Agency Whispering
Why branding agencies find themselves the hardest nut to crack.
Branding agencies. What a bold, ambitious, confident lot they are. If they’re not helping people achieve the improbable and making things extraordinary, they’re radically collaborating and making unforgettable experiences. They work with ambitious leaders, impact culture and move the world forward. Bloody hell, good on ‘em. Impressive stuff.
But as creative and clever as they are, most agencies also find it really, really hard to talk about themselves. This is because they face all the same issues that their clients do with the added emotional layer of feeling like they ought to find it easy. They are the experts, after all, and they’re surely above internal politics, external expectations and market pressures?
Well, here’s the tea. For nearly a decade now, I’ve been helping agencies figure themselves out on the down-low. I call it “Agency Whispering” because there’s a clandestine air surrounding every project that I’ve worked on of this nature. Every email that creeps into my inbox from an agency owner starts the same way, “I’m not sure if this is something you normally work on but…”, and then I’m ushered in through the back door for therapy-style chats about what’s really going on behind the pomp, swagger and moodboards.
To put this article together, I went back through six recent Agency Whispering proposals and the commonalities shocked me. All of them needed support answering some deeply fundamental questions. Questions like:
What sort of company are we?
What is our offer?
How do we productise what we do?
What is our positioning
Who are our competitors?
How do we stand out when all our competitors are using the same language?
Where can we be most useful and impactful?
What makes us different from our peers?
How do we sell being small/big as being a good thing?
It would be easy to judge, point a finger, and talk about the irony of how they promise to help their clients answer these questions and yet can’t figure it for themselves. But it’s genuinely not as simple as that. I believe there’s three aspects that make it especially hard for agencies.
1. Worrying what their friends will think
The creative industry is a small, tight-knit world. Everyone knows each other and keeps tabs on what people are up to and working on. And no one holds back when it comes to praise and criticism. When an agency re-brands, launches a case study or even just updates its website, the community jumps in with both feet and a ready opinion. The concern about getting it “right” in the eyes of the industry has always been one of the biggest blockers for the agencies I’ve worked with. And I get it – who wants to look silly in front of their mates?
Unfortunately, this only creates a vacuum, where many agencies look the same and speak in the same way – exacerbating the problem and homogenising the market.
2. Squabbling about the details
On client projects, there’s generally one senior creative who oversees the team and is the last word on what gets pitched and presented. This makes for an orderly creative process, where the hierarchy is clear. On internal projects chaos reigns. Even the agency re-brands and website makeovers that start out with the best of intentions can get quickly derailed by a passing/hovering creative director. Suddenly something that felt simple and easy, gets complicated, slow and messy. A case of too many Michelin-starred cooks spoiling the bone broth!
On one project I worked on, a senior person had such a different - and insistent – take on the new website, that we contemplated setting up a bespoke site that was linked to his IP address, so he would only ever see his version online.
3. Struggling to tell a unique story
Even the most successful agencies don’t always get to pick and choose their clients. Just keeping the lights on sometimes means taking on work that may not be creatively exciting but promises a steady revenue stream. What can happen – and what agency founders have often talked to me about – is that doing these cash-cow projects too often or for too long starts to fuck their case studies. A couple of years can fly by, and suddenly the cool projects from their younger days look outdated, and all they have to talk about is regionalising guidelines for a German finance brand. Not that German finance brands are bad, they’re just not sexy. Unless you’re into that, in which case, good for you.
All to say, that talking about the work you want is really difficult when you’re only doing work that pays the bills.
So, what are the solutions to these agency challenges? I wish there was a cookie-cutter approach, but if there is, I haven’t found it. But I do have some learnings to share.
Stop worrying what your friends will think > Start obsessing about the clients you want to work with
Unless you are on a major recruitment drive, the industry is not your primary audience. Potential clients are. So focus on them, learn about them, understand them and be overtly for them first and foremost.
I love how Limber Brands have done just that, by framing what they do within the context of common client problems. It’s neat and low-key and yet it’s really powerful. Shout out to my friend Scott Suiter for nailing this too.
Quit squabbling about the details > Delegate to a dedicated team.
Agencies embarking on this sort of work do well to get ahead of any internal politics. Whether that’s taking time to gather inputs and requirements upfront, just as they would on a client project, or agreeing collectively who has ultimate sign-off from the get-go, will save heartache, time and money in the long-run.
I admire Wolff Olins for getting a re-brand out there that seems to have a clear idea and vision at its heart. I don’t know what went on behind the scenes this time, but I was part of the team for the last one and we weren’t able to get to a place that was anywhere near as bold or distinctive. The new Wolff Olins looks and feels like the OG it is, not a watered down version that’s trying to please everyone. The excellent Dan Greene of Greene & Sons does this well, as do Collins .
Forget struggling to tell a unique story > Do things that create unique stories.
It’s impossible to change a client roster overnight, so it’s understandable that some agencies find themselves stuck with a large client or pigeon-holed into one, specific industry. They say that madness (or is it stupidity?) is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different outcome. So do something different – a self-initiated project, a freebie for a dream client, or even an event – anything that gives you something new to talk about.
It’s awesome how Nonfiction – a research agency – regularly produces reports about topics and themes they think are interesting. What a brilliant way to show off how they do their thing, whilst also appealing to like minded, or like-focused businesses. Koto recently launched OFF Social and Sonder & Tell have the Sonder Series.
What agencies do you think are doing it well? I’d love to know!
A little reminder that my side-chick Substack – The Fashion of Business – is up and running now. Recent pieces include
A deep dive on Old Topshop, with exclusive interviews with the women who made Topshop what it was in the 00’s.
A shop review of Glossier, London.
A cheat sheet guide to consumer and retail trends from the month that was. (And which will be in a new-and-improved-and-readable format next time!).
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A lot of truth in here