Small Agencies: Only Good For the One-Night Stand

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By: Dwayne W. Waite Jr.

Small agencies seem be to the odd one out when it comes to having relationships with national brands. It's like being the "fun date"; awesome to have fun with and tell your friends about, but you don't plan on making it a long-term deal. But the big agencies? Your DDBs, McCanns and such? Those are the kind of names you can bring home to mom dad. Those names carry. And so the small agency gets the fun but the big agency gets the ring.

At least so it seems. Andrew McMains wrote an article on Adweek that spoke about this very topic. Small agencies have trouble creating the "deep" relationships that big agencies seem to be able to develop. The examples are many. First, 72andSunny and HP are parting ways because of CEO and CMO departures from the company. Next, days after the Small Agency Conference, Chobani chose to open an account review because its agency-of-record, Gotham, lost its CEO.

Relationships matter. A speaker at the Small Agency Conference said that "people still like doing business with people they like. Some things don't change." And that's a true statement. Too true of a statement for small agencies. When there are executive shake-ups in the agency or client-side, it has overwhelming effects on a small agency's revenue stream.

So is this a competitive advantage for the big shops? How can the small agency learn to deepen relationships and out of the "fun date" circle? The article brings out two things: global reach and depth in the creative bench.

This leaves an interesting point: if small shops have to expand their networks and creative players to compete effectively, how long could the "small agency" philosophy last?

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About the Author

Dwayne W. Waite Jr. is partner and principal at JDW: The Charlotte Agency, a marketing and advertising shop in Charlotte, NC. He enjoys consumer behavior, economics, and football.

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