The modern marketing agency
One of the biggest business questions on everyone’s minds is how to get the best value out of a marketing agency? Modern advertising agencies look nothing like those from 2 decades ago; not even from 5 years ago. This article from Richard Edelman at the end of 2025 captures the situation https://www.edelman.com/newsroom/richard-edelmans-6am-blog/year-agencies-died.
In the new millenium, with the advent of the digital age, the traditional advertising agency model has been under siege. The 2008 global economic crisis only exacerbated this, as clients demanded even more bang for their buck. Now, coming to the present day. Many believe that the ascendance of A.I. https://bizlifesmarts.com/advanced%20intelligence%20over%20AI is an existential threat to the existence of the modern advertising agency.
Back in the Age of Suits!
Despite being seen as quite a maverick industry, the traditional advertising/ marketing agency was quite structured, with clear principles, processes and ways of working. The best value from an agency was driven by both the client’s and the agency’s bottom line.
The Fat cat days – yes, they used to get value from agencies
Now, going back to the centre-ing questions I always ask myself; ‘why are we doing this? What are we really trying to achieve?’. We need to go back to why companies used advertising agencies in the first place. So, please…listen to me, and listen to me closely. Ad agencies became entities because businesses wanted to promote and sell their products to people, and needed the expertise to get these selling messages to resonate with their audiences. We therefore can never lose sight of that, as we look to getting the best value from an agency. Are you helping me to get an audience to buy my product, or not?! Unfortunately, by the turn of the millenium, many agencies were not holding themselves to this standard. But the underlying principles, and reason for being, remained unchanged.
The old school agency; a structure comically illustrated above, was really simply well held together, understood what they needed to do…and worked somewhat magically.
The fat-cat leadership – getting the best value from an agency
In David Ogilvy, Bill Bernbach and Leo Burnett, you had innovative, visionary minds. They were not only extremely talented in this craft called advertising, but steadfast, strong leaders. To many they may have seemed eccentric, unconventional and non-conformist, but there was a method to their madness. I believe that these were the innovators who gave weight to the term “thinking outside the box”. Be it Ogilvy and “The Big Idea”, or the witty creativity of Bernbach, or Burnett and his brand storytelling; it all came down to single principle that is required till today, and that it to connects products to people, and create brands. This leadership understood that this is the only reason for an agency’s existence.
Personality archetype, but a stabilising force
When you study the long line of legends who followed them, from the Saatchi brothers to Dan Wieden, they all possessed the combined left brain-right brain talents of creativity, alongside business acumen. Thus, strong agency leadership has always been able to combine robust brand work, with business success for clients – and themselves.
Some saw these as the days of decadence. But no; in a conservative business world, it was just a bunch of mavericks who worked hard and played hard.
Add the crazy kids – giving value to an agency
The challenge of the blank page! This is the value statement used around the agency creative teams. It simply means creating real value out of something that was previously a blank slate; value out of thin air.
The corpus callosum gifted
You must ask yourself, why has advertising always been such a glamour industry to work in? It takes a special breed of person to thrive in it. And even then the corpus callosum balance chews some up, and spits them out.
Now then, what is corpus callosum? In summary, it is a bundle of nerve fibres located deep in the centre of the brain, that connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres. It acts as a neural bridge that transfers motor, sensory, and cognitive information between both sides of the brain. Those gifted with this ability of dual left and right brain thinking thrived in traditional advertising agencies. The best value from an agency in that era were the clients who understood how to leverage that talent.
This talent manifests in an agency that can balance the red pill/ blue pill sensibilities. That deft skill of reassuring the safety and the comfort of staying inside the mainstream narrative, or the blue pill; while leading the client and audience to wake up to new boundaries and possibilities of the red pill.
The outcome for best value
So, whether it is the decades long era of traditional agencies or present day digital world, aren’t these enduring principles?! Where the traditional agencies get it wrong is that, they are focused more on structures than on values that deliver value. Yes…’values that deliver value!’.
Now, keep those core principles covered above in mind as we look at how to draw the best value from an agency, in the present marketplace.
The modern agency meets the digital age
Content creators
Content creators are simply creatives who have been enabled to roam free. However, for every gem that there is, there are 10,000 rocks. For that piece of content that goes viral, there are thousands of basement teens, housewives and plumbers thinking that they can create a piece of content that will attract 1 million views!
There is also a lot of outstanding content that goes undiscovered, because the creators don’t know how to expose it. Herein lies the best value of an agency in this digital age. An agency brings structure, and understands how to put all the pieces together. Agencies also understand the language of creatives, that brings the best out of them. Have you ever tried to make a prima donna produce?! It’s easier to get a dog to play a violin.
Digital platforms
In this age of information overload, which platforms are most effective? Evolving from the simple choice of 3 or 4 mainstream media types isn’t a walk in the park. How do you know whether Tik Tok, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter (X), or any one of the myriad digital platforms is most effective for your particular audience? A good value agency will differentiate this for you.
The saying ‘You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink’ is absolutely spot on with digital platforms and content. An agency will guide you in avoiding the ‘and then’, or ‘so what’ reactions.
The AI factor
AI by itself lacks soul and the nuance of emotion. Without the human touch, AI can produce the basic features, but not necessarily the nuance that drives emotions and motivations, and can produce reactions and elicit behaviour change, or influence the making of choices.
The glue – the best value of the modern agency
In a nutshell, a good value agency will pull all of the above together, and bring those enduring marketing principles to the fore. Creatives need guidance, AI needs direction, understanding client needs requires human intuition, and moulding target market behaviours and reactions is a science that produces results, when guided by a proficient agency. None of these can be left to chance alone, but need to be planned and structured.
Checklist for the best value from an agency/ content creator/ digital platform
For strategic advisory that will leverage uncommon sense and drive your bottom line, get in touch with us on [email protected].
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