What’s your market outlook right now?

We see LOTS of strategy roles as part of running this project, and being plugged into the industry, both freelance and perm. It gives me a useful, perhaps unique, perspective on how the independent strategy industry is fearing right now.

So, here's my current take on the current market with a UK focus:

1/ There's a bit of a recent spike in perm strategy roles opening up, but salaries aren't matching expectation of experience, frequently underpaying significantly, despite asking for a fair bit of experience.

2/ I’m seeing lots of roles asking for a very broad skill set too (i.e. not just strategy, but also into client management and hands on skills too). This “hybrid” strategist idea (perhaps brand and comms, creative and brand, or most often “strategy+doing”) is symptomatic of smaller/leaner teams, and clients trying to do more with less - but eats away at specialisms and motivation. Lack of budget doesn’t mean you should just burn your team out.

3/ Am seeing more and more FTC and "temp to perm" roles, with orgs taking a "try before you buy" model - which I'm not sure is an effective strategy. Committed contractors/independents often don't see a perm job as a carrot; for those who want a perm role, having six months of uncertainty isn't healthy; and it's incredibly hard to build internal team behaviours with a high churnover.

4/ Freelance roles are picking up a bit, especially with specialist skills (i.e. need a strategist with expertise in a certain discipline, seeing lots of calls for experience in influencer marketing, healthcare/pharma and experience/cx).

5/ Day rates are generally a joke, and are slipping backwards - possibly due to oversupply in the market, but also smaller client budgets. Project durations are still shorter (lots of 2-3 day gigs). Lots of super short-term stuff, lots of longer-term stuff - not much in the 5-6 week space, which used to be common for agencies.

6/ Seeing lot of independents moving back into perm roles. It’s great to see people being open to working in a way that suits them right now. It's important to go with something that gives you what you need, and lots of people need/want a team and some longevity in a role.

7/ Seeing some orgs get smarter and build out their benches of people they work with more regularly, so they don't have to keep going out to the market - but many pools in the last 2-3 years grew too much, and didn't provide any work, leaving freelancers end up feeling frustrated.

8/ There’s still far too much “urgent need” briefing, i.e. posting on LinkedIn on a Friday for a Monday start. This is crazy to me, risking an urgent project on someone you’ve never worked with before. And it speaks to the continued use of independents to ‘plug a hole’, rather than a strategic lever.

What I don’t see so much of is the increasing number of people who are doing it right, building their trusted networks and reaching out directly, avoiding the nonsense of platforms like LinkedIn. We’re getting more people coming to us before they public with roles, because they want quality over quantity. But there is of course a whole hidden “who you know” network which is very active.

This in its own right is just as much of an issue - breaking into strategy was always hard, and finding work when 70% of the briefs go to existing connections, makes it even harder for those who don’t have a network, or earlier in their career. I only expect this to get harder and less inclusive - and there’s a clear need to do something about this - to benefit both hirers and independents.

My prediction for the next few months?

2026 is probably set to look a little more positive, bigger networks are rationalising, and quite a few orgs are finding their momentum again after a couple of hard years.

Microstudios and indie agencies are doing well, a bit of an explosion of new offerings with really interesting and different models - which is great for clients looking for different types of partners.

But of course, I only see a tiny slice of reality - what's your view right now?
Let me know in the comments.

September 23rd, 4pm BST: We’re inviting all Outside Perspective members to our September SHOW & TELL huddle.

Bring a piece of work, thinking, provocation or inspiration and share with your fellow community members. Max ten minutes to share what you wish.

It’s a lovely opportunity to listen to your colleagues’ work, and get to know your fellow independents.

If you’d like to come along, register here.

Get Out: Willem van der Horst on mixing up your environment to spark innovation.

Hi, I'm Willem.

In case you missed my community intro in July, I'm a French-American global brand strategist. The first part of my strategy career was on the agency side; in London, Singapore, and Chicago. In 2018, I was laid off and have been freelancing since.

I taught the first class of my Strategic Planning and Consumer Insights master’s level course this week. To set students in pairs for an assignment, I took two suits of a pack of playing cards (diamonds and spades), and asked them to draw a card. They then had to go find their matching number or figure. They were an odd number, so I added a Joker; whoever picked it could choose the team they'd be in.

Incorporating an element of play like this shifts the energy in the room in a positive way, keeping students engaged. I like to think it made things slightly more interesting and memorable.

This year hasn't been going all that well in terms of regular paid strategy client projects. The silver lining is I have more time to progress with product and service ideas. Packaging products and services is something that resonates with many independent strategists, and it comes up in discussions within the Outside Perspective community.

I've been thinking of business training and offsite events and I'm working on three broad ideas, in distinct locations:

1/ Paris as playground

The first and most obvious is Paris as a destination. I'm right here and it is the world's most attractive city, as reported by Euromonitor. This would be an immersive training, part workshop, part exploring what Paris is great at and not always known for, linking both together.

I think going somewhere for an offsite training is generally associated with a celebration or a reward. While this training event could be focused on brand strategy, I'm thinking of a potentially wider audience of sales and marketing professionals.

A day or two in Paris could involve some workshop time in a lovely venue down a cobbled street I know, as well as coffee and some of the best croissants in Paris. This could be followed by an outdoor activity and a visit relevant to the group, such as to the studio of a boutique fashion designer, or a walking tour of faded signs. It could even include lunch in the middle, or a wine tasting at the end – still within the context of an immersive and playful professional training. More about this idea here (beta draft).

2/ Theme park strategy sprint

The second idea is an offsite sprint with decision makers or entrepreneurs while in the middle of a brand strategy project. After an initial research phase, this would be the opportunity to regroup and come up with a direction and the building blocks of a solution.

While it could also be in Paris, or an isolated nature retreat, I think a theme park is an awesome place for this. Visitors step into an entirely different world, featuring advanced engineering and design. The physical fun and thrill of rides can open up new perspectives, and theme parks are well set to host businesses. I used Phantasialand in Germany as an example in my last newsletter. Figuring out the costs is on my to-do list.

I was recently listening to an episode of Cal Newport's podcast (author of Deep Work), in which he shared a story from Walt Disney's life. His animation studio went from the high of winning an Academy Honorary Award for Snow White in 1937 (at great cost – he had to mortgage his house and then take an extra $250k loan, too), to low times struggling during the Second World War.

He turned back to a childhood interest in steam trains. He even bought new land to build a 1:8-scale fully functional train, and construct a new house around it. You can imagine what happened next: Disneyland in 1955, and later Walt Disney World. 70 years later, Disney Parks and Experiences is the best performing division of Disney as a whole, representing 48% of revenue and 72% of operating income (Q1 FY2024).

Theme parks might seem frivolous, or maybe they're not your cup of tea. But considering the millions of people going and billions in revenue generated, you may agree there could be a few things to learn from these mind-boggling branded playgrounds.

3/ Leadership at altitude

The third idea is arguably even more extravagant: a leadership training doubling up as a ski trip.

I got back into skiing about ten years ago and love how it involves a balance of skilled control and letting go at the same time. It's not at all intuitive, and a pleasure when the right balance is reached. Analogies can be made with leadership, whether participants are beginners or seasoned skiers.

From the Greek gods living on top of Mount Olympus, to Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, or the famous Wanderer above the Sea of Fog 19th-century Romantic movement painting, myths and symbols linking leadership and mountains abound. More details about this early idea here.

These ideas might seem outlandish, particularly given difficult economic and political situations. Still, those who invest in a downturn tend to come out winning later on. I believe there are opportunities to foster breakthrough strategic thinking and business innovation in a playful environment, away from boardrooms and screens.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about what I'm working on. I'm also looking at offering prototype training at cost, not charging for my work and time, in exchange for detailed feedback and testimonials. Whether you're interested or just want to say hi, I'd love to hear from you.

» Connect with Willem on Linkedin or via his website.

Curiosity Stream

» ’s take on Exit Strategies and Escape Fantasies in a turbulent world, that perhaps are the only uniting factor across society right now?

» Nicolas Roope on the era of authentication

» Saatch & Saatchi’s “State of the Nation” report resurfaced in chat this week - Thanks Kevin.

» The Office of Applied Strategy uniform. Personally, my strategist uniform was always jeans, grey tee, and stan smiths.

» featured OP friend Gemma Jones in their excellent series Working Theories

» Mara’s take on the risks of “news creators” vs journalism, and dark money pouring into influence.

» Am enjoying ’s Observation Deck at the moment.

» How good is good? via David McGuire

» Use this magic bullet to shoot yourself in the foot - thanks Joel

» GPT-5 Thinking in ChatGPT (aka Research Goblin) is shockingly good at search - thanks Willem

» Will our personality changes ruin the workplace?

» Thinking about getting this sign for my workspace - Go slow and make things

Gigs.

Briefs discovered and curated from across the stratosphere.
Promote your brief - or tell us if you’ve found work via the project.

1. Senior Media Planning Consultant (9mo FTC) (London,UK)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250910-rma.html

2. influence strategist (UK)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250909-oliver.html

3. Social Strategist (FTC/Freelance) (UK)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250909-gemini.html

4. Brand Strategist, fluent in German, b2b saas exp
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250909-de-brand.html

5. creative ad strategist (London,UK)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250909-creative.html

6. brand strategist for AI consultancy (ES)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250909-ai-brand.html

7. Freelance Experience Strategy Lead (UK)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250908-publicis.html

8. Freelance Content Strategist with change and internal comms exp (UK)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250908-content-publicis.html

That’s all for this week.
mk✌️