The problem with agency tiering

Authored by
Martin Simpson, SVP Design

The agency tier system is an endemic way of thinking. Most requests for proposals stipulate whether brands are looking for a tier one, two or three agency, with set definitions of the exact nature of work each agency should expect to receive (brand curation, product innovation, channel execution and so on).

But, while it’s understandable that brand owners find it helpful to organize their agencies in this way, there are some deep-rooted challenges with this concept.

Let’s consider this sporting analogy.

Many of us will be familiar with the soccer league table system, if you happen to follow English soccer; ‘Premier League, Championship, League 1… The short-hand being, ‘the best, the good and the okay.’

The traditional tiered approach to organizing agencies, unhelpfully encourages the same league table thinking, and organizations adopting it quickly begin to think of their agency pool correspondingly, as ‘the best, the good and the okay’. However, a tiered structure simply doesn’t acknowledge the full design journey and diversity of talent required to successfully bring a brand to life.The reasoning? Such a linear system strips the nuance from the complexities of brand building.

The creation of a powerful and consistent brand experience is the result of many diverse talents working in harmony over time. With that lens, enforcing an agency landscape that brings varying quality of talent, simply isn’t compatible with the objective. Point of fact, we all only want to work with the best talent.

“Point of fact, we all only want to work with the best talent”

Let’s not forget that the world is changing for brand managers too. Today’s decision makers have so many more channels and touch-points to consider than even just ten years ago. There are global considerations, local adaptations, social and legal complexities to deal with, and often, far less budget and time with which to explore and navigate.

The go-to solution for managing this complexity has been ‘add more to deal with more’. Thus, Brand owners will bring more and more agencies into the tier mix. A digital agency, a packaging agency, a comms agency, an adaptation agency, a global player, a local player - more partners to manage and collaborate with, more teams and structures, more steps in the process.

“A tiered structure simply doesn’t acknowledge the full design journey and diversity of talent required to successfully bring a brand to life.”

This is particularly relevant for companies that rely on social commerce and digital content. In this space, the brand is no longer static – brands are evolving to become true audio visual experiences. Consequently, brand owners need to draw on an even wider specialist agency pool as they layer motion graphic, digital marketing and e-retail consultancies into the mix.

That complexity is only exacerbated by the agency tier system. Who sits in which tier? Who owns what? Who goes first? Who talks to who? How do they talk? When do they talk? Do they talk? Managing and steering the different conversations, overseeing the individual outputs, identifying and delivering against local market needs and coordinating many points of view into a coherent global vision, becomes an almost impossible task.

Great brand vision requires clarity of definition and consistency from the start, and fewer people means more consistency. Modern marketers need agencies that put the brand at the centre of gravity, to better express it across multiple channels, platforms and geographies.

Perhaps what brand owners actually need is less? 

For the non-sports fans, here’s a new analogy to consider; let’s think about an orchestra. Each instrument has a role. Each role is different. Each is needed at different times. Under a conductor, each instrument works together in harmony, blending to create a seamless musical experience. In a large, complex agency roster, brand owners are metaphorically trying to write the sheet music whilst convincing the violins, trumpets, flutes, trombones, cellos, double bass and percussion to play together nicely.

The hard reality is that often, in an agency roster, each of these instruments end up being played in separate rooms to each other. With different focuses for different areas of the business, they rarely interact, and it can result in a discordant cacophony. Rather than waiting for each specialist agency to attempt the role of conductor, it needs somebody with the overview: a ‘specialist generalist’ who can anticipate, understand and oversee each individual part and bring them together to create a beautiful symphony.

As the channel and technology landscape continues to explode, as brand owners wade through increasing complexities with ever decreasing resources, is now the time to shake-up the traditional tiered roster thinking?

Perhaps we can expect the emergence of a new type of specialist agency? The ‘specialist generalist’; capable of bringing clarity and simplicity on a global stage for clients; capable of navigating and partnering with specialists to deliver seamless, compelling brand experiences through the ever complex channel landscape.

Let’s open up the dialogue, build consensus and collaborate with our clients to develop a new approach that works for the industry, as well as the bottom line. Only good can come of it.