This week, we were surprised to learn that our agency was referenced in an article about choosing a branding partner— specifically, weighing the pros and cons of partnering with a “Global Firm” versus a “Boutique Creative Agency” like ours. The article “Lippincott vs Helms Workshop” used us as an example of the latter and chose Lippincott as the global model. To say we are honored by the comparison would be an understatement. Personally, I have always admired the brand revamp they built with Starbucks— and countless others across their eighty-year history.
There are a lot of differences between us and a large-scale agency like Lippincott, but also many remarkable similarities. We often compete against “the big guys” in all sorts of brand agency David-Goliath scenarios— and sometimes, we win. Those battles look much less like Gladiator 2 and more like the presentation scenes from Mad Men. Except no one is wearing a suit, drinking six martinis, punching an art director, or crying. Most of the time, anyway.
Thinking about the article, I realized that in situations like these, we often end up answering the same battery of questions from potential clients considering both our agency and a global shop. I thought it might be helpful to share an unvarnished breakdown of the key differences and the common questions we field from potential clients when choosing an agency that best fits their business. Here we go.
What is a Boutique Agency?
People toss around many terms regarding creative agencies, which can sometimes lead to confusion. A boutique agency is a smaller, specialized agency that focuses on providing personalized and tailored creative services to clients, often within a specific niche or industry. Typically, they employ a smaller team of highly skilled professionals who prioritize quality over quantity compared to larger full-service agencies, essentially offering a more intimate and customized client experience. We enjoy and value our personalized, bespoke approach to working with clients immensely.
Key Advantages of Boutique Creative Agencies:
Small Size:
Boutique agencies have a more finite staff, allowing for closer client relationships and direct access to key decision-makers. For example, we have fifteen team members spanning roles from designers and strategists to copywriters, digital developers, and production specialists. An agency like Lippincott boasts hundreds of employees across multiple countries and continents.
Niche Expertise:
Boutiques often focus on distinct types of creative work or practice primarily in a specific industry. For example, we focus on branding and marketing but do not manage social media or PR. Boutique agencies develop a rich knowledge and deep skillset for their key focus. They are specialists rather than generalists.
Boutiques also tend to work within a specific industry or group of industries. We specialize in consumer goods, hospitality, and lifestyle brands. While large, global agencies like Lippincott may “do it all,” boutique agencies target doing just a handful of things well. They are highly skilled experts in their niche, like our team at Helms Workshop.
Personalized Service:
Clients often work directly with a boutique agency’s core team, enjoying customized solutions tailored to their needs. With a smaller team like us, you’ll often work directly with the agency’s founders or senior experts. A tight, dedicated team means a laser focus on your project. There are fewer layers of hierarchy where things fall through the cracks. You become familiar with the team working on your brand. This high-touch, personal approach leads to stronger relationships, better communication, and, often, better results for your business.
High-Quality Focus:
With a smaller client base, boutique agencies prioritize delivering high-quality work over a large volume of projects. Global shops like Lippincott take on an astronomical number of projects each year and are held to aggressive growth goals by the parent companies that own the agency. Boutiques are captains of their own ship and have developed business models that allow for slow growth without sacrificing the work quality, internal culture, and client experience they prize. They champion getting it right over getting it done.
Dedication and Internalization
Speaking for Helms Workshop, we are deeply invested in the success of our client partners.
We champion underdogs, entrepreneurs, and founders building their dreams, and consider ourselves part of their team rather than service vendors. We celebrate their wins enthusiastically and feel the bumps and bruises when challenges arise. These aren’t “projects,” these are OUR brands.
Challenges and Questions We Hear About Our Boutique Agency:
When competing for projects against more prominent global agencies, several questions tend to pop up repeatedly. The most common questions are about our capabilities and approach. Essentially, clients are trying to determine if they can get the same caliber of creative work they expect from a global agency. And in most cases, they absolutely can.
Big agencies don’t have a monopoly on big talent. In our core competencies of branding and marketing, I would put our team’s work up against anyone. Our expertise in packaging for consumer goods is on par with or beyond that of most global agencies. I can say the same for brand identity and any primary brand application. We have super-charged our marketing muscle with team members who have led YETI, Tecovas, Case, Zippo, Chaco, Shiner, Whataburger, and dozens more campaigns. Our clients agree that for an agency our size, we punch above our weight.
Other common questions center around process, bandwidth, timelines, and budget. Our process is more streamlined than that of global agencies, hitting on all the essential points of strategy and execution at a more nimble pace due to our smaller size and minimal levels of bureaucracy. Bandwidth depends on what brands (and how many) we are building, but clients typically wait a week or two to kick off their project, never months. Our timelines generally are faster than global agencies, and to no one’s surprise, we are less expensive.
Beyond these perennial questions, we usually field various queries about our communication style and levels of interaction and collaboration. We are personal and have a high touch when managing our projects. Some clients want to gauge our level of expertise in their market category; others enter conversations hoping that we haven’t worked on a project like theirs. When we worked with Brown-Forman on the Southern Comfort rebrand, they asked whether an airline offered direct flights to Louisville because it was one of their selection criteria. None did— and they chose us anyway.
What are the Pros and Cons of a Global Agency?
We are obviously big fans of the boutique agency model, but it’s undeniable that there are benefits in working with a larger, global agency. Below are some of the most significant advantages of working with a bigger firm— and some challenges.
The Pros
Client Roster
Big global agencies boast a roster of, you guessed it, big global clients. Their track records are often stacked with big-name brands and institutions.
The idea of joining that list and the optics of partnering with an agency that has worked with Walmart, Starbucks, and Delta can be attractive to clients whether or not they recognize it consciously. Businesses want to be associated with winners and industry leaders, even if the benefit is tangential. We work with big brands as well, but for an agency like Lippincott that scale is the standard, while we also work with smaller brands and startups.
Extensive Services & Experience
Based on their size, history, and background, global agencies have typically worked in any sector you can imagine. Their work spans B2B, finance, healthcare, technology, higher ed, and retail, demonstrating an ability to handle complex, large-scale global challenges. They also typically offer a vast range of services beyond what you expect from a boutique agency. Lippincott is a great example, with services including technology audit & gap analysis, management and governance, and corporate internal communications and employee engagement. Boutique agencies like us typically onboard trusted external partners to handle ancillary services outside brand building and marketing.
Broader Reach & Insight
The term says a lot: global agencies have worked with very large organizations that require global branding and a universal reach. They have extensive experience and expertise in large-scale implementation, from global strategy and planning to creative execution and media buying. The frequency with which they tackle large, multi-country campaigns guarantees a structured, standardized approach that instills confidence in potential clients. They have the connections and experience to make it happen if you plan to launch globally.
Another advantage of a global agency is cultural insight. Branding and marketing in varied countries takes far more than simple translation. Sensitivity and nuance to different cultures and languages are paramount to success, and an agency with experience in these markets brings insights to help avoid missteps and increase your chances for success.
Big Teams
A bigger agency means bigger teams. With hundreds of employees, global agencies are seldom concerned with bandwidth when a new project appears on their doorstep. Bigger teams can absorb far more work than a boutique, where smart scheduling and forecasting are vital to a project’s success. Bigger teams often offer more diversity in experience, and if assigned and managed properly, it can mean the agency’s best people for the job are working on your brand. More on that shortly.
The Cons
Lack of Personalization
Size can make a difference, but so does having genuine relationships. With any large bureaucracy comes a lack of personalization and a generalization of communication and interactions. You are one of hundreds of clients, and a global agency’s focus on multinational conglomerates often means they prioritize scalability over individuality. You might not receive the same dedicated attention and personal interaction as you would with a smaller agency.
Also, within global agencies, there is often a disconnect between the brand’s stakeholders, management, and the people actually doing the work. A healthy client connection and a creative team’s immersion into the brand are key to uncovering what makes it tick. I can’t count the number of times an offhand comment in a meeting, a joke after a presentation, or an insightful question from a client has resulted in an epiphany for our brands. Without a personal connection, those opportunities are lost.
Prioritization, AKA “Pitch vs Execution”
Big agencies are renowned for putting on a great show, and global agencies can woo you and make a great first impression. It’s “all hands on deck”— they bring the best talent from across the organization to create whatever’s needed — everything from an enchanting collection of highly emotional words, meticulously crafted visuals, even early examples of creative work, and an anthemic video with inspiring music to tie a bow on the whole thing.
Global agencies have the muscle and the budgets to dominate the market and win big business. But often, they lack agility and a personal touch when handling their clients. In pitch presentations, you see their top-tier employees share insights on strategy, their creative firepower, and previous big wins for giant corporations. But once they win the project, who’s doing the work? Brands below marquee status are often handed to junior team members to manage. The bait and switch is all too common.
This is a huge pet peeve for us at Helms Workshop. If we are going after a project, it means we’re excited about working on it and energized by the client team’s vision. We want them to get the work their brand deserves and the value they expect from their investment. Over the years, we have seen handfuls of mid-sized businesses stretch their budgets to work with the big guys, only to realize that they were handed off to the B-Team after the project was underway.
By no means does this scenario play out every time. But when it does, it’s heartbreaking for clients. And it pisses us off.
Even if you’re an established business, you don’t know whether you will be a high-profile client. The agency may not allocate its most valuable resources to your project if you’re considered a low-profile brand. As the agency picks up more prominent clients, you may become even less important to them.
Innovation & Differentiation
Due to their size, structure, and ownership, big global agencies need to move a large volume of projects through the business as quickly and efficiently as possible. That often means a one-size-fits-all approach to brands and campaigns. Rather than a bespoke methodology, all brands receive the same cookie-cutter process. That can lead to a brand that looks and speaks like all of the other brands in the market, which is the opposite of what savvy clients hope to achieve. Differentiating your brand from the competition is paramount to success.
A fast, factory-like approach to brand building often precludes innovation and creativity. Unconventional thinking and a contrarian approach to the status quo are catalysts for great branding. If an agency’s primary goal is to “get it done, quick,” there is a tendency to employ stale, repetitive solutions and ideas rather than thinking outside the box.
Agility and Responsiveness
Big ships move languidly and turn slowly. It often takes more time to work through the levels of approval and stacked scheduling inherent to global agencies. Responses to communications and requests can be slower, as well. Adapting to rapidly changing market conditions, new developments, or project pivots can lag more with a large agency due to its size and rigid processes. By definition, small agencies are nimble and flexible.
Budget
Due to their extensive infrastructure and big reputation, global agencies usually charge higher fees than boutique agencies.
So, Does Size Matter?
The answer is no. And yes. When choosing between agencies, size can matter, but it really depends on what you’re looking for. Larger agencies, like the Lippincott example, have more resources at their disposal and can offer a broader range of services to their clients. However, they also have bureaucracy and other challenges outlined above.
Boutique agencies offer a more personalized experience and can match or even surpass the creative firepower of the big guys, but are less equipped to tailor brands or campaigns to perform in unfamiliar countries and cultures. And if you want ancillary services, they will need to bring in partners.
If you’re launching a domestic brand or campaign, we recommend taking a good look at boutique agencies as a first step. You will need to talk to a number of firms to find the one that matches your wish list, but rest assured, the best fit is out there, eager to partner on building a brand like yours. For boutique shops like ours, branding is less of a job and more of a passion. We’re all-in on building our reputation by helping you build yours.
