Katie Lawrence
Marketing and Growth Director - Dodgems and Floss
Insights | Marketing
Why outsourcing creative services is a game-changer for growing businesses
06 March 2025
Why businesses struggle with design
For many growing businesses, maintaining a high standard of branding, design, and creative output can be a challenge. Hiring an in-house team sounds like the ideal solution, but it comes with high costs; recruitment takes an age, if you can even find anyone with the ‘right fit’ when you need to!
If you’ve never worked with a creative agency before, you might be wondering... ‘why outsource design when you could do it internally?’ The truth is that a specialist agency can offer a level of expertise, flexibility and innovation that’s hard to achieve in-house, especially for SMBs and startups.
Key takeaways from this article:
- Gain expert-level design without the cost of hiring full-time specialists
- Get fresh creative inspiration to support your in-house team
- Scale up your brand’s design output without the overhead
- Work hand-in-hand with an agency to get high-impact results
- How Dodgems and Floss can help
Dig in and find out more about the benefits of outsourcing design to an agency...
Access to a full team of experts
Hiring a highly skilled designer in-house is great, but what about when you need:
- A branding specialist to craft your visual identity?
- A UX/UI expert to improve website design?
- A motion designer to bring your campaigns to life?
With an agency (like Dodgems and Floss!), you don’t just get one designer - you get access to a whole team with decades of experience in design, branding, web, animation, motion film and marketing. This means high-quality, high-impact creative work every time.
‘Outsourcing doesn’t replace an internal team - it strengthens it. We work hand-in-hand with brands, marketing teams, and business leaders to elevate their creative output.’
Fresh creative inspiration
Even the best internal teams can hit a creative wall. Working with an agency brings in new perspectives, awareness of the trends to follow (and which to street clear of), and innovative ideas that can help breathe new life into your brand.
Whether you need brand refresh ideas, campaign concepts or just an extra spark of creativity, an outsourced team can provide that boost.
For in-house teams → Agencies act as creative partners, providing extra hands when needed
For growing businesses → You get top-tier creative work without needing a full-time hire
Cost-effective alternative to hiring in-house
Hiring a full-time design team is a major financial commitment including salaries, training, software, equipment and ongoing overheads. For businesses that either aren’t at the stage where they need a full team, don’t have enough constant work to justify one or have internal hiring constraints, outsourcing is the perfect solution.
Let’s do the maths:
- A senior in-house designer can cost £40,000–£60,000+ per year
- A basic full-service design team (branding, UI/UX, motion, etc.) can cost £250,000+ per year
- Outsourcing gives you access to all these skills - but at a fraction of the cost
This means you can scale your design capabilities up or down to meet demand, without worrying about long-term financial commitments.
Faster turnaround & no bottlenecks
We have all been there. The design bottleneck! As a marketing manager I have often been held up by the design team's inability to ‘be creative’ as fast as I can type the vague description on Asana (I think it’s called a brief?!). Result: One of the biggest struggles for in-house design teams - lack of bandwidth. When workload spikes, deadlines get pushed, creative processes get shortened and quality suffers.
An outsourced team can help you:
- Deliver campaigns faster
- Meet tight deadlines without overwhelming your team
- Scale up for big projects and then scale down when needed
This is especially useful for businesses that need seasonal campaigns, product launches, or brand refreshes but don’t want to overburden their existing teams.
A seamless extension of your team
If you already have a marketing team or brand manager, you might think an agency would replace them. But that’s not the case. Agencies work as an extension of your team, bolstering your creative capabilities and working collaboratively to achieve the business’s goals.
Your agency is your creative ally, someone who understands your brand, aligns with your vision, and helps you execute ideas at every level. You can even use your agency to present new or bold (!) concepts to your Senior Management. I know I have asked my agency to present more ‘left-field ideas’ when I know they will pitch the idea better than me!
‘At Dodgems and Floss we are the creative partner. It's not client and agency, it’s team. 10 years in the business and I can honestly say that projects where the team integrates fully get the best results.’
Ben Fitter-Harding
Studio Director - Dodgems and Floss
How Dodgems and Floss can help your business
At Dodgems and Floss, we’ve spent a decade helping businesses like yours transform their brand, enhance their design, and deliver standout marketing campaigns.
Our expertise includes:
- Brand strategy & design – Whether you need a full rebrand or just a refresh, we’ve got you covered
- Website development – Creating beautiful, functional websites that engage your audience
- Motion & digital marketing creative – From eye-catching social media ads to video content, we help brands stand out.
Final thoughts: Is outsourcing design right for you?
If your business needs high-quality, scalable, and expert-led creative design, but you’re not ready or don’t need to hire a full team in-house, then outsourcing could be the perfect solution.
By partnering with a trusted creative agency like Dodgems and Floss, you get the best of both worlds, big agency expertise with a flexible, problem-solving approach.
Let’s create something amazing together. Get in touch today!