Agencies today face unprecedented challenges–and not just from external factors like client expectations, increased competition, and tech disruption. Some challenges to agency success come from within.
Fear, submissiveness, and desperation are three self-defeating behaviors that commonly plague agencies, despite their best intentions. Let’s explore how agencies unknowingly fall into these harmful cycles that erode agency value and potential.
Fear is an invisible force that holds agencies back from their best work. It manifests in multiple ways, impeding creativity and business outcomes.
M.T. Fletcher recently wrote about the dichotomy between great creative work and work that falls flat. They posit that the underlying distinction is that compelling ads come from agencies with a culture of fun, while lackluster ads come out of agencies that operate in a culture of fear. Not coincidentally, Fletcher observes that many of the “fun” agencies are rising independents.
As Fletcher points out, the quality of talent is often just as good at the agencies that put out ineffective work. The difference is they don’t perceive themselves as empowered to push back. They are too worried about ruffling feathers and risking the account.
With less power in their client relationships, agencies have become risk-averse. Many end up creating “safe” campaigns instead of breakthrough work that could actually get meaningful results for clients. This fear of failure leads to mediocre outputs that blend into the background of today’s cluttered media landscape.
Fear also keeps agencies from pushing back against unreasonable timelines, which leads to overworked teams, rushed executions, and compromised quality. The irony is that because they are afraid of losing clients, agencies will deliver work that makes them more likely to lose clients.
Modern agencies have fallen into a dangerous pattern of submissiveness, behaving more like vendors than strategic partners. This weakness is closely connected to a culture of fear and arises out of the same circumstances, with serious consequences.
Although agencies have lost power, they don’t need to eagerly hand more of it away. It starts at the very first conversation by showing up with equal business stature and extends through pricing negotiations and contracts through the entire business relationship.
When agencies position themselves as order-takers rather than expert advisors, they diminish their perceived value. Instead of leading strategic conversations and bringing innovative ideas to the table, they wait for direction and execute without question. This passive approach not only reduces their influence but makes them more interchangeable and commoditized. (This dynamic is exactly what left the door open for consultants to come in with greater credibility and take business from agencies).
When it comes to pricing, many agencies are too quick to cave on rates, accept scope creep without appropriate compensation, or throw in extra services for free. All of which sets a dangerous precedent and trains clients to expect more for less.
Tim Williams of Ignition Consulting wrote an article for Ad Age recently in which he urged agencies to get out of the service business and move away from hourly billing. He attributes agencies’ growing subservience to this remuneration structure, and challenges agencies to change the dynamic.
Out of this toxic trifecta of self-imposed agency challenges, perhaps the most damaging is a growing sense of desperation. Agencies that struggle to adapt to the changing landscape are most vulnerable to desperate measures in their pursuit of new business and client relationships.
This desperation creates a vicious cycle. The more an agency compromises its standards and processes out of desperation, the more likely it is to waste resources and have little to show for its new business efforts. Within existing relationships, these compromises lead to subpar work, staff burnout, and unmet client expectations. Untenable contract terms only compound the pressure on agency leadership to keep the business afloat. All of this leads to even greater desperation for the agency.
To free your agency from these traps, you must recognize and actively combat these self-defeating behaviors. That means:
Agencies must remember that their expertise, creativity, and strategic thinking have real business value. By operating from a position of confidence rather than fear, assertiveness rather than submission, and selectivity rather than desperation, agencies can break free from these self-imposed limitations and reclaim their role as trusted business partners.
The future belongs to the agencies that are brave enough to bet on themselves, stand their ground, and maintain high standards—even when it feels safer to do otherwise.
Image credits: Photo by Free Walking Tour Salzburg on Unsplash; Photo by Melanie Wasser on Unsplash