One of the problems with how traditional agencies match creatives with brands, Boff said, is taking a one-size-fits-all approach. At Said Differently, by drawing from a pool of thousands of creative specialists, “we take a look at any business, any problem, any challenge, and we cast the right team of people to work on that,” she said.
The team selected for one client won’t be repeated for another. According to Boff, agencies should remember that “no two clients are alike; no two problems are alike.”
Quit pretending you know everything
“No agency, no matter how good they are, walks in the same shoes as the client,” Boff said. A big mistake she’s seen creative shops making—especially those with a long history and a lengthy list of brand clients—is assuming that they know everything. They don’t. “The role of the agency as a partner is to understand the business problem or to hear the business problem, and then to take that fresh lens and apply it,” she said.
Shut up and listen
When brands meet with agencies, Boff said, the conversation is all too often transactional, especially on the creative side. “The advice that I give our team all the time is: You have two ears and one mouth—listen hard,” she said.
While it’s natural that a seasoned agency will come into a meeting and immediately begin showing off their past work, what it really needs to do is clam up. The successful agency, she said, will practice the fine art of “listening hard versus selling hard.”
