Think small.
What do I mean by this? I mean exactly that. Clients are looking for more transparency. Looking for more engagement on their business. And most importantly, looking at agencies to see who exactly will work on their business. Guess what—when you’re small it’s likely the people in the room and not the pitch team. Nothing against big agencies, they're great, but if you look through the lens of our business right now, big is getting smaller and small is getting noticed. And does small want to be big? Up to them. With less AOR and more project work being the norm, having an agency that can scale up and scale down without huge financial impacts makes the work better. And, more importantly, doesn’t impact lives. That’s important. Look at Highdive in Chicago. Small and nimble and had the top two Super Bowl spots in 2020. Top two. Wow. Look at Wolfgang in LA. They're investing money in people and technology (they designed a car for crying out loud) rather than foosball machines and baristas. There are plenty more, Circus Maximus in Austin, Butterworth Collective and Erich and Kallman in California, and Familiar Creatures in Richmond. All doing amazing creative work without being big. But thinking big. Again, big isn’t bad but is it the magnet it once was? Time will tell. But for now I believe creatives will seek to exercise their minds where they best see fit and where there's opportunity to spread their minds.
Isn’t it ironic that the ad that set this whole creative revolution off said "Think small"? Maybe Bernbach was trying to tell us something and now we're all just starting to listen.
