The Battle’s Over: Why Agencies and Clients Need Each Other More Than Ever

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Ask anyone in the industry and they’ll tell you: the biggest barrier to great advertising isn’t budget or timing, it’s friction between agencies and clients. But what if that’s the wrong way to look at it?

There’s a belief in advertising that’s been around forever: suits stand in the way of good creativity. To put it metaphorically, if account services are the mini bosses of idea destruction, then clients are the final, crushing, mega-boss.

Not true, of course. Or not always true, at least. But the stereotype lingers, dredging a deep divide between the two groups of people who actually need each other most.

Listen, I’ve been there. Bemoaning a creative presentation full of sparkling, genius ideas the client “just didn’t get.” But the truth is, maybe we were the ones a few degrees off. Maybe we didn’t understand them.

At ONE23WEST, we’ve always encouraged our creative teams to nurture their client relationships, ideally right out of the gates. Often, who you meet in the pitch is who you’re working with day to day. Creatives aren’t just trotted out like Converse-clad show ponies on presentation day; we’re asking questions about your brief, your industry, how we can help you sell ideas up the chain. We’re all in.

Why? Because who would you rather buy an idea from: a Converse-clad show pony, or someone you actually know, who understands your business? Creative plus accounts plus client equals a super team no trend or news cycle can pull asunder.

Yes, there will be disagreements, but there will also be a foundation of trust. A familiar shorthand. "I know you’re not trying to sell through a 40-foot inflatable parakeet stunt to f*ck my business, but rather because it taps perfectly into the target we’re trying to engage, so let’s discuss, even though we’re not doing the parakeet." Being candid is what pushes good work to become great work, and more importantly, delivers on what really matters. Cannes Lions. Kidding! Cannes Lions and measurable business results.

The more time we spend face to face, or elbow to digital elbow in a Zoom room, poking and prodding at the work, building it together, the stronger it gets.

But there is a caveat. Respect must flow both ways. At our agency, we’re always saying to new clients, you’re the experts on your business. Teach us. Fill our brains with what you do and how you do it. But then you need to let us show you what advertising and design experts can do.

It can be scary, turning your quarterly marketing budget over to a team who just learned of your product’s existence in a briefing, and this is where you need courage. Deny the instinct to oversteer or kill by a thousand little, “what if we just” cuts. Safe ideas do no brands any favours. We need to be able to meet as equally capable partners, and trust each other as such. That’s where the ad magic happens.

At the end of the day, this is a people business. Well, until our AI overlords finally seize power, anyway. If we can remember that, and stop gritting our teeth and heading into creative reviews like opposing clans hoping to avenge a 300-year-old feud, our most courageous ideas might actually stand a chance.

Creatives and suits aren’t enemies. And if they stop being strangers, nurture a relationship that goes a little deeper, a little more honest than small talk before a meeting, the sky is the limit on the killer work we can produce. The sky and the budget. But that’s another story...