Design and advertising agencies work with business from the outside looking in. They give the business owner the advantage of an outside perspective. Therefore, if you can explain to your advertising agency, or designer what it is that you do, then they can in turn project that to the world.

The typical process of working with a design company goes like this:

  1. You tell them what you want to achieve (more sales)
  2. Based on their brief, and budget, the agency goes away and develops it’s recommended plan for achieving your goals
  3. Agency presents one to three options for your company and the reasons for doing so, based again on what you’ve asked for
  4. Agency completes project and you go about reaping increased sales benefits

Unfortunately the world doesn’t work like this anymore. This model for dealing with a creative is based on the premise that you know what your customers want. It also operates under the assumption that you can adequately communicate the whole gamat of your company to an external company in the first place.

Based on the above process, you will get no surprises as to what the message is, and who you will attract (or bore to tears). Nice, safe and predictable. Sure, the presentation of your advertising will differ between agencies, but the core message will not cause you to raise an eyebrow.

So if it’s not going to raise your eyebrows, no matter how clever the presentation, what chance do you have of getting the attention of your customers?

What if, your advertising message was to come from within your company? What if the way you worked with the agency was no longer a ‘them and us’ scenario, but a collaboration, where both parties challenged each other for a better outcome. For a different outcome? An outside perspective is an asset to have – but will always be based on what you give them. If your agency was to sit on the inside looking out, and you were to bare the soul of your business, what gems might you find? You may be sitting on a goldmine, and not know it because you’ve had no help to dig a little deeper.

Sure, you may not get the predictable, and ’safe’ outcome and reassurances that a design or advertising agency can paint for you, but if you really want to step it up and be somewhere different (and better), consider baring all to your trusted brand adviser and set in place a collaborative plan that will deliver you where you want to be, and not just where you’ve always been.

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