MassMutual

Freelancing Takes Over: Navigating the New Ad Landscape

Adweek outlines how freelancing has become a structural feature of modern marketing and creative teams as agency restructurings and a crowded freelance market push more people into independent work. Workforce platform Assemble reports freelancers and contractors now make up 30%–70% of marketing teams (versus ~10% before 2022). Brands including Delta, MassMutual and Colgate are hiring external specialists for longer multi-quarter stints. Industry veterans and recruiters quoted in the piece advise freelancers to plan for market volatility, prioritize networking, specialize in a clear skill or lane, treat freelancing like a small business (billing cadence, savings, insurance), set clear boundaries and seek fixed-term contracts or project-based roles for more stability.

Freelance Surge: Marketing Teams Embrace Creative Contractors

The freelance market for creative roles has reached an inflection point: contractors now supply a substantially larger share of marketing teams than before 2022. Workforce platform Assemble reports contractors constitute between 30% and 70% of marketing teams, a major increase from about 10% pre-2022. Brands such as Delta, MassMutual, ServiceNow and Colgate are engaging external specialists for longer periods, sometimes spanning multiple quarters. Assemble founder and CEO Lara Vandenberg attributes the shift to economic pressure and changing marketing workflows—many U.S. companies have slowed permanent hiring while marketing teams face higher output expectations. The trend signals a longer-term structural change in how marketing creative work is sourced and staffed.

Fortune 500 CMOs Embrace Freelancers for Marketing Revolution

Fortune 500 marketing teams are increasingly relying on freelancers and contractors, who now represent roughly 30%–70% of many enterprise marketing organizations, up from about 10% before 2022. Companies cited include Delta, MassMutual, ServiceNow, and Colgate, which are moving from single contractors to multi-quarter teams of specialists. The findings come from workforce platform Assemble, which rebranded from Publicist; Assemble says it built a network of more than 50,000 senior marketing freelancers and reported 2025 revenue growth of 400% year‑over‑year. Broader labor-data sources (Upwork, MBO Partners, Robert Half) corroborate a rise in independent marketing talent and a planned increase in contract hires to fill skills gaps such as AI-enabled workflows and marketing automation.