First, this isn’t going to be a shameless plug for agencies from someone working in one. Full disclosure, I used to be freelancer and, I did some awesome creative (ahem, if I do say so myself!). But it boils down to this: more people equals more ideas, skill sets, experience, resources…The list goes on.
More ideas
Of course, one person can come up with awesome ideas on their own. But like raising a child, a great strategy that integrates all the moving parts and possibilities of the creative landscape really does take a village. In this village you need to gather the ideas and perspectives from a mix of skills sets – and it truly is a case of the more skill sets, the better.
When your strategy is crafted by a team of creatives from various professional backgrounds sharing different campaign experiences and insights – you know you’re in very good hands.
More skill sets
Agency teams typically consist of designers, marketing and brand specialists, digital and social natives (and immigrants), copywriters and communications experts, and events and PR managers (and a raft of other talent depending on who you’re talking to, i.e. digital agencies will also have UX and CX designers, SEO and SEM managers, software developers, etc).
This is a considerable advantage over a freelancer. One person, no matter how much experience they have, will not cover the breadth of skill sets found in an average agency team, let alone stay abreast of industry trends and developments across each discipline.
More experience
Agencies put the right mix of skill sets and experience together in a team that’s dedicated to your account. This team will be the best fit for your requirements (and will probably cover some requirements you may not have considered in your initial brief).
The team will brainstorm concepts, toss around different ideas and draw on their combined talents, industry knowledge and campaign experience to develop and deliver an integrated strategy that has you covered across design, digital, brand and whatever else you might need – plus, they have the resources to roll out your strategy in-house.
More resources
Put this pool of creative talent together and you’ve got a powerful set of resources at your disposal. Agencies can move faster, make changes on the fly and be more responsive. If you need something done quickly, an agency will have a resource to dedicate to the task. Whereas, a freelancer is often stretched between his/her clients and may not be able to turn something around as quickly.
This is a key reason why agencies cost more than most freelancers – because agencies deliver more than any one person can.
More is more
One person can (in theory) do pretty much anything on their own, including produce winning creative strategy but, it’s always easier and generally produces far better results when you’re working as part a team that has more skill sets, experience and in turn more ideas from which to draw inspiration.
If you want to know more about how an agency could deliver great results for your business get in touch, we’d love to chat.