How do you find the right creative partner?
We help Marketing and Commercial teams find brand design, advertising and PR agencies, and sustainability experts.
Most small or medium organisations don’t have in-house brand strategists, why would they? Good brands are built to last. Yes they need managing day-to-day but that’s a different skillset.
So when it is time to re-brand or refresh, the natural thing to do is to look externally for an agency to help. But how do you pick the right agency if you’ve not led a re-brand before? Should you even look to just one agency to do it all - strategy, identity, execution? When’s the best time in the process to recruit the different experts? How much should you budget? What’s the smartest and most cost effective approach?
When’s the right time to choose a creative agency?
We recommend finding a creative partner when key stakeholders have bought into the brand & business strategy. When you know what you’re trying to achieve and why.
The clearer you are able to be on what you stand for, how you want to position yourself and what your budget is, the clearer you’ll be on what type of creative agency you need and what their brief will be.
The clearer the brief the stronger the foundations for a world-beating brand and creative relationship.
How do you know when an agency is the right fit?
There will be some must-haves such as the right skillset and capacity but ultimately in our view it will come down to attitude and appetite.
Yes, a proven track record in your sector can be a good indicator but it is by no means essential.
When we put Design Studio on the creative agency shortlist for the Premier League, they’d not created a sports brand before. They had however, reinvented a category.
Likewise, Nomad Studio hadn’t any education sector experience when we introduced them to Uppingham school. They were however the digital-first, exciting agency the school needed to change perceptions quickly.
What Design Studio and Nomad Studio shared with their future clients was a common passion and ambition for the brand.
Can one agency do it all?
Partnering one agency to do strategy, creative, launch, experiential, comms, advertising does sound appealing. One constant, seamlessly bringing in new team members as and when you need them. Heavenly. If it works likes that.
You have to ask yourself - do I have the budget to sustain a big agency’s multi-layered team? Will I be their priority client throughout the project or will I see a stream of juniors as my project gets into the essential nitty gritty? Do all things need to lead to an above the line campaign?
Our advice is be realistic about how appealing you really are to the agencies you are considering. What do they get out of working with you, over the long term - brand projects take sustained effort. Is it a shared ambition and passion? Making a difference in the world? Entry into a new exciting market? An opportunity for a creative award? A cash cow?
The most successful brands are created by teams (client & agencies), over a sustained period of time. The question shouldn’t really be can one agency do it all but who are the best people and agencies I can work with throughout the lifetime of my brand? Start there and look for talented collaborators.
“We needed an industry-insider. A branding expert who would get under the skin of our organisation and really understand what we needed. Someone without an agenda, who the Board would trust and listen to, and could help us navigate the branding process, bringing in the right talent at the right time.” Commercial Director, Premier League
What does good look like? Top tips for running a good branding process.
New commercial strategy means new brand, right?
How we worked with multiple agencies at the Premier League.
Strategy
Sharpen your proposition using intelligence, insight and intuition.
Research & insights
Positioning, purpose & values
Architecture & naming
Messaging
Stakeholder engagement
Engagement
Empower and inspire by making the brand meaningful to those that matter most.
Strategic planning
Workshops
Launch events
Staff communications
Training/coaching
Direction
Keep strategy front and centre so your brand is always relevant and distinctive.
Brand reviews
Agency workshops
Pitch management
Implementation planning
Strategic consultancy