‘Like being conned ’: Agency employees say that fake job listings are making the already difficult job market even harder

This week, Digiday+ members received exclusive access to marketing editor Kristina Monllos’s look at the agency practice of fake job listings and retail reporter Anna Hensel’s exploration into DTC Twitter’s obsession with Tweet threads. Members also had access to our exploration into why this moment could force agencies to accelerate necessary changes to their business models.

Check out a taste of our recent coverage below and subscribe to Digiday+ for access to all member exclusives, original research and charts, live digital events, reports and guides and much more.

‘Like being conned’: Agency employees say that fake job listings are making the already difficult job market even harder

This past March, after going through rounds of interviews for a job at a creative agency, Taylor Cohen was told that the agency wasn’t hiring after all but that she’d be kept in mind for future positions.

That wasn’t a first for Cohen, who recently joined TikTok from DDB. Last fall, she’d also gone through multiple rounds and months of interviews at an independent creative agency for a potential position that kept changing as the interview process went on. She believes that’s because there wasn’t actually a position to be hired for.

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Disruption, served one thread at a time: The weird world of DTC thoughtleader Twitter (1/23)

On direct-to-consumer startup Twitter, everything is a branding lesson.

Nintendo, Oatly, a budding home cook, the location of a “Shop Now” button on a website, the amount of emails sent by a sock startup, and the toilet paper market, all offer important lessons to budding e-commerce entrepreneurs. And, lessons that need to be explained in 15-30 tweets.

DTC Twitter is obsessed with Tweet threads. Or, at the very least, they are frequently cited as recommended reads in industry newsletters like 2pm Inc. and Lean Luxe, and often serve as inspiration for further discussions in Clubhouse, Slack, or virtual events.

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‘You can’t just cut a little bit’: Why this moment could force agencies to accelerate necessary changes to their business models

If you’ve spent any time talking to agency founders or industry leaders you’ve likely heard that the agency business model is broken. Of course, this isn’t a new realization brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, as agency leaders have long bemoaned the fee-based payment model that agencies still use today.

The problem is that those same leaders haven’t figured out or implemented a different business model to replace the fee-based one. At least, not en masse. In recent years, as clients have pushed out payment windows and switched to more project work over agency of record arrangements, the problems of the fee-based model have become clearer. And now, the coronavirus crisis — as it has done with most preexisting problems — has accelerated and exacerbated these issues.

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