A guide to finding the right creative partner
By Elizabeth Furze
An agency is only as good as its people. It’s an adage echoed on company websites, in creds decks and pitch meetings. While job candidates frequently ask about culture and veteran talent says it’s why they remain, few prospective clients ever ask about culture during a pitch.
If a healthy culture keeps top talent engaged and producing the best work, shouldn’t clients be more concerned with culture when deciding who to partner with?
Clients evaluate agencies based on their ideas, capabilities, past work, pricing and presentation. These are crucial factors, but the culture of an agency—its fundamental DNA—often goes unexplored. Culture shapes how teams collaborate, innovate and deliver for clients, especially if things get challenging. A thriving culture fuels creativity, fosters resilience and ensures that an agency will retain top talent.
Conversely, an agency with a toxic or unsupportive culture might be able to produce a persuasive presentation, but sustaining excellence over time requires a foundation built on mutual trust, creativity, collaboration and a shared sense of purpose.
A healthy agency culture is one where creativity is nurtured, collaboration is encouraged and diversity is celebrated. It’s an environment where team members feel valued and supported, where work-life balance is respected and where there is a shared commitment to excellence. It’s also a culture that is resilient, capable of weathering the storms of industry change and adaptable enough to embrace new challenges.
Maintaining both harmony and healthy conflict among teams requires the conscious daily nurturing of a company-wide collaborative spirit. An agency that is internally aligned does its best work and clients reap the reward.
An additional challenge for agency leaders, particularly of small- and mid-sized shops servicing a limited client pool, is to ensure that clients support their efforts to maintain a healthy culture.
Clients have a role to play in nurturing the culture of their partner agencies. Here are ways clients can engage:
Ask about culture
During the pitch process, ask potential agency partners about their culture. How do they support their teams? What do they do to foster creativity and collaboration? This not only signals to the agency that you value these aspects, but it also helps you assess whether the agency is a good fit for your company.
Prioritize long-term relationships
Agencies secure in long-term partnerships are more likely to invest in people and culture. They also have the security to think long-term and the confidence to share their best ideas.
Respect work-life balance
Agencies thrive when their people do. Clients can support agency culture by respecting boundaries, allowing for reasonable deadlines when possible and understanding that constant pressure leads to burnout—not brilliance.
Invest in the partnership
Strong client-agency relationships are built on trust and mutual respect. Clients who invest time in understanding the agency’s culture and working to align on shared values will find that their agency partners are more motivated, engaged, and committed to their success.
Get to know your project team
When all team members feel seen and appreciated by the client, when they feel that their contribution matters, they will prioritize the account like no other.
Here are ways clients benefit from a healthy culture:
Enthusiasm for the work
When team members are engaged and excited about their work, it translates into more creative, thoughtful and impactful campaigns. This enthusiasm is infectious and can elevate the entire client-agency relationship.
Freedom to bring all ideas to the table
Creativity thrives in an environment where all voices are heard. A supportive culture encourages team members to share diverse perspectives and innovative ideas, leading to more dynamic and effective strategies for clients.
Accountability and transparency
In a healthy culture, team members take ownership of their work and are willing to admit when mistakes occur. This transparency builds trust with clients, ensuring that issues are addressed quickly and honestly, leading to strong collaborative partnerships.
Ability to pivot
Challenges are inevitable. A strong agency culture fosters resilience and a can-do attitude, ensuring that the team is committed to finding solutions and delivering results, even when the unexpected happens.
Keeping teams intact
High team retention is a hallmark of a positive culture. When the team you met during the pitch stays intact throughout the project, clients benefit from continuity, a deeper understanding of the brand and consistent quality in the work delivered.
Every action, big or small, that’s taken on behalf of agency culture will affect everyone from colleagues to clients to consumers. Just like the work itself, the culture is never created in a vacuum, and it relies on everyone to exist. In the end, an agency’s culture is not just an internal matter—it’s a critical component of its ability to deliver for clients. It’s time we all started treating it as such.