Creative Support From the Outside

What’s the dynamic between your in-house team and agency partners?

Friendly? Necessary? Cold? Hostile?

How should it be? How can outside creative partners be an asset to your organization?

For the first 15 years of my career, I was either part of an in-house creative team or I lead one. And now, for the last five years, I’ve played the role of outside creative agency. Sitting in both seats has provided fascinating insight

In a 2Bob’s podcast episode, the hosts David and Blair shared a metaphor that compared this dynamic to the relationship between a battleship and a destroyer…

• Battleships support larger crews and are capable of traversing greater distances but they move slower and are less nimble in the water.

• Destroyers have much smaller crews and have shorter ranges, but they can move through the water more nimbly.

• Battleships focus on larger threats on the horizon while destroyers use their speed and nimbleness to remove more present distractions or challenges.

Using this apt metaphor, Baker and Enns identified four factors that can provide powerful benefit to your organization:

Perspective

Where in-house teams know the business inside and out, creative agencies can understand the broader category. Due to the nature of our business, creative agencies form valuable insights by repeatedly solving similar problems in different contexts.

This allows us to see your challenge from a broader perspective and compare it to what your competitors are facing. We’re able to see your organization and direction from a playing-field view and offer perspective. Common mistakes, new ideas, future troubles: these are insights we can see coming and offer advice on how to approach.

Truth

We’ve all struggled to challenge an idea for fear of being the odd person out. To combat those fears, most people stay quiet and align with the group. However, challenging big ideas and offering new ones is where the magic happens.

Creative agencies can speak truth without fearing the political hit. Based on repeated exposure to other clients and verticals, we can say when ideas are too safe or missing the mark.

Nimbleness

It sounds counterintuitive, but your organization should be careful to be too nimble. Frequently switching directions can kill forward momentum and risk progress toward your goal.

But, the relationship with a creative agency can provide nimbleness without the consequences. We can address smaller threats and chase down opportunities that would otherwise pull your battleship off-course.

Talent

Agencies give you access to a deep pool of creativity. Not to suggest creative people don’t work on in-house teams, but you’ll find fewer of those wild-eyed, non-conforming creatives types that know how to disrupt conventional thinking.

Those oddball just don’t fit and usually don’t last. They’re rebellious by nature thus harder to manage. (Psst: it’s the timesheets, they hate the timesheets). In-house, they’re on a ship that seeks efficiency while the skills they bring require the opposite.

A relationship with an agency provides creative thinking and inspired solutions to difficult problems. And you don’t have to try to nudge or force your in-house team to think and act in a ways feel unnatural.

A powerful partnership.

Outside creative agencies shouldn’t be a necessary evil or combatant to your in-house team. Find the right relationship and you’ll find the perfect counterpart to your organization. The nimble destroyer supporting your focused battleship, working together to advance your mission.