Minimum Focal Length

The closest you can get to your subject before losing focus.

When we evaluate how an agency articulates its proposition (we do this a lot) it often becomes clear that the strongest card is not being played well, or not being played at all.

In some ways, this is not surprising. Even the finest lens loses a sharp focus when it gets up close to its subject. It’s easy to take the familiar for granted, yet hard not to be just a tiny bit self-conscious, even defensive, when talking about matters close to the heart. For some, these are articles of faith - with simply no need for further questioning.

Independent Thinking

So what do agencies say about themselves these days? Rainmaker’s analysis of The Drum’s ‘Top 100 Independent Agencies’ in order to answer this question, reveals that a lot of very different providers are saying many of the same things and in a similar way.

One in three, claims to create 'meaningful' results or experiences. 25% lead with the fact they are 'award-winning', and nearly half of them cite generic 'creativity' as a primary yet unnuanced selling point. Just 2% manage to describe their offer without using one of the seven tired terms in the graph below.

Hidden Strengths

Looking at some of the amazing agencies that Rainmaker has helped succeed over the years, it is interesting how many of them were initially quite determined to hide their light under a bushel. Sometimes this has been because they are working on a new venture and looking to step out of the shadow of more famous parents.

I remember when one of the world’s best-known directors launched a creative agency. I could totally understand his desire to forge a new identity for it, but the market wasn’t receptive. When we recommended placing his own name front and centre, access improved instantly, with enthusiastic dialogue, new business relationships, and briefs quick to follow.

Sometimes a spark of recognition is all that’s required.

This was certainly the case for an exceptional software development and digital consultancy we work with. Fiercely independent, it chose to omit the fact that it is part of one of the biggest global agency networks. But when we began referencing this fact, it provided the necessary context for consideration for a number of major digital transformation projects.

Not One Size Fits All

So it’s about picking the right solution for your audience. Contrary to the point above, when we first met a leading content publishing agency, its new business outreach was leaning on the fact that it was very much part of a large agency network. Fine, but in this instance, they had a far more impressive profile of their own. The network was diluting, not supporting the effect. We pivoted to bring their heritage and exceptional work in journalism and magazine publishing out to the fore - a much more compelling story.

A delicate conversation we need to have every so often is around how an agency talks about its senior personnel. Not everyone is a world-famous director or business icon, and lengthy, self-aggrandising bios bore brand-side budget holders. There’s usually a better story to be told. Our planning quickly teases out your objectively impressive achievement and accompanying expertise, to fashion a coherent sales logic to explain your offer.

Get Tactical

I look at a lot of agency websites. After a while, the lists of ‘brands we have worked with’ and ‘our services’, blends for agency buyers into an unremarkable blur. It seems everyone has done work for Unilever or Diageo in some capacity at some point, and most agencies can provide the catch-all service areas of content, comms, research, design, strategy, creative, social media, etc... yawn.

The point then is to focus on the thing that you are better at than anyone else – without apology, reservation, dilution or complication. And make sure that every single one of the brands you want to work with knows this about you; not just the ones you have a current ‘in’ with. Once the new relationship is alive, there will be plenty of opportunities to reveal your other capabilities and then win and grow the account.

An example here, is I think, Iris. Today it’s a global creative innovation network, with over 1,000 people, collaborating across 17 offices around the globe. But in the beginning, Iris chose a special focus to cut through with. It led with its very strong youth marketing credentials. Yes, the broader creative capabilities were always there, but this was the silver bullet that we helped them identify and communicate, consistently and comprehensively over the critical Year 1 of the campaign. It was this that led to an exciting growth trajectory in fresh pastures.

2021? Now that’s a different story.

Looking to 2021, you have I am sure both the means and the imperative to revitalise, refresh and relaunch - to tell a new chapter of your own story. As CoViD relaxes its grip on our bodies and minds, and as governments then reach the point where they can definitively ask economies to rebuild (which will happen one way or another in the coming months), brand CFOs will greenlight with confidence any currently frozen budgets. And (unfortunately for familiar incumbents clung onto in the crisis) they will be open to something special and different.

Do the brands you want to work with know what makes you special and different?

Do you?

My colleagues and I can help you adjust your messaging so that you will be heard. Our new business campaign planning for clients is never laboured. We work fast and expediently to get the campaign underway. But to drop into cliché – planning is everything and it has to be done correctly.

Neither matchmakers nor industry networkers, we are uncompromised; wholly focused on your interests. And while we always work closely with you, we also provide some distance – a minimum focal length – to see with objectivity your most effective new business messages to take out to the market. This will accelerate your results.

Right now, for many agencies, 2021 means hitting the reset button. But even for those on positive existing trajectories, fine-tuning of messages, at the very least, is necessary in our altered world. The sooner this is done, the sooner they will be out there working for you, one-to-one, with each of your prospects. And then the sooner they will start to grasp what it is that makes you so great.

Rainmaker delivers new business relationships. Contact me directly on here or at [email protected] if you would like to discuss how we can help.