Credit: Vitaly Gariev via Unsplash
Agency leaders have raised concerns over the Victorian Government’s proposed rapid-response creative panel, questioning the feasibility of 24-hour turnarounds without undermining quality, workflow and the viability of smaller suppliers.
The government is forming a panel of three to four agencies capable of delivering initial creative responses to urgent briefs within a 24-hour window.
While speed is nothing new in agency life, leaders say the model will only work if the right structures, clarity and budgets are in place.
“The expectation of speed has absolutely grown since Covid,” director and executive creative director at The Idea Shed, John Volckman, told AdNews.
“The key is that it only works when there are strict guardrails: clarity of brief, trust in the agency and a budget commitment that matches the urgency.”
The Idea Shed has experience in delivering fast government work, producing same-day disaster response campaigns for the NSW Government during the pandemic.
Volckman said that kind of pace is possible, but only with infrastructure and planning.
“We built our own digital platform specifically to handle fast-turnaround work, it streamlines workflow, captures feedback, manages sign-offs and gives visibility so the team isn’t blindsided,” he said.
Without those systems, he warned, urgent briefs could derail agencies already juggling complex accounts.
At Weave, a 14-person independent studio, managing director and co-founder Marijana Simunovic said compressed timelines are increasingly common, but that doesn’t mean they come without cost.
“Can we turn things around fast? Absolutely,” Simunovic told AdNews.
“The bigger question is quality.
“Good creative needs thinking and collaboration. For me, it’s the difference between reacting and responding.”
While quick turnaround can stop overthinking and endless refinement rounds, Simunovic said the speed often comes at the expense of depth and craft.
“For a business like ours, one that’s built its reputation on the quality of our work, that’s a real risk.”
Simunovic also raised concerns about team wellbeing and sustainable workflows.
“Working in a constant high-intensity, rapid-response mode carries a real risk of burnout and that’s not a risk I’d be willing to take.”
Simunovic said Weave would need to keep senior creatives under capacity in case briefs dropped suddenly, an unrealistic buffer for a small team already operating on tight margins.
“In today’s climate, where it’s already challenging to balance volume of work with profitability, that just isn’t feasible,” she said.
Both Simunovic and Volckman questioned the long-term impact on independent and small-to-medium agencies, which may lack the resources or flexibility to support unpredictable spikes in demand.
“Smaller agencies are often the most agile and inventive, but resourcing is the killer,” Volckman said.
“The risk is that some of the most innovative voices get excluded simply because they can’t absorb unpredictable spikes without compromising everything else they do.”
Simunovic was even more direct.
“Speaking as a small, independent agency, I believe a structure like this would likely push businesses out of contention.”
Another concern is that a narrow panel could limit creative diversity, especially on sensitive or high-impact briefs.
“If the pool is too limited, you risk missing that perspective,” Volckman said.
“On the flip side, if the panel is too big, the volume of work won’t justify the disruption.
“Either way, the structure has to balance efficiency with variety, otherwise you just end up with the same ideas served three different ways.”
Ben Willee, executive director of media and data at Spinach, was more blunt in his assessment.
“Sounds like government has just discovered the ‘urgent brief’. Welcome to Tuesday in retail land,” Willee told AdNews.
Willee warned that unless the value of the work matches the chaos it creates, good clients and teams will suffer.
“Not every brief needs to be a fire alarm, but you’d want a lot more than $100k a year to justify the upheaval,” he said.
“Otherwise, you risk turning into self-harm with a timesheet while well-organised clients become collateral damage.”
Agencies say they would consider joining the panel only if key conditions were met, including transparency on workload, fair remuneration and expectations that reflect the brief’s complexity.
“We’d weigh up whether there’s genuine trust and collaboration with government, whether the complexity of briefs is matched with realistic expectations and whether the budget recognises the intensity of urgent work,” Volckman said.
“And increasingly, how rules around AI would be handled.”
Although the panel has been framed as a situational response to urgent needs, particularly in times of crisis or rapid policy shifts, some see the potential for a more permanent change in how government engages with suppliers.
“It feels like a situational response to the need for speed, but it could evolve into something bigger,” Volckman said.
“Government wants to move at the speed of culture, but procurement systems aren’t built for that.
“The opportunity is to design a model that balances urgency with impact.”
IMAA CEO Sam Buchanan told AdNews the organisation works closely with government, particularly on master media contracts.
“Our firm view is that having independent agency representation on Government advertising contracts and panels provides many benefits, not least of which is helping to support the local economy by keeping and reinvesting profits within Australia,” Buchanan said.
“We’ve been calling for a more extensive, multi-agency panel approach for media strategy and trading to provide greater choice and equality for government departments and agencies and to ensure Australian-owned independent media agencies are recognised.”
Buchanan said many in the industry would benefit if the Victorian Government were to adopt the new strategy.
“This model would be a win-win for everyone," he said.
"For the government departments that have been calling for more choice, expertise and value from their partner agencies; for the local independent media agencies that can deliver the skill, service, local knowledge and customised solutions required and for the economy and the local jobs the indie sector provides,” he said.
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