You’re Fired!

Why you should fire your agency

Just like any relationship, an agency-client partnership is a multi-faceted dynamic that takes effort to get the best from.

At Seven we have a number of practices we employ from the outset to get things started on the right foot when we engage with a new client. These include blatant bribery and plying with pastries, but also include some of the (other) basics you should be asking of any agency you work with, including us. If you aren’t getting these, it might be time to ask why, or to sit down with your agency team to reset how things are working.

This is all in aid of building a solid partnership with your creative partners. One that’s founded on doing continually better work that strategically moves your business forward, and that keeps the work (and the relationship) positive and fresh. It’s about maximising your investment and making sure that the longer you have the relationship, the more value you see from it.

1/ Schedule Regular WIPS

• The most obvious and common base process with an agency is a regular catchup where you can meet in person, stay on top of priorities, and talk through any difficulties or new briefs that come up. This is important way to keep things on track with projects and to open up a space to ensure that communication channels are always open.

2/ Invite open dialogue

• We try to always give clients an honest and thoughtful viewpoint. And we want the same from them. When we know what’s working and what isn’t, we all do better.
• Clients that give us deep insight into how their business works, and also how they like to work personally, get the best from us.

3/ Welcome challenging conversations

• You want mad men and women, not yes men and women. You might wonder why your agency sometimes challenges what you thought was a simple brief, or why so many questions. But if your agency is taking the time to think through the detail, you know they really care about getting it right, not just about getting paid.
• As a brand agency, Seven takes a brand guardianship role seriously and often challenge our clients to keep them on track, whether that is strategically, or creatively. Ultimately it is always a client or brand owner’s call on how things play out, but we try to place the client and brand’s interests at heart and fight for what we think is right to meet that, individual views aside.
• Coming to these conversations with a positive mindset is crucial, hard conversations can still be good, valuable, kind ones.

4/ Consider proactive suggestions

• They might feel like a sales pitch to you at times, and you don’t have to say yes. But if your agency is thinking about ways you can do things better and taking the time to talk to you about it, you might find fresh brains looking at your business challenges from an outside perspective add real value.

If this sounds like the kind of agency partnership you’re looking for, or even if it’s just the pastries you’re after, let’s talk.