I have to admit, as someone who relied on everything being organized, this was a blessing. That was when I began working at an agency. I slowly realized that my effort was essentially zero return for the client. At the time, it wasn’t technically my fault. Somewhere along the line, I started taking responsibility for it, and possibly made a bigger mistake.

I quit designing, and started client-facing. And then over-promised to clients: I was told we didn’t have the resources to execute the ideas I wanted to execute for my clients.

These were ideas that would’ve achieved what the clients came to the agency for — to grow their presence on the web, to reach their audiences. But no, let’s stick to posting thoughtlessly designed creatives.

(I think) agencies (in India, I can’t speak for other countries) don’t work for two reasons:

1. The business model itself.

2. Culture & mindset.

The Business Model

I’ve had my fair share of working with and talking to people from different marketing agencies, especially in Bengaluru — and I’m not going to lie, I’ve seen some really good ones. But the vast majority of them are preys, waiting for the next client (who is slightly uninformed about social media) who’s willing to sign another retainer in exchange for mass produced content.

Most marketing agencies make money primarily through retainers. That’s cool, retainers are great.

After about the fourth or fifth retainer, the company has to hire a whole set of employees. Not one, not two new hires: a whole set. A designer, a content-writer cum copywriter, a web developer, a client communications executive. Some agencies go the other route, overwork the current team.

Both are equally bad options for the agency. One is a logistical nightmare. The other is horrible in the long term.

From my personal experience talking to 22 or so year olds, everybody wants to quit after a while.

When I jumped ship, the rest of the team did too. This didn’t feel that great, because what I wanted to do was go my own path and what ended up happening was the entire company looking at an impending disaster.

But that’s not the point. The point is, you see why this doesn’t work? I’m horrible at math, so I’m going to avoid trying. But, please feel free to do the math. Tell me how the salaries and retainers pan out efficiently without destroying the health of current employees.

It doesn’t work, not in its current state.

Culture and mindset

This part of my argument is reflective of how I began writing this.

Teams are running around trying to achieve something. Not growth. Not sales. Not extended reach. No. None of that. They are running around trying to get 15 creatives posted with the perfect captions and roughly five million hashtags. (Anybody who’s remotely up to date knows that the ideal amount is about 5 hashtags)

Agencies have the wrong target in mind. They want to get the job done for the month. That’s why the number exists in the first place. 15. Let me show you how an alternative aim would look like:

We need to get at least another 50 people interested in this brand. Let us execute <insert campaign idea> to get current customers to talk to their friends about it. How do we do that with <insert budget here>.

Execute an objective-led idea, give to the community, nobody cares about your yapping about yourself.

I forget the funniest bit. If you’ve ever had the ‘luck’ to work in a marketing agency, you know that the busiest times are when there are multiple festivals in a month. Oh, this is honestly just entertainment. Ten different people running around trying to tell “Happy <festival name> to you! from <brand name>” in different ways. Once again, nobody cares. I don’t bat an eye to wishes in my personal WhatsApp groups.

Delight your audience.

I once got offered 25$ to give feedback after using a SaaS tool for a few months. I gave feedback. I had $25 in my PayPal in the next two hours. I am now unconsciously promoting the tool to everyone who could possibly need it. You see? That worked. They just bought my entire network for $25, without intending to.

Aim for your brand to be the first in a customer’s mind when they think of buying something. Don’t be of the delusion that customers are thinking of you 24 hours a day.

I wouldn’t fault clients. Clients who have the cash to pay agencies have usually been in business for a while, and without the right minds, they’re not knowledged enough to know what they want. They just want to be on the ‘gram. Ask the question, do they need to be on Instagram before posting 500 stories for 10 people to glance at.

I wouldn’t fault (most) employees either. They’re trying to express their creative selves in as many industries as possible, and what better way to do that?

I’ve been wanting to write this for more months than I can remember, and I cannot help but think that this is still imperfect. My opinion on this are solid. I think there are a thousand reasons I’m missing.

If you’d like to talk about the culture at your agency, or want to express anger at me, you can reach me here.