The Comms Crowd goes global!

Time to read: 1 minute

Sam Howard on how we – with a healthy dose of freelance collaboration – are growing (albeit vicariously).

areas where we can provide on-the-ground support

When you go freelance, you quickly realise the limitations of what you can competently do and, therefore, the nature of the projects you can take on.

If you’re smart, you collaborate, playing to your strengths, working with others who are similarly smart but with complementary skills.

At The Comms Crowd, we have been sublimely happy in that phase for the last few years. We’ve been steadily adding interesting clients who appreciate the hands-on approach, the deep freelance collaboration, and the organic building up of the crew’s merits. Heck, we’ve even been nominated for an award along the way.

But what does our next iteration look like?

When I founded The Comms Crowd, it was not to become the next Edelman or even to get into the PR Top 100. In my experience, bigger does not correlate to better. Not for the clients, where more can buy you less. Not true either for the staff, unless your job satisfaction depends on the length of your job title. Nor even the bottom line; impressive offices and charismatic receptionists do not come cheap.

For me, small is truly beautiful, and that’s how we will stay. But, that said, who can deny the global nature of comms? The tech start-ups we work with have global appeal, and we need to secure them global attention without busting the budget.

So we have joined as a founding partner, global network, The First PR Alliance courtesy of Swyft Communications in the US. It’s a great fit for both us and our clients as other agencies focus on tech and start-ups, so little gets lost in translation.

All the partner agencies are boutique independents like ourselves, so we know senior, accountable and personable teams will do all the work, and the buck stops with the founder.