A lonely island: why agency partners matter.

There seems to be a push across big and small brands alike towards marginalizing agency work by bringing creative, 'in-house'. In some cases this means hiring on an individualized basis and in other, larger brands it means the creation of a complete studio or in-house company.

In both cases this shift signals a desire by brands to control their creative output and in some cases, a belief their costs will be positively impacted as well. But in all cases the language is clear - agencies matter less. Big media agencies have not helped this trend by utilizing programmatic ad buying practices and short-cut hacks that leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

Creative agencies are not your enemy.

Bringing work in house can certainly provide value. I'm not going to argue against it, but betting against agencies isn't a smart play and I'll give you three important reasons you should consider.

1. We're specialists. Our job is to understand market dynamics and the creative landscape. This includes channels, strategy, demographics, design, content production and more. We bring an ocean of experience both institutionally and specifically and in most cases, have tools and resources in-house creatives do not. We also have the benefit of institutional knowledge of advertising. In our building we have executives that launched some of the biggest entertainment and brand properties in history, they understand how to create audiences and interest, they've done it...multiple times. Your in-house effort likely can't complete with this type of knowledge base.
2. Economies of scale. Agencies are unique in that our offering and abilities are often substantially larger and deeper than a typical in-house team. This means we can leverage that size to find the right resources at better pricing than your in-house team. We're also locked into large networks of talent - which means we're in a position to find the right person (designer, director, editor, colorist, etc...) for the job, often under the same roof. This also means your team is currently spending a lot of valuable time negotiating with vendors, managing payments, dealing with unions and all the other areas of content production and creation that agencies handle. These hours add up.
3. Asymmetrical thinking. What does this mean? It means your creative teams are on an island. They only have each other and the executive teams with which to explore ideas. On a deeper level, this means they are likely great brand stewards but run the risk of stale thinking. This is something that an agency solves for by bringing in truly fresh ideas and novel ways to address complex needs. The potential for brand stagnation is often the result of too many people sitting in a room with too few ideas. Agencies challenge this presumption in ways that in-house brand teams (employees) will not. Who wants to lose their job by speaking out? This is insidious, by the way. You can hire a dynamic creative but stomp on their ideas once or twice and they will shut down. Great agencies push back when required, we'll tell you if something isn't a good idea and we're going to be speaking from experience. This kind of partnership is absolutely required in today's landscape which is fraught with huge potential pitfalls. (Remember this: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/business/kendall-jenner-pepsi-ad.html?_r=0)

Ultimately hiring a creative agency is a business decision but one that companies need to evaluate from more perspectives than simply a financial one. A great creative agency is a partner that can ultimately be responsible for growing your brand and punching through the increasing clutter to help you stand alone.