Having worked half my career at a big agency and half with a boutique, it has always puzzled me when big brand marketers repeatedly award business to larger agencies just because … well, they’re bigger! The reasons why always seem to be the same, but rarely stand up to scrutiny when you really think them through:
“We feel [BIG AGENCY] has all the resources we need.”
Really? Layers of people reporting to other layers of people? Meetings between people who don’t need to be in the meetings?
“[BIG AGENCY] has offices across the country. We’re a national brand so we should have national presence.”
Do you really need an office in Red Deer?
“[BIG AGENCY] has such deep credentials and so much experience in our category!”
No kidding, they’re big! But are the people who worked on all those projects still here to work on your brand? And if they are, can you really afford them?
What most people are actually saying when they say these things is – to paraphrase one of the best campaign lines of all time – Nobody ever gets fired for hiring IBM. The psychology behind hiring a big agency is embedded in risk aversion and need for reputational status.
What they’re not saying is that [BIG AGENCY] is actually better. Because usually, they’re not.
What does BIG really mean?
Big agencies, by their very size, are destined to be complex, bureaucratic, often inefficient, and very inflexible. Their reputation and credibility rests on long-standing global client relationships, locked-in methodologies and an ability to deliver the same product over and over.
The reality today however, is that the world is not standing still. Yesterday’s long-standing solutions aren’t guaranteed to work much past tomorrow. Thanks to digital and social media, everything is evolving and changing at warp speed. That’s why the boutique agency – without the constraints of a global network and a storied-but-stifling history – is often much better positioned to survive on their wits, their agility and an inherent ability to innovate.
What does working with a boutique agency mean for a client? It means working with an agency that is in a constant state of renewal and adaptation, continually refining their offering to ensure it best fits the needs of the clients they have or the clients they want. If it doesn’t, the boutique is in trouble, and Darwin is there to take over.
Big Is Just Plenty Of Small.
Big agencies have a hierarchy. If they have 180 people on staff, it doesn’t mean that your project will have 180 people working on it. It may only have 10 – a boutique within a corporation. If a boutique agency has 10 people in total, the number of people at the coal face is identical to the big agency. The difference, however, is in the quality of those individuals, their level of experience and seniority, and what they bring to the table.
Smaller agencies tend to be founded by fearless, entrepreneurial leaders – people who have years of big agency experience and have decided to compete with the big agency model. They succeed because they know how to deliver big agency products under boutique agency circumstances. Typically these fearless leaders tend to surround themselves with other highly-skilled and fearless people. The results are often a team of people who are tenacious, willing to cross disciplines, and are rarely siloed to one task. For your brand, this means a group of thinkers who are naturally more collaborative, and better able to generate fresh perspectives.
Who Feeds The Machine?
Did I mention that big agencies have big overhead? That means someone has to pay for that overhead. In most cases, this cost is passed on to the client. Smaller agencies outsource skills they don’t have to partners they trust. Engaging those partners only when they’re needed means you aren’t paying for resources you currently don’t need or use. Most agencies working with outside vendors have been doing so for years, and they have done their due diligence. In a highly connected world, smaller agencies are able to collaborate more fluidly with external firms to get any project done.
Although big agencies have begun modernizing their product offerings from traditional media, their progress has been slow and often shaky. Like the boutique, they can see the opportunity in digital strategy, social media, and digital advertising, they just can’t turn the supertanker fast enough to give their client a marketing edge.
Ho-Hum Versus Yee-Haw!
Try as they might, big agencies lack passion. For the leadership of a big agency, it’s a job. If it doesn’t work out, there’s another job in the pipeline. For a boutique agency, it’s their life. If it doesn’t work out . well, that’s a possibility they don’t even want to consider. Their pipeline depends on the success of every project they take on.
Small agencies are driven by passion. A desire to earn the client’s faith and trust every day. A desire to grow their business. A need to prove to the world that they worked harder, thought deeper, and executed better, to deliver a solution that made a tangible difference to the client’s brand.
