What is an advertising agency?

With the plethora of marketing firms out there – all with different degrees of expertise – it sometimes seems difficult to cut through to the core of any given agency.  Most would agree that every advertising agency, at its core, should provide an outside perspective on advertising the client’s products or services.

However, for us, the keyword in advertising agency is in fact ‘agency,’ not ‘advertising.’  As a true agent, a firm’s job is primarily to advise, always on multiple fronts and with a deep understanding of the limitations of the brand’s personality.  It is easy to imagine a scenario where an advertising agency can miss the forest for the trees by recommending strategies that solve only one of many problems, or strategies that solve ancillary problems without addressing the fundamental ‘root’ issues.

While a traditional advertising agency might superbly recommend changes to a media mix, its true role should be less glossy and more introspective.  When it comes to branding and advertising, the entire funnel is the focal point of increasing sales; not simply an outbound (or inbound) strategy.  As much as clients love to sweep certain parts of the funnel under the rug, a good agent will calmly coax out the dust bunnies and vacuum them up until the entire scene is clean and clear.  Put bluntly, the touch-points have to function from brand awareness to interactive elements to the sales force and right down to the close of the sale.  If any one of the cogs is misaligned, it doesn’t matter how shiny and bright the other moving parts are.

So what is an advertising agency?  We believe a good agency is as much a counselor as a creator; a good agency listens intently, and balances a deep understanding of the client with a deep understanding of the context in which a client currently exists, and can potentially exist.  Lastly, a good agency solves problems on all fronts; a great agency solves problems on all fronts simultaneously!

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• Ad Agency
• Advertising
• Connecticut
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