Agencies Adopting Startup Mentality
February 7, 2016

Agencies have a challenge very unique to their business. They must always be at the forefront of everything. Many of us have the luxurious privilege that comes with only staying up-to date on one industry or a couple verticals. Agencies have to be that conduit for a range of industries and have the ability to speak to an infinite number of verticals. With startup culture sweeping the nation, agencies are evolving to mimic or at least cope with the technical innovation culture.
Tinkering and developing
The marketing team of a traditional client is drastically changing to a data and trend focused organization. Integrating agency best practices with technology makes research and development a key part of a shop’s business model. While R&D is a far cry from the traditional marketer-agency relationship, problem solving and innovation is still the core of client expectations.
Agencies and Start-ups share an employment pool
Startup culture influences agencies as a result of a shared talent pool. People often transition to agencies from startups and vice versa. They develop similar work habits and pace. They work the same way at agencies as they would at a startup. It’s more iterative, it’s faster paced and it resonates with the types of clients that agencies want to work with.
They Sacrifice retainers to work with those really cool clients
The really cool, successful startups probably already have their own internal creative and marketing teams (likely from an agency background). Working with these clients have virtually erased the need for retainers. The start-up marketers are experts in their field and that is forcing agencies to work on a project by project basis, challenging the traditional client-agency relationships for many of these shops. Sacrificing the big retainers give agencies the opportunity to work with brands that are staining culture and leaving their mark with multiple generations. And even the best shops can’t turn down the opportunity to influence culture at that magnitude.
The client-agency paradigm is shifting towards a “Research and develop, as quick as you can- just this once” model, particularly where start-ups are concerned. Boxman Studios is right in line with this paradigm boasting the most innovative modular and shipping container environments designed, developed and deployed in record time for both one-off and bulk orders.
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