A Better Agency Model - New & Improved Part 2

Screw your org chart - you are better & bigger than that.

Author

Tim Kilroy
27 Jun • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

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A Better Agency Model - Part 2

When we last met, dear reader, we talked about my concept of A Better Agency Model - New & Improved. We talked about how AI isn’t really a technology challenge for agency leaders, it’s an agency management challenge where you have to help your team grow into being functional strategists rather than just executors of marketing tasks. It’s not going to be easy - but that change is on its way.

But there is another change that is going to happen…as the execution focus adapts to a strategic focus & the eco-system continues to grow in complexity, it seems inevitable that there will be more specialization in the nuances and strategic implications of each channel and its resulting data stream.

You Aren’t GREAT At Everything & You Shouldn’t Try to Be…

It’s true today & I think it will be true tomorrow even moreso, agencies have real strengths and weaknesses. An agency might be killer at retention marketing, but only “good” at paid social ads. Another agency may be amazing at design, but it’s CRO might only be so-so.

Today, agencies try hard to cover as many services as possible, because today, agencies get paid to execute. So we try to spread our glorious apron of services over as much of a particular client’s execution layer as possible - because that’s how we expand our revenue.

Tomorrow, execution will be largely handled by AI and automations and the human workers in an agency will be responsible for strategically directing the non-flesh & blood team mates. But I believe that the difference between agencies that are good & great will become more apparent as the execution layer becomes more automated. The agency that understands the medium, the data and its impact the best will rise above agencies that aren’t as deep in a particular channel. Agencies, just like today, will be amazing at a handful of things, and average at others.

But the age of the AOR (Agency of Record) where all services flow through a single agency has largely ended. Large marketers want a roster of talented agencies. Smaller marketers want a strategic partner who is a strategy leader.

The client/agency relationship is based on trust, and if you push to cover all client needs, the areas in which you aren’t as strong will start to erode the confidence even in the arenas where you are great.

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There Can’t Be Any Silos Anymore…

In today’s world, the search agency may not interact with the paid social or retention teams. Each agency keeps data in their own silos and assumes the client will aggregate and parse all the data, performance and insights appropriately. But, we all know that a horizontal view of the market (as agencies have) gives you a perspective and depth of thinking that can rarely be match by an in-house team.

With more data streams, more automation and more execution happening without a human in the loop, the strategic perspective is where agencies will thrive. And when you are sitting in that strategic seat alongside the client, you have a responsibility to get the best resource into play for a particular part of your strategy, even if it isn’t your agency.

Your strategic thinking/curator agency role understands that the best performance, data and insight influences and informs all other marketing activity. You are going to want to have an array of partners to fill the areas where you aren’t the obvious choice to manage that part of the strategic endeavor.

Your Network Is Your Irreplaceable Advantage

As the age of intelligent agents starts to grow, your strategic leadership becomes of paramount importance to your client. The trust that you create through that leadership and the confidence that you show in suggesting that there are partner of yours that can fill a slot in the arsenal better than you can will create even more trust.

Unlike the agency who tries to do it all, tomorrow’s leading agencies will have a strategy first approach and bring their best channels to the table. They will INCREASE their value by bringing partners that work flawlessly inside of their strategies and add to the trust that the client has with your agency.

You will need to think carefully about who lives in your network. You want to know that they share your values, your sense of client-facing value, and most importantly, are clear that they are part of the solution because you brought them in leveraged your client trust to create an opportunity for them.

All of that is to say that they aren’t gonna try and steal your client. And in engagements where they are the client strategic partner, you should be confident that they will be generous in bringing you in when the opportunity is right. Your network is a sustainable advantage that you will build & your participation in that network will be valuable for all parties.

Your total value will be the sum of your strategic alignment with the client’s needs PLUS the integrated contributions of your network partners.

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Build Around The Mission, Not Your Org Chart

With a talented, mutually aligned network, your opportunity will become bigger than ever. You can attack engagements without fear that you can’t deliver. You can take on clients that may have deployment or data needs that you can’t handle on your own, because your network is at the ready.

You can suddenly take on a trusted advisor role with clients where you are the strategic lead (and man, that position is REALLY, REALLY sticky - if you are on top of things, your churn could drop unimaginably low.)

This kind of “consortium” & mutual benefit approach gives you the ability to advise your clients towards what’s the very best for them without worrying that another agency will steal your business or that budget fluidity might work against you because what is good for one member of the network that you bring to an engagement is by definition good for you too…

The new and improved agency model places a premium on insight, understanding and trust. It aligns you with your clients, your network partners and the mission that you all agree is worth pursuing.

The Future of Marketing - From The Interwebs

Axios - The Five Seismic Shifts That Will Reshape Communications and Marketing - Forget piecemeal marketing, this CEO says it’s all hands on deck: attention, creator, stakeholder, experience, intelligence economies. In other words, marketers, actually learn five skillsets or dissolve (or bring in their network to provide a seamless experience…)

The Australian - AI is killing Google search: is your business next? AI answer boxes are gobbling up search clicks. Are SEO tactics are yesterday’s fight. Marketers now need personality, LLMs and platform diversity or vanish into the 404 abyss.

Vogue Business - What’s Agentic AI & What Do Brands Need To Know About It? AI that does things for you? Brands are investing in invisible bots to plan supply chains and visible bots to style your wardrobe. Just don’t let them pick your outfit… yet.

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