The role of intermediaries in the comms: Create value, not barriers

By Michaela Krause

The communication industry thrives on collaboration. From crafting compelling narratives to executing complex campaigns, success often relies on a seamless partnership between clients and service providers such as ourselves at Laika.

Sometimes, especially on complex projects involving either different departments, or covering different geographical areas, the client has the right reflex and calls upon local partners to better address their needs in their respective territories. This process often ends up with the nomination of an intermediary, often playing the role of an external project coordinator, or a liaison between the client and all subcontractors.

They then play a crucial role in connecting the dots, ensuring that the right people and resources come together to deliver exceptional outcomes. Sometimes, they are even outsourced the scouting and onboarding process of other service providers who would be reporting to them directly in the best interest of the client.

However, the role of intermediaries is not without challenges. While they can be instrumental in simplifying processes and offering strategic oversight, there’s a fine line between enabling success and inadvertently creating bottlenecks or imbalances in resource allocation.

As someone deeply invested in fostering meaningful collaborations, I believe it’s time for a frank discussion about the responsibilities intermediaries carry and the impact they have on the industry as a whole.

Intermediaries: The double-edged sword

At their best, intermediaries are like mission control in a space launch. They orchestrate the numerous moving parts required to get the rocket off the ground and ensure it reaches its destination.

A well-organized coordinator brings expertise, connections, and project management skills to the table, often saving clients the time and effort of navigating a complex ecosystem of providers. Especially in our context, such an intermediary would have some knowledge about or experience in working within different cultural settings.

For instance, a skilled coordinator can ensure that independent agencies across different countries work harmoniously on a unified campaign that still respects these territories specificities. Laika has already been part of such well-oiled machines, Laika also had the opportunity to be the coordinator and facilitator for many mission launches. So we know both sides all too well.

But at their worst, intermediaries can act as space debris, cluttering the orbit of collaboration. This particularly happens when they prioritize their own profitability over the project’s success.

A very simple example that will speak to many communication experts reading this: the one person that was so adamant to be there in all your meetings with the client and to be CC’d on all your mail exchanges, only to not say a single word beyond “Hi!” and “Goodbye!”. We understand well that it is a way like any other to show your own client that “you are on it” and that they don’t pay you for nothing. Some larger accounts and sensitive topics warrant that, no questions asked. When you are in charge of the interest of listed companies, or leaders in their fields, you better be on top of everything. But when your willingness to just show off starts taking a significant portion of the client’s budget while leaving insufficient resources for the actual service providers to get the best results they could get, with just a couple more hours of work, we are entering a very dense asteroid field that can hurt everybody involved. For the sake of short-term gain, the dynamic these intermediaries create can, I will dare say, often unintentionally or unknowingly, compromise outcomes, leading to the impossibility of long-term collaboration with both client and service providers.

It’s not a question of whether intermediaries have a place in the industry—they absolutely do. The question is whether each of them is, individually, adding value proportionate to their role, or if they are inadvertently creating barriers to success.

A responsibility to add value

For intermediaries or project coordinators to truly earn their keep, they must do more than simply pass along client requests. They should be strategists, advocates, and facilitators who empower the entire team to deliver their best work. This involves:

1. Transparency: Clients deserve to understand how their budgets are being allocated. Intermediaries should be upfront about their fees and ensure not only that service providers are fairly compensated for their contributions, but also that they have what they need to complete the mission.
2. Empowerment: The role of an intermediary should be to amplify the strengths of the service providers, not diminish them. Some of these project coordinators want to make sure the expertise of the local team doesn’t outshine them in front of the client. Some like the feeling of control. Valid fears or concerns if you want to keep selling your expertise, but their role should be instead focused on ensuring their service providers have the resources, time, and creative freedom to excel—much like ensuring every module of a spacecraft is well-equipped for the journey ahead.
3. Collaboration: Instead of dictating terms, intermediaries should foster a spirit of partnership, where all parties feel heard, valued, and invested in the project’s success. Just as astronauts rely on ground crews for support, successful projects depend on mutual trust and shared goals: when you work with a team you recognize for its expertise, don’t play against its expertise for an easy pay check by ignoring the “no” of your team to just hear the client’s “yes”.

Why this matters

The communication industry is built on trust and reputation. Clients trust all of us to deliver exceptional work, and service providers legitimately expect to be treated fairly. When intermediaries fail to uphold these basic principles, it undermines the entire ecosystem.

Moreover, as budgets tighten and client expectations rise, with more and more performance driven requests in a world that has historically been known for not being able to offer any form of certainty, the need for efficiency and impact has never been greater. Misaligned priorities or overly bureaucratic processes/unnecessarily personal concerns waste time and resources that could be better spent on creativity and innovation. Don’t waste fuel on your way to the moon, you might not be able to come back. ;)

A vision for the future

At Laika, we envision a future where intermediaries are not gatekeepers but enablers. That’s our vision for this position, that’s who we aspire to be for our clients, current or future. We aim to demonstrate how intermediaries can add genuine value while respecting the expertise and contributions of every stakeholder involved.

This approach requires introspection and a commitment to fairness. For us Space Dogs, in this context, it means recognizing that our role as intermediaries is not to take the largest slice of the pie but to ensure the pie is well-made and shared in a way that doesn’t leave anybody hungry. It’s about being the gravitational force that holds the orbit steady rather than a black hole that pulls everything in for itself.

The communication industry has always been about storytelling—and the best stories are those where every character plays their part. Let’s ensure those coordinators are the supportive characters who help the heroes—our clients and ourselves as service providers—shine. Together, we can aim for the stars and build a galaxy of trust, collaboration, and creativity.