Remember Agencies of Record? 

The idea of one agency handling a company’s needs for packaging, strategy, events, and ads  – basically meant that you outsourced all your creative needs to an ad agency – the heart and soul of your brand –  leaving your own team to simply pick up the phone for whatever they needed. Agencies funded their expensive teams and overhead (never mind the drinks and lunches) this way – just watch Mad Men for a reminder. 

This whole system was/is for the big guys –  big corporations, hiring big agencies. Little guys looked on in awe. 

The small companies I worked with and even smaller budgeted non-profits, all wanted some of that glam –  the pitches, the branding, the design and the campaigns. They couldn’t do the price,  they couldn’t do the time and they knew there were few that  actually ‘got’ them – what they did and why. 

So, we  invented something. 

We created a shortened discovery, followed by presenting what we learned, followed by laying out our recommendations.  A fraction of the time and cost, without a bloated agency of record retainer delivering on cool tag lines or slick TV ads. Our goal was not to create the big surprise, to position the product or to reveal the fancy lines. Our goal was, and is,  to get organizations that do good work for the world, back to why they  do what they do – at their essence. When it’s done well, it propels them forward. 

For many who are in it, the  business of social change, of impact, justice or truth doesn’t often feel sexy day in and out. As  the  non-agency-of-record, we found that our whispering on our clients shoulder, to bring them back to their center, to help them see how great their work is and why it matters, was what they needed. 

As marketers, branding specialists or communicators, we have realized that some of our best work happens when we simply help our clients see how amazing they already are.