Catch the Sun Communications gifts Australian ad and marketing clients more hours in their day

Australian advertising and marketing firms can now take advantage of ‘overnight’ editorial turnarounds, just as UK/European clients have been doing since 2017.

Canberra-based virtual editorial and content agency Catch the Sun Communications is offering Australian advertising and marketing clients the impossible: more hours in their day.

For nearly six years, Catch the Sun has used time zone magic to extend the working day of UK- and Europe-based clients. Using a skilled network of Australia-based freelancers, the agency completes copywriting, editing and proofreading work for northern-hemisphere clients ‘overnight’ while they sleep – by working during Australian office hours – with projects ready and waiting in UK inboxes around breakfast time each morning.

Now the agency is reversing this model to benefit local Australian advertising agencies and marketing firms, using an impressive team of editorial and content freelance professionals in the UK to complete projects ‘overnight’.

This clever business model lets the agency ‘catch the sun’ for its clients, using the natural movement of the sun around the globe to lengthen production hours, ensuring tight delivery deadlines are always met.

Says Maddie Sinclair (above left), founder, Catch the Sun Communications: “Catch the Sun Communications exists because there really aren’t enough hours in the day. Having spent nearly 15 years of my career working in Australian and UK ad agencies, I know this is particularly true as a marketing project approaches its deadline. Not only does Catch the Sun increase the potential daily working hours for our time-pressed agencies and busy marketing department clients, but we provide them with certainty knowing their content is both excellent quality and error free.”

The Catch the Sun freelancer network is a highly qualified team of copywriters, editors, and proofreaders, with the majority coming from the advertising, marketing, or publishing industries before choosing to go freelance. The network is predominantly female and includes many highly talented working mothers keen for flexible careers that fit around their families.

Claire Cocks (right), Catch the Sun’s operations and workflow manager, explains the agency’s unique positioning: “Whether it’s a new website, a university prospectus, an annual report, or a complex press or direct mail campaign with many artwork versions, we make it easy to add an ‘extra peace of mind’ layer to a client’s sign-off process without it eating into their super-tight project timeline.”

Catch the Sun Communications has ongoing direct working relationships with a host of UK internal marketing departments and agencies, including Imperial College London, the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP), The Ideas House, Mint Creative and Them Studio. UK agencies have responded overwhelmingly well to this unique ‘overnight’ model, allowing Catch the Sun to help many agencies and their client brands who, over the years, have included American Express, Manpower, BP, Railcard, Suzuki and more.

Brighton (UK) marketing agency The Ideas House partners with Catch the Sun on major client projects, using Maddie and her network as part of their team – on the other side of the globe.

Says Cathryn Kronhamn, co-founder and director of The Ideas House: “Working with Catch the Sun works brilliantly for us. Theirs is a really clever offering that allows us to extend this value to our clients on a regular basis. As a female-run agency, The Ideas House has real synergies with Catch the Sun and the partnership is working really well for us. I’m sure reversing their model to benefit Australian companies will be a huge success, too.”

Catch the Sun freelancers will often work as an extension of an ad agency’s account handling team or company’s marketing department. They can help them to create high-quality content, proofread work as part of an outsourced internal approvals process, and provide expert quality assurance before dispatching to print.

Clients can also hire entire editorial freelancer teams for remote project work and Catch the Sun works in tandem with partner agencies when required.

Catch the Sun’s local Australian clients have included the University of Canberra, Fujitsu, UNSW Canberra, NTT, Geoscience Australia, AECOM, the Australian National University, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), 2B Advertising and more.