In 2019, I left Curiosity to accept what I thought would be my dream job leading an in-house marketing team at a brand I loved. (I was wrong.) Having spent almost two decades spinning my wheels at ad agencies leading creative and media teams – I was ready to take my right of passage as an industry vet and bask in the slower pace, bit-sized budgets – and what I assumed would be lower expectations. (Again, I was wrong.)
While it’s easy to look at the break-neck pace of the ad industry and assume that the grass is greener on the brand side, my new gig revealed that the grass is a little brown and crusty everywhere. And now that I’ve seen both sides of the coin, I’ve got a warning for my fellow agency brats: We gotta wake up before all our theater and shenanigans force the good brands to take their work in-house. I say this with love.
We’re obsessed with the classics.
We know that no one watches a :30 video. So, why do we still create them?
We know TikTok audiences have the attention span of a (small) peanut – so why do we just toss up our brand spot instead of ideating against what performs well on the platform? I promise you a big-budget anthem spot has NEVER gone viral on TikTok.
Your ad isn’t competing against other ads, it's competing against all other content. ALL other content. Next time you post something to your feed, ask yourself – would I watch this instead of the Four Seasons Orlando Baby? Probs not
It’s easy to talk about the minutia and executions. It’s hard to talk about a campaign's strategic impact on your business. How do all of the assets on the brief ladder up to your brand goals? What IMPACT did they have? Impact doesn’t have to mean views/likes. Impact can mean sentiment. Visibility. A spot within a (brand-relevant) conversation where you previously had no right to play.
Simple always wins.
We as agencies are too sophisticated to adapt to audiences whose needs are often incredibly simple.
Agencies are incentivized to impress brands with our complexity. If they think the problem is here, show them that the actual problem is wayyyyyyy over there, and the only way to fix it is via our proprietary software.
That sophistication breeds process. And layers. And billable hours. And it keeps building and building until we can’t see over the wall of BS we’ve created.
Here’s my advice to brand leaders: When you see this, ask honest questions. If something doesn’t sit right, or there are gaps in how X becomes Y – ask why. Speaking up doesn’t make you a meddling CMO who’s too far away from the tactical. Chances are if it doesn’t make sense, the human element of the execution has been lost.
Last month, we were struggling to deliver against a client's initial ask. They had requested and scoped for monthly social content calendars, but it wasn’t what they needed. We could see it. We think they could see it. But they didn’t know how to articulate it because monthly social content calendars have somehow become the standard in all social. The solution? Bag the calendar. Offer up time. Not pre-planned time – pure time to help them build/jump on/comment on content that expanded their reach and brand voice. They didn’t need a pretty deck. They needed another set of hands.
Your internal team: In-house teams are friends, not foes.
In 2023, I re-entered agency life determined not to fall back into the same old habits. I’d be lying if I said I fully succeeded, but I’ve had one big win. At Curiosity, we’ve created a team of “non-agency” thinkers. People not bound by billable rate or internal reviews or even job titles. They just think. And do. Until it works.
Because “non-agency” thinkers are so valuable at agencies, this is a chance for our clients to tap into their internal teams for valuable perspective. Yes, it’s best to lean on your agency to tackle those bigger – perhaps more technical or creatively intense questions, but never discount the brand knowledge the team around you already has. It can be tempting to trust a big name, but you hired the crew around you for a reason. And their outside perspective can make the work better.
Our team has had real success, particularly when paired with in-house client teams who are “brave” enough to execute ideas simply because they are awesome. But they’ve also forced us to pop bubbles, reverse ingrained thinking, and weave real-life questions into meetings. They cannot solve all our problems, but they are an oasis of human, BS-free thinking, reminding us that complex solutions are rarely the most effective ones.
So what?
If you’re an agency reading this, it’s time to pop our heads out of our timesheets and provide the value we promise. Choose innovative offerings. Rediscover the value of simple. And don’t be too prideful to ask for outside perspective.
If you’re a CMO, know it’s ok to ask why, choose ideation over deliverables, and invite your partners into the parts of your business that are typically “for internal eyes only.”
We all want to create meaningful work that’s unavoidable in the marketplace. In my experience, thinking outside of “the way we’ve always done it,” is the best place to start.
