If rebranding your clients is second nature...

...how come rebranding yourselves is so difficult?

If you know and work with creative agencies, this is a very good question. Those of us who do and have, can tell a few stories about how the very thing that agencies do so well for their own clients they struggle to do for themselves.

Like any of its clients, a creative agency needs to rebrand and maybe even reposition itself in the marketplace from time to time. Yet, for a variety of reasons, this rarely seems to happen at the time it should and, then, with any degree of ease. Given that the agency’s very reason for existence is rebranding, why should this be?

On the face of it – and some agency directors have told me this – there is no market for a service to help creative agencies rebrand themselves. If they can’t do it, they shouldn’t be in the business. If this were true, then, by extension, there would be no alcoholic doctors, all millionaires would be happy and nothing would stop England winning the World Cup.

But it isn’t true. You know who you are but can’t seem to express it simply, clearly, effectively. It’s too close and personal, your baby. You’re concerned about not taking your people with you. There isn’t enough time, because clients come first. If you could do it well yourselves, you’d have done it already. Frankly, it’s a puzzling mixture of some or all of these and the product is proscrastination.

So, this week, Ideal has officially launched our agency rebranding service. Far from a speculative punt, this is based on work we’ve done with around ten creative agencies of all shapes and sizes in the UK over the past three or four years.

Some creative agencies are good at design but poor at language. So the help required can come in the form of key messages, a strapline, the re-writing of a website or even the agency’s new business credentials. Others have grown over a decade or so and reached a watershed, where what they were is no longer of any use for what they need to be. This calls for repositioning work and a strategic overview, to refocus business goals and find a new direction, before even considering creative expression. Some agencies have outgrown their marketplace and need to adopt a different personality to target new markets. Others are developing and integrating new products or services that need promoting in a different way. In a constantly moving marketplace, all agencies are seeking that special USP that keeps them discrete and distinctive. They are all in need of remotivating their own team and keeping people on their toes. I know. I’ve been there.

None of these aspects is easy to see from the inside of an agency. If they were easy to see and act upon from the inside, agencies themselves would have very few clients.

It’s good for an agency to become a client.

At some point, soon, your agency will be ready for a rebrand. It’s been a while. It’s time for a refresh. Or, is there more to it than that?...

Ask yourselves the question. Better still, ask us. We, too, are a creative agency. Just the two of us, Mark and Debbie Griffiths. Wordsmiths and branding consultants with decades of experience across commercial and not for profit sectors. We have close working relationships with creative agencies across the UK and Ireland. You are our customers. We’re valued by clients for our creative and strategic insights and ability with words. We can be an external sounding board and expert guiding hand in rebranding agencies.

We can help you understand the real reasons for doing your own rebrand and set the goals and expected outcomes of doing it. We’re good at bringing together and clarifying your thinking to date in a way that builds consensus. We will help you bottle your essence, find and express your real key messages, rebrand in the right way for you. Last but not least, we’ll make life easier for your new business development people while you just get on with your business with your clients.

Ideal’s agency rebranding is a great little service. Some have yet to believe. We’ll keep you posted on the challenge.

Mark Griffiths www.idealbrand.co.uk