Shopping for an Agency
We take pride in partnering with clients in our areas of greatest strength, like drafting a persuasive case for support or fostering greater collaboration between advancement and communications teams.
But we’re only two people, and we’re never going to be the right partner to help a client prepare all the assets it needs to publicly launch a campaign.
However, we regularly advise our clients on finding the right agency to take their campaign public.
If you’re searching for a creative agency for your campaign, we recommend you keep the following advice in mind:
Know Your Budget and Your Needs
Campaign communications are expensive, and you can easily spend your entire budget without checking everything off your list.
Be open to creative ideas from agencies while also being clear-headed about what you need at the end of the day. For example, it may make sense to go deep on video even though you hadn’t planned on it, but only if the agency makes a strong case for it meeting your campaign’s communications goals. If it’s not a match, move on until you find the right fit; the right solution is out there.
Closely Examine Discovery Periods
What different agencies charge for their early-stage “get-to-know-you” period—as well as what they include in it—varies wildly.
Take time to understand exactly what will happen during the discovery process. How many interviews will they complete? Will they deliver preliminary findings or recommendations? Will they generate any early creative work? The last thing you want is to have spent tens of thousands of dollars with nothing to show if it turns out to be a bad fit.
Understand Who Your Partners Will Be
Some agencies may put senior folks on sales calls who you never see again once the engagement starts. Know whom you’ll actually work with on a day-to-day basis and be sure you meet them before signing the contract. Ideally, you will have at least one seasoned partner on the team assigned to you.
Gauge Openness to Collaboration
While many agencies have closed, entirely in-house processes for completing their work, some others are more flexible and open, allowing for greater staff feedback and engagement. In general, we advocate for the latter approach because it enhances awareness and buy-in of the work, increasing the likelihood that campaign collateral will be widely adopted and used.
If you’re interested in a more collaborative approach, inquire about an agency’s openness to working with a range of your team members during the engagement, doing workshops, or even coaching staff to implement recommendations.
Assess Digital Sophistication
A public campaign launch means a digital presence, likely with a dedicated microsite. But there is often a significant gap between what an agency designs for a website and their ability to implement it seamlessly within an institution’s existing web and giving page infrastructure.
If you need a campaign microsite from an agency, understand exactly what they’ll deliver. Will it be a design that your internal IT department will need to implement? Will they account for any quirks with your CMS? How easy will it be to update the site over time as the campaign progresses and new initiatives appear? Always ask for examples from past web projects they’ve delivered and details about how they helped implement the project.
As you go through the process of vetting creative agencies, balancing their strengths against your needs and budget, and assessing which ones you trust to do the work, you may discover that a single agency doesn’t meet all of your needs. This is not a problem, and it is a frequent reality of finding the best fit for your organization.
Discovering where you need outside help to publicly launch your campaign may also be a good clue for how you should budget for ongoing communications, either for continued agency support or by adding staff with the expertise you need.
Remember that campaigns are a marathon, not a sprint, and you’ll need to rely on strong talent well beyond public launch.
