I want to deconstruct my agency

Surf any agency website and you find a similar story. They may articulate it in a funny, rebellious, inspirational or game-changing way but strip away the bravado and you’re left with the same pitch. Sometimes that pitch is customer centric, other times it’s behaviour centric, but it always involves a love of the Big Idea. This industry trades in Big Idea Currency and just like needing an MBA to become a consultant, you need to have Big Ideas in order to even get invited to the big house.

However, the Big Idea is only as good as the agency’s ability to fight for it. Many are sold down the river for a steady paycheck. But if you were in upper management and had to choose between fighting for a great idea and putting food on your table, you’d sell the idea down the river too. But what if the Idea and the paycheck didn’t have to be mutually exclusive?

What if the quality of the idea was what guaranteed the paycheck?

If you look at your typical agency, you’ll find print producers, tv producers, project mangers, web developers, flash designers and print studio artists among many others. The agencies that employ them need to develop work that keeps them busy and keeps them employed. If you have a studio, you better recommend a print campaign so they have something to do. If you have TV producers, you better recommend commercials. And if you have a big web team, you better also recommend a website, a viral video and a social networking angle to keep them all employed too.

However, there is a small movement taking place in our industry. To protect and promote really big ideas, some agencies are taking off the shackles of a large workforce and cutting their agency down to the Big Three: The Strategic Arm, The Creative Arm and The Account/Management Arm. Under this model, you hire the staff you need as your big idea requires. Need a website? Hire the best web developer or boutique digital agency to produce it. Need to create an art installation for fashion week in Toronto? Hire the designers that are coming to town anyway to build it for you so they can rep it while they’re here.

If you structure your agency so that it can fight for the big ideas, you allow the idea to drive the process. You attract the top creative talent in the business which will only make you stronger. And you’ll drive real results from your clients, albeit in unexpected ways.