How to Ease the Strain in Brand-Agency Relationships

Effective creativity is the result of the team that makes the work happen, but strain between brands and their creative partners is a critical tension identified in the LIONS State of Creativity report. 

Why strong relationships matter

Strong, trusting relationships are at the core of all stages of the creative process; on the flip side, those that find it very difficult to work efficiently as a client-agency partnership are three times more likely to predict a decline in growth in 2024.

Based on a survey of 3,000 marketers and creatives from around the world, the State of Creativity offers practical guidance on tackling the challenges facing the industry. You can download the full report for free here.

Behind the tension

• Agencies feel undervalued and underutilised: This includes often being made to feel like an extra pair of hands rather than a creative partnership, which contributes to low-quality work.

• Poor alignment across partners: Agency respondents feel there is a greater need for all creative partners to drive toward the same goals rather than working in silos, and often work to different agendas or goals.
• A lack of trust in the agency: “There’s no belief or trust from marketers that creativity sells,” explained one creative director based in France. Trust is vital to the kind of big, brave ideas that create business impact.

Go deeper 

The subject of client-agency relationships is never far from the surface in marketing.

• • Last year, WARC explored the nature of effective creative teams and their root in a shared culture of excellence, with a framework for establishing a high-performance partnership.
• • More recently, the WARC podcast explored the issue at the level of the agency business model and why an outdated monetisation model devalues creativity and effectiveness.

Sourced from LIONS, WARC