Independents Win Through

Pick up any newspaper or magazine these days and you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’d been transported back to the US depression of the 1920’s and 30’s, such is the prolific theme of general doom and gloom, permeating most articles.

As’ front line troops’ for our client’s, we in the marketing and advertising industry are often the first to suffer during any economic downturn, victims of the natural knee-jerk reaction within most companies to cut marketing budgets and staff numbers before delving into any wider alternative cost saving measures.
The general tendency towards boom and bust, especially here in the UK, means that many larger agencies fluctuate in terms of employee numbers, sometimes quite significantly, every 10-15 years. This recession however feels different. Although the bigger agency groups have indeed cut numbers as tradition demands,  something is happening that didn’t happen in the last recession, namely that the smaller independent agencies appear to be booming.  In fact some agency bosses insist that they’ve “never had it so good”.

So what is the cause of this trend-bucking phenomenon? Well let’s consider five key reasons:

1. Speed

Speed of delivery has become a bigger issue. It is far more important to get the message out and be able to quickly change it if its not working. Smaller shops are better placed to do this given their slimmer and faster processes. There aren’t huge levels of management, planning, account handling and traffic to get through, as often you will find that your account handler, planner and strategic lead may well be the same person. The number of inputs, creative iterations and the consequent sign-off processes are therefore faster.

2. Cost

This certainly plays a very important part. Smaller independents don’t have the huge overheads of the bigger agencies and they are more akin to working on a project by project basis where the client can fix a budget and delivery date. The old retainer model is fairly rare at this level.

3. People

Hardly a week goes by without some creative or management team striking out on their own, often taking the quintessential Big Blue Chip client with them. Many clients are happy to follow the trusted talent and sometimes that means moving from a big agency environment to a much smaller and more responsive one.

4. Quality

It is more than possible to get excellent strategic and creative work delivered without using a ‘named’ London shop. Plenty of excellent quality work comes out of the smaller independents, with staff relishing the freedom of thought and some emancipation from bottom line numbers that this environment often affords.

5. Enthusiasm

Smaller agencies are often hungrier and far more likely to throw resources at a bigger client in order to impress with a view to longer term relations. Any savvy Marketing Director will know that a fixed budget project is better served by a fleet-footed independent with lower costs but potentially the same degree of creative and strategic talent, rather than see 50% of the budget swallowed up on account fees and network implementation fees.

So in these tough times, as much as nobody used to get fired for hiring Saatchi & Saatchi, nobody will get fired for adding value to their organisation, saving money, delivering great creative work and ultimately making a direct contribution to the bottom line, and independent goes a long way to achieving exactly that.
Small may very well be the new big!

©Mark Gallie. Phoebus Associates 2009