I've worked with plenty of agencies over the years.
And I've spent plenty of time on the other side of the table, hiring them.
So I've gradually come to think that sometimes, what a company needs is not a bigger agency.
Not because agencies are bad.
Some problems simply aren't agency problems.
A lot of the time, companies go looking for an agency because there is too much going on.
The brand needs repositioning.
The website needs work.
Social needs a plan.
China needs to be figured out.
There's a launch coming.
LinkedIn needs attention.
And someone needs to manage all the other agencies.
So naturally, you look for an agency that can "do everything."
Then comes the pitch.
The strategy deck looks great.
The team is impressive.
There is a capability for everything.
Then the work starts.
And somehow, the original problem is still there.
Because nobody is really responsible for answering the simplest question:
What actually matters right now?
I've seen this many times.
It's not that nobody is working.
Everyone is working.
The campaign agency is doing the campaign.
The design team is working on the website.
Social is producing content.
PR is talking to media.
HQ is discussing brand guidelines.
The local team is trying to run the business.
Everyone is busy.
But nobody is close enough to the business to say, on a random Tuesday afternoon:
We don't need to do this.
Or:
This needs to happen now.
That's a very different kind of job.
That's why, sometimes, I prefer to come in as something much smaller.
Not an agency.
Not really a traditional consultant either.
More like a part-time brand director.
I need to understand the business.
What's happening.
Where the team is stuck.
And then help make the calls:
What matters.
What can wait.
What doesn't need to happen at all.
Sometimes I'm in the strategy.
Sometimes I'm rewriting one page of the website.
Sometimes I'm in a meeting with an agency.
Sometimes I'm simply making a decision on something the team has been discussing for three weeks.
None of these things sound particularly dramatic.
But they're often more useful than another 80-page strategy deck.
I don't think big agencies are the problem.
If you need a large production team, media buying, complex execution, or a major market launch, they can be exactly what you need.
But if the question is:
"What should we actually do?"
you may not need more people.
You may need someone close enough to the business, but independent enough to make the call.
Someone willing to say:
"I don't think we need to do this right now."
I've come to think that's a fairly important part of brand work too.
