To be or not to be, that is the question…of the next recession. It’s not clear yet if CEOs are right about a looming economic downturn or if it’s just bad vibes.

Yet one thing does seem clear: Staffing companies expect a recession to boost what they say is already a growing shift to freelance and temporary work.

Jason Chitwood, general manager at MarketerHire for Agencies, which provides temporary workers to companies like WPP and GroupM, told Marketing Brew he expects business to grow faster if and when a recession hits. “We’re anticipating a positive impact for MarketerHire,” Chitwood said.

• Since he came into his role in January, he said he’s seen many agency clients scale “quite dramatically,” some bringing on 4x–6x more freelancers. Demand for workers has ranged from lower-level media buyers to senior-level strategists.
• “They’re worried about recessions, they’re worried about all these things, just like everyone is. So for them, the safer they can be and the more folks they can bring onboard who are not full-time employees, the safer they are in terms of having to reduce their risk of layoffs,” he said.

Zoom out: Layoffs have already started happening at agencies like The Many and R/GA, and eMarketer recently said that more job cuts in the industry “could be on the way.” Plus, companies like Microsoft, P&G, and Ford have reduced ad spend for different reasons this year.

As agencies grapple with these downturns, they might rely on short-term workers more frequently. “It’s not as though these companies can stop doing business, but it may be that they unfortunately reduce headcount and they’ll be looking to freelancers to fill that,” Brent Messenger, VP of public policy and community engagement at freelance platform Fiverr, told us.

On-again, off-again

Holly Wasson, chief community and marketing officer at We Are Rosie—a “flexible career platform” for marketers, as she calls it—told us she’s seen an uptick in bookings over the last several weeks.

• One reason, she said, is given economic uncertainty, more brands and agencies are looking at “burst capacity” hires rather than full-time employees as marketers look at budgets on a quarterly, rather than full-year, basis.

Looking ahead: Brian Dolan, CEO and founder of WorkReduce, which also provides marketing staff to agencies and brands, said the company has continued to triple its revenue over the last three years. While he hasn’t heard of clients slowing their hiring, he said that could change if consumer spending goes down and ad budgets are cut.

“What we experienced at WorkReduce during the pandemic was holding companies laid off their workers, and then kept hiring ours because we’re not a capital expenditure for them,” Dolan told us.

Continue reading here.—KH

When Cynthia Ruff started coordinating her own influencer deals, she developed a system. If a brand reached out asking her to do work for free, she’d respond with her rates. Often, it worked. Recounting these experiences to her husband, she joked to Marketing Brew that he’d often respond with, “That’s right, baby, you tell those brands #PayMe!”

That’s how the name for Ruff’s new business Hashtag Pay Me, a rate calculator for influencers, came about. The free “base” calculator, which puts a price on what a creator’s content is worth at minimum, rolls out today. Ruff—who previously worked in a role involving pricing executive compensation—shared the debut exclusively with us.

• Backed with 18 months of data from brands, agencies, and influencers, Hashtag Pay Me’s base-rate calculator uses factors such as an influencer’s reach, technical skill, content-creation ability level, and years of experience to determine what similar influencers are paid at minimum per sponsored post (such as a 30-second TikTok, for instance) in the US.
• Hashtag Pay Me plans to not only build out more specialized products that would be available to influencers for a nominal fee, but also license its data to marketers.

How it happened: Although Ruff built the company in Georgia Tech’s startup accelerator Create-X, she declined the $25,000 it offered her to fund Hashtag Pay Me. Ruff said the company was entirely funded from her own influencer brand deals, which she hopes will drive trust between herself and the influencers using the product.

Why marketers should care: As influencer rates go up, Ruff told us that Hashtag Pay Me can provide relevant data points on how the market has historically paid them, as well as predict future payment rates.—PB

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Extra, extra: This data from Pew Research Center breaks down where Americans get their news on social media.

Get organized: If you’re scrambling to create a solid social media posting schedule, you can start with this guide.

Dog days: Brush up your content marketing this summer with these tips.

No cookies, no prob: Third-party cookies, that is, because Brave is the first global digital-ad platform built for privacy. Grow your brand’s reach without leaning on third-party cookie data, all in a brand-safe, opt-in ecosystem for consumers. Start here.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Need a change in professional scenery? Your next great marketing role awaits you on the Marketing Brew Job Board!

Today’s featured openings:

• Enterprise Sales Development Representative at Insider
• Growth Marketing Manager at Forum Brands
• Digital Marketing Manager at Haley Marketing

See more jobs or post your job opportunities here.

We’re basically halfway through the year, and you know what that means: If you haven’t taken a vacation or any time off from work this year, you really should.

But it also means Prime Day is right around the corner. The two-day annual sale begins on July 12, and Retail Brew recently covered an Adobe Commerce survey of more than 1,000 consumers that sheds some light on what shopping habits might look like at this year’s event. Some highlights:

• 76% of Prime Day shoppers plan to spend more or the same as they did last year.
• 56% said they shop to save money on Prime Day, while 32% said they’re getting a head start on holiday shopping.
• 24% of consumers said they don’t plan to shop on Prime Day because of less discretionary money to spend and higher costs.

All about me: More than two-thirds (67%) of respondents said when shopping in-store or online, they want to receive personalized promotions based on how they spend.

We asked Morning Brew readers for their take on salary transparency last week and there were some really eye-opening answers. We found the more money you make the less interested you are in salary transparency. Plus some interesting differences between genders and feelings on salary transparency.

Check out the rest of your fellow readers' feelings on salary transparency here.

Ahhhh, work travel, we’ve missed you. We love a conference, don’t you? Free food, smart people with inspiring ideas...aspirational breakfast meetings. Well, marketers...we have news.

::drumroll:: Introducing The Brief: A Summit Presented by Marketing Brew

Marketing Brew has partnered with some of the world’s most-recognized brands and influential marketers to bring you a premiere one-day marketing event in the heart of New York City.

Early-bird pricing ends soon, so don’t wait. Save yourself a seat (and some green) now!

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• TikTok chops are ‘huge’ for creative agencies right now
• Coming to a streamer near you: movie previews
• Should brands keep advertising through a recession?