I’ve been in the agency business for 25 years. I’ve worked with all kinds of agencies. Above-the-line agencies, below-the-line agencies, consumer agencies, B2B agencies, full-service agencies, boutiques. What has struck me over all those years and the hundreds of client engagements is the speed with which agencies overlook the “why” of the work to get to the “what.”
In my experience, agencies are very good at the what, when, and how. We understand the mechanics of what we do and tend to look at client needs through that lens. We deconstruct the ask to fit the answers into our paradigm: How big? How small? How many? Every agency has the checklist of what/when/how questions that help turn a client need into a deliverable… an ad, an app, an event.