For the latest edition of The Creative Study, we brought together the CMOs and CEOs from our network of brands and asked them how the agency relationship is changing, what they really think about working with agencies, and why they spend money on creative work.
Over the last few years, we’ve seen a shift in how businesses view creativity. It’s no longer a ‘nice to have’, or an afterthought when everything else is done. Now it’s seen as a key differentiator in business success, especially as the landscape gets more and more competitive.
But just how transformative is it? We set out to find out with The Creative Study – a new report published by AUFI. We asked brand founders, senior marketing leaders and brand managers to share their honest thoughts on why they hire agencies; how they justify spending money on creative work; and how much difference all of those things make to a business.
To help us on our search, we partnered with creative research studio Early Studies, who introduced us to a research technique known as Social Circle Surveying. This invites people to put aside their personal feelings and instead share insights on what they believe other people think – with the aim of getting truer, more representative answers. According to Early Studies, this method ‘[circumvents] human impulse to perform, and offer critical and negative feedback because they think it makes them higher status’.
The results were pretty spicy. That’s because the stakes are high. It turns out businesses attribute around 60% of their success to creativity, design and marketing. Not only is it harder to cut through – ‘everything is well branded now’ – but the scope is broader than ever. Proliferating channels have created more opportunities, making it incredibly difficult to know which are the best ones to pursue.
So is that why brands hire agencies? In part yes, according to the brand leaders. Agencies offer a fresh pair of eyes – they’re not deep in the day to day of one brand’s world, and can therefore spot things that internal teams perhaps can’t. They also have plenty of experience, having worked across a wide range of businesses, which helps to alleviate a large chunk of the risk.
But the brand-agency partnership isn’t what it was before. Today’s brand teams have an instinctive understanding of audience, culture and strategy. So how do agencies fit into the new equation? What are brands really looking for in a partner?
If your interest is piqued, check out everything the brand leaders had to say HERE.
