Finding the Hidden Jewels in the Creative Agency Industry

To populate your creative agency model for the greatest competitive advantage, you need to closely understand the landscape. In an already fast-moving industry, Covid-19 is impacting the shape, size and location of talent to be found across the creative ecosystem.

So, how do you know where to look?

When Accenture acquired global content production company CreativeDrive in August, Brian Whipple, CEO of Accenture Interactive, said that the acquisition would allow them to “create a content revolution in a creative, cost-effective and agile manner” for their clients.

The implication in the statement is that businesses are currently not having their needs met by their existing creative agency relationships, which is quite possibly true in many cases. But that isn’t to say that a revolution is required, nor that relevant creative resource models don’t already exist. They do. It’s more likely that brands either haven’t stopped to review their requirements recently, or they’re simply unaware of the vast array of creative agency models and agencies that may be more suitable for them.

The communications industry is changing, after all. The need for content is ever increasing, consumer behaviours are changing and digitisation continues at pace. The ways in which brands operate and interact with their consumer base changed overnight with the onset of COVID-19, so traditional processes and structures have been thrown out of the window. Transformation is no longer an option, it’s essential.

To be able to establish a suitable creative resource model you need to understand the landscape and source the best possible combination of agency solutions for your marketing organisation. There are so many agency ‘types’: Holding Company-owned; Large or boutique independent creative shops; In-house resource (on your payroll or embedded); Curators for community-sourced creative; Digital specialists; Integrated generalists; Management Consultancies’ Agencies; Production houses and so on.

The models and hybrids that can be woven from these are extensive, making it hard to know which blend of resource is the best option for your business and, then, who are the strongest players in each.

At the Observatory International we help businesses drive brand growth by transforming their marketing and communications resources, which includes their agency relationships. We invest our time in meeting with 1,400 agencies each year, established and new, to understand emerging talent, operating models and innovation so we can bring these options to our clients.

Start by asking yourself these questions:

• Do you know what your business requires from a creative point of view?
• Do you have the right creative operating model to meet the demands of your business?
• Do you think that you are getting the right quality of creative and the right value out of your current agency model?
• Have you got the most effective agency partners populating your ecosystem?

If you are unsure about the answers to any of those questions, it is time to start uncovering the realities of your situation and begin building a model that is suitable for your needs.