The Best and All the Rest: What Makes Great Agencies Great

An in-depth seminar that explores the transformative practices that have built the world’s most successful agency brands, from the way they approach their work to the way they structure their organization.

About this workshop

Despite differences in corporate culture and style, the truly successful agencies share some important things in common. These are the agencies that do the best work, attract the most new business, and have the best financial track records.

This full-day seminar examines what the best agencies have learned about serving their clients in new and better ways. At the heart of what makes these agencies stand apart are characteristics like these:

  • They know what drives them from inside
  • They view themselves as professional knowledge firms, not professional service firms
  • They do what they do best and find resources for the rest
  • They have methods and approaches that add value to their agency brand
  • They have an extremely interactive way of working together
  • They improve the process at the front end into order to improve the result at the back end
  • They don’t consider every company to be a prospect
  • They cast people in roles that make the most of their strengths
  • They get paid for their value instead of their time

The best agencies are thought leaders, and have unique approaches that help them stand apart from the crowd. Drawing on extensive research and real-world agency experience, we’ll explore:

  1. Why clients want leadership more than partnership
  2. How to focus on the leading – not lagging – indicators of agency success
  3. How to keep coming back with better work
  4. Improving results at the back end by improving the process at the front end
  5. How to remove the disincentives for internal collaboration
  6. Organizing for where our business is going instead of where it’s been
  7. How to focus on getting better clients instead of just more clients

Using examples from around the world, this thought-provoking seminar shows how and why the best agencies aren’t out to please everyone. They are intentionally different. They have a distinctive point of view, distinctive operating systems, distinctive philosophies about client service, and a distinctive product. Their reputation for insightful thinking and brilliant work isn’t just a result of better talent, but better ways of approaching everything from creative development to client compensation.

View a few key slides from this workshop here:

The Best and All the Rest

Who this workshop is for

Marketing communications professionals from all functions can benefit from the content of this seminar. Managers of agency departments will find the featured principles and practices particularly useful.

About the instructor

Tim Williams

The presenter is Tim Williams, founder of Ignition Consulting Group, America’s leading consultancy devoted to helping marketing communications firms create and capture more value.  Tim is a frequent speaker and presenter for major industry associations, agency networks, universities, and business conferences in North America and abroad. As a recognized thought leader in the advertising and marketing business, Tim has been interviewed and quoted by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Guardian, Toronto Globe & Mail, Bloomberg News, Japan’s Nikkei News, and other business and marketing from Europe to Asia.  He is a frequent contributor to leading trade and business publications including Advertising Age, Adweek, Communication Arts, Campaign, Admap, Marketing News, and The Advertiser.  He is author of the book, Take a Stand for Your Brand: Building a Great Agency Brand from the Inside Out ranked by Amazon as one of the top ten books on brand building.  His newest book is Positioning for Professionals: How Professional Knowledge Firms Can Differentiate Their Way to Success.

How to arrange for this workshop

The Best and All the Rest: What Makes Great Agencies Great is available in three versions: 90-minute presentation, half-day workshop, and full-day seminar.

For details and pricing, please contact us at info@ignitiongroup.com.

What others are saying

“Usually when I attend a seminar, I am happy to come away with having learned one thing.  In this case I learned so many things I stopped counting.”

“I went to Ignition’s seminar yesterday and found it really useful and enlightening.  Tim packed a ton of ideas and information into this and still managed to make it digestible and useful.  It was a great presentation.”

“I found this to be a highly insightful and engaging presentation that validates some of the moves we are making as an agency and may serve as a wake-up call to those who haven’t begun the process.”

Questions or feedback? Contact us.

Copyright © 2011 Ignition Consulting Group, Inc. Terms of Service