How Rolo helps Spillt find freelancers faster
Sep 7, 2023
Talent discovery can be painful
Ryan Summers, Creative director at Spillt, an amazing studio in Denver, knows all-too-clearly how difficult it can be find the right talent for a project at the right time.
"Trying to find the right talent at the right time, when they were actually available? Almost impossible – and even then it always would take so long… We get request to pitch and we'd just start trying to call people, hoping they weren't booked. And as a creative director, I got used to calling the same names over and over and over."
Pre-Rolo pain points
Before Rolo entered the picture, Ryan’s process for hiring an artist might look like this:
He’d reach out to his existing network, hoping the right person was available. If not, he’d need to reach out to other colleagues to see if they could recommend someone, and then he’d need to contact them to see if they’re available. If that failed, he’d resort to scouring social media to try and find someone who might be a good fit, often having to go with a “gut feeling” on the artist’s skillset.
"Before Rolo, I thought I knew pretty much everybody or a lot of the people that I’d want to work with in the industry."
Rolo's changed the game for Spillt – it's taught us to look out for new talent by making it easier and quicker to find them ever before.
Ryan Summers
CD, Spillt
Rolo: a creative director's dream
Rolo’s introduction into the creative industry marks a fundamental shift in how creative directors like Ryan can operate. The platform empowers anyone to take the reins of the talent search process, and according to Ryan, it's a game-changer.
"What's been really exciting with Rolo is how fast it is for me to search for the specific skills I need. We're inundated with reels that just so "motion design" or "generalist" – pro tip for anyone looking for work: get SPECIFIC. Rolo really promotes to their roster that they need to tell a specific (and concise) story about who they are and what they can do right now. And the great thing? I can do all the searching quickly and painlessly all on my own as a creative director.
In the past someone else would spend DAYS collecting a list and sending it to me to take a first look – Rolo flipped the script the way that makes a lot more sense; the CD usually knows best on who and what they need – and then the Producer can take it from there and find out who's actually available."
Central to Rolo’s appeal is its streamlined communication system. Instead of navigating a labyrinth of emails, Slack messages, and texts, Rolo offers a clean and efficient channel for connecting with artists. For Ryan, this marks a significant improvement.
"Rolo has taken a part of my job that was just really time-consuming and laborious and turned it into something I look forward to."
A stunning diversity of talent
Rolo’s superpowers extend beyond its speed and ease of communication. Ryan also highlighted an unexpected advantage – the platform's ability to unearth fresh talents and perspectives
"You get so used to working with the same small crew of regular freelancers that you start to get tunnel vision as a creative director, and that can lead to some really uninspired creative – Rolo's been a bolt of lightning by exposing our team to people with different backgrounds, experiences – and frankly even different color palette choices! It's created a different kind of conversation when staffing comes up within the team."
A real-world success story
Ryan shared an impressive real-world success story that underscores Rolo’s impact on Spillt’s operations. Facing a high-pressure paid pitch with a tight deadline, Ryan turned to Rolo for help.
"We had a gigantic pitch, a huge pitch that was actually paid, which is so rare these days. It gave us an opportunity to bring in new artists and, normally, that process would be ask the producer go through the whole steps, it takes three or four days.
But we didn't have that much time. So I actually went on a Rolo and started looking for designers specifically from areas that I've never worked with before."
Ryan also asked Spillt’s producers to try and find artists who were available, as this was an “all hands on deck” situation.
The result? A list of 20 potential candidates in just an hour, a feat that might have taken days conventionally.
"I think within an hour I found a list of 20 people. I was able to share it with my partner, the other creative director of the job. We evaluated it. We're able to send out an Availability Request through Rolo to those 20 people. And I think within… an hour or two, we had eight people signed on the dotted to line to start making style frames for a pitch.
And, at the same time, our producers probably at that point hadn't even compiled the list of people they wanted to reach out to."
Rolo's responsiveness
This experience is typical of what we’re hearing from the studios and agencies using Rolo. The tool is optimized for speed and discoverability, allowing you to find and meet artists who you may have never come across before.
"Rolo's changed the game for Spillt – it's taught us to look out for new talent by making it easier and quicker to find them ever before."
The power of the Artist Spotlight
We’ve been releasing regular Artist Spotlight interviews with some of the amazing talent on the Rolo roster, and Ryan sees these as another channel for finding great talent to work with.
"I am super stoked for the Artist Spotlights because it’s always great in a pinch to be able to find someone, bring them on board, get them on a job and get them going. But as a Creative Director I always like to have people in the back of my head, and knowing what they like to do or what their skill is or knowing what their superpower is.
The Artist Spotlight has given me the chance to think of people before I need them."
Ryan has been creating lists of artists, checking in on the new artists we add daily, and basically building his own personal… wait for it… Rolodex using the tools on the Rolo platform. When the next pitch shows up, he’ll be even more prepared to assemble his dream team of artists.
A game-changer for Spillt
Rolo has forever changed how Creative Directors like Ryan can discover and collaborate with talent. Its speed, efficiency, and incredibly diverse talent roster have made it an indispensable tool.
As Rolo continues to evolve, our goal is to remove as many barriers as possible for artists and for the companies that hire them. We think that finding and contacting amazing talent should be a joy, not a chore, and we’re on a mission to make it so.
✌️ Joey & Joe
