Being too “agency-like” is no longer an advantage for marketing agencies.
But being agile and nimble is an advantage for marketing firms.
With more marketers moving work in-house and more marketers using project work to “sample” agencies, no longer are big agencies at an advantage over their smaller agency counterpart firms.
Big agencies are at a big disadvantage.
Big agencies might work well (some of the time) for bigger marketing clients. But even bigger marketing clients like P&G are exploring the increased use of specialty firms to plug the holes when big agencies are simply incapable of stepping up and helping out.
For the kind of marketing client that we typically represent (mid-to-smaller spend marketers), bringing big networked agencies on board will be of no long-term advantage to these smaller spend firms.
There are a sea of specialty and small-to-mid-size agencies that can operate more nimbly, more creatively, and more affordably than their bigger counterparts.
We just completed a search for Black Bear Diner and one for Ingram Micro.
In both cases, these brands needed a flexible, experienced, talented, agile specialty firm. In both cases, we found them just what they needed. Nothing too big. Nothing too small.
Just agencies right sized and positioned to be of great service to their marketing partner.
Mike Cassidy, a partner at August Spark, a private equity firm that funds small businesses said recently, “With how these big entity agencies operate, they’re not the right fit for these (smaller) brands. They’re too big; they’re too institutionalized. They’re too agency-like.”
