There’s a new trend in vogue for some of marketing’s biggest brands – the bespoke agency.

Just within the last few weeks, both Mercedes-Benz and Planet Fitness have moved to handcrafted agencies built by marketing networks Omnicom and Publicis, respectively. Essentially, these agencies were built to cover the precise needs of each brand, pulling resources from a wide range of shops (for reference, Planet Fitness had been leveraging sixteen agencies before moving to the unified bespoke solution).

Now, of course this kind of solution simply isn’t feasible for a vast majority of brands, but even if you don’t have the big bucks to build a new agency from scratch, here’s a few tips to help you pull some of the same advantages into your more traditional marketing partnerships.

The value of roster synergy

We’ve talked about the challenge of “wrangling” your agencies in the past; one advantage that brands see in a bespoke solution is the complete elimination of agency siloes. Friction among agencies is a real hurdle for marketing effectiveness, and one that demands an effort from both you and your agencies to ensure that these don’t become roadblocks.

However you choose to direct traffic among your partners – whether it’s managing communications yourself, assigning a lead agency, or somewhere in the middle – managing the flow of information among your agencies is a worthy investment

Knowing your stack before adding to it

We’ve made this point in regards to martech in the past, but the same principles apply to your marketing agency “stack”: here’s a passage from that piece, with a few bolded words replaced:

“Understanding the full potential of the agencies at your disposal is no small task. You don’t know what you don’t know, and as long as you’re using the things you absolutely need, it’s easy to slip into complacency and feel that you’re getting your money’s worth from the agency partner.”

Make sure you have a full understanding of your existing roster before you begin a search to add or replace an agency. This kind of deep dive provides a valuable head start on any new search, and can sometimes even uncover new capabilities from the agencies you’re already working with – saving you money and resources.

Finally, finding the agency that’s right for you

Ask 100 marketers what their perfect “bespoke” marketing agency would look like, and you’d get just about 100 different answers. Our searches aren’t just focused on finding the best agency – they’re about finding the best agency for your company, based on collaboration with your team on objectives, needs, location, and an extensive list of other tailored criteria.

We might not be able to build you a bespoke marketing agency, but we can give you a tailored agency search, to help with a specific project assignment or for a full-on AOR.