The market for marketing agencies is diverse: there are thousands of players here, and it's hard to figure out who is doing what. Names do not mean anything: a company can be called a "communication agency", but organise events. And in addition to agencies, there are also creative associations, artels, bureaus, studios. But even in such a market there is a set of unconditional roles.
We built a chain of five types of agencies and sorted out the most popular names by roles. We will figure out how design studios differ from branding agencies, help you understand who is needed for your tasks, and tell you why every second freelancer has a project with a large brand.
1. Strategy Agency
These are the largest agencies in the country that create market capture strategies. They come up with a communication strategy and new products for brands, advise a set of activities that help attract new customers and grow their business. Strategists are not art directors, but rather narrow-profile business consultants. One example is the Digital Agency Portland.
Large businesses and corporations work with strategic agencies on an ongoing basis: PepsiCo, Unilever, P&G. Small and, as a rule, medium-sized businesses will find it difficult to work with such an agency: it mainly deals with strategy and control, distributes work to subsidiary agencies and subcontracts. Strategists won't set up multiple ad campaigns or charge a high price.
Contact a strategist if you have unlimited budgets and want to launch a big new product launch, increase brand awareness, and conduct comprehensive federal-level advertising campaigns. First, the strategist will do the preparatory work: conduct research, help find the target audience, and develop a communication strategy. Then he will take over the control of the production of advertising materials: he will distribute subcontracts to agents, deliver KPIs, and bring everything together in one report.
A strategist is not suitable for a small company: in agencies from the top ten, the business model involves large-scale tasks and high margins. If your task is related to the design of a specific object or shooting one video, it is unprofitable to contact a strategist, because it will turn out to be more expensive than with a small studio.
2. Creative Agency
Next after strategists in the marketing chain are creative or branding agencies. These are companies that help to solve more specific problems: they think how to promote people, brands, products. The creative agency will help with the strategy, but better cope with the tasks of developing creative ideas, art directing, creating advertising and branding materials.
Large creative agencies can do everything at once: to manage an advertising campaign on the Internet, shoot videos for TV, prepare special projects for the media. Often, creative agencies have grown out of narrower agencies such as design or production studios. They will have accumulated experience inside and their own design team or video production department. So they will take on some of the tasks, and the rest can be subcontracted.
Creative agencies are better than strategists at understanding what the result should look like in terms of content and design. But when a business goes not to a strategist, but directly to a creative agency, it risks getting visual materials without a structure, without answers to the questions: why do you need a product, who will buy it, in which placement channels the advertisement will work. Therefore, the largest customers work with strategists on ideas and plans, and with creative agencies on implementation.
If you already have a strategy and want to start implementing sub-tasks, for example, launch a marketing campaign on federal TV channels, contact a creative agency. Until you have products and a marketing strategy, a creative agency won't help you create effective ads.
3. Producers
After strategists and creativity, there are productions in the production chain. These are agencies that specialize in the production of content, most often with a focus on one area: graphic design, video and animation, or websites and applications.
Digital production makes applications, web services, websites, landing pages. Such a company may be called a "web studio" or "development studio". The task of digital production is to develop a tool for the terms of reference.
Video production shoots commercials, creates motion design, draws animation. The video production is based on film crews and a design team. They are coordinated by project managers who work with the customer and agree on the result.
A typography is also a production - a place where print media are produced. A large printing house will help you to typeset a book, print a magazine, brochures or posters. Designers can work in printing houses, but more often they come to them with ready-made layouts.
Productions are not mutually exclusive: one customer can work with dozens of productions at the same time, even within one project. It often happens that a strategic agency or creative agency subcontracts several productions.
Production will be most useful if you have all the knowledge to solve the problem, but no experienced hands. That is, in addition to the strategy and overall vision of the brand, you should already understand the promotion channels and advertising format, know what brings you sales and why. Prepare references for production - similar advertising products or designs that you can target.
4. Media Buyers
Advertisers are advertising agencies or media buyers who buy advertising inventory for brands: radio or TV time, social media volume, outdoor advertising.
An advertising agency buys a large amount of inventory, so each placement is cheaper than for a creative agency or production. On this difference, agencies do business: they buy a lot of advertising inventory, pledge a margin and resell to brands.
A media buyer is needed when you have an advertising product ready and you want to start distributing it. Such an agency will buy air time or Internet traffic for you. If you go there with the task of coming up with a creative from scratch, there is a high probability that they will simply subcontract it or refuse to develop it.
5. PR Agency
After we have placed ads and attracted the first customers, they will start giving feedback. Reviews affect the reputation, so it is beneficial to manage them: remove negativity and highlight a positive reaction. Reputation is handled by PR and SERM agencies.
PR agencies are engaged in the creation and placement of content, the purchase of native articles in print and online media. A PR agency can be entrusted with preparing and distributing a press release, holding image events. Such an agency manages the number of mentions of the company and its products in news and media projects.
You can find a PR agency through the Internet or business acquaintances.
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