TL;DR – w skrócieHas an idea for a new product or service, or for making better use of your company’s business potential, been on your mind for a while? It’s time to let the market test that budding concept! A creative agency is best placed to help you turn those plans into reality. Read on to find out what exactly it is and how it can support your first steps in business.
Wondering what a creative agency is? Its main job is creating ads for online channels (digital marketing) and offline media (ATL, print, outdoor, radio, TV). That’s not the whole definition, though.
Advertising a brand, product or service may also call for designing a logo or printed materials, naming, and developing key visuals. At this stage, unconventional thinking and the ability to break out of familiar patterns deliver the best results.
The message has to reach its audience and win them over to the offering, or to the company as a whole. Depending on the target group, you can do this in different ways, for example by intriguing or enticing them.
Creative agencies support their clients across the board, drawing on the skills and experience of their communication designers. Services that cover every aspect of marketing are known as 360° marketing.
Knowing what a creative agency is tells you what field it works in. As a potential client, though, you may be asking a different question: what does a creative agency actually do, and how will its work turn your business idea into tangible results?
Here’s an example of what a creative agency’s services can look like. At 25wat, we currently split ours into six areas:
If you’re planning to build an in-house marketing and sales department, a creative agency can run strategy workshops for your staff, for example on design thinking, and help your team get even better prepared for marketing challenges.
Browsing creative agencies’ extensive service lists, you may wonder how such an agency actually works. When you bring your concept to an agency, you can count on specialists from different fields, such as branding or web design, working on its promotion.
All of the agency’s departments have to work closely together to deliver a consistent communication strategy that engages consumers (for example through storytelling).
So, in very simple terms, how does an advertising agency work? The process has several stages:
How can you tell that a creative agency stands out with an original approach, builds effective communication strategies and follows best practices (such as human-centered design)? A strong portfolio isn’t everything. Creativity can also show in an agency’s own projects that break with formulaic thinking.
One example is our own creative agency, 25wat. Today we work as a digital agency, helping companies grow by combining strategy, marketing, sales and AI. Here’s what we’ve done, and still do, beyond client projects.
Starting in 2018, we organized FuckUp Nights in Wrocław for several years. It’s an event where professionals from across business and marketing share the lesser-known side of their work. Instead of talking about successes and praise, participants tell stories of failures and missteps worth learning from.
We’ve attended Web Summit in Lisbon several times. It’s an annual conference considered one of the biggest tech events in the world. The numbers show its scale best: in 2019, attendees came from more than 160 countries, and more than 1,200 speakers took the stage (organizer’s figures via KrASIA).
We’re a member of the ITCorner technology cluster. This Polish cluster brings together more than 100 tech companies that share knowledge and experience.
These are just a few examples of how a creative agency can share its knowledge, educate others and build an expert reputation. So remember: an unconventional approach to building a business is a chance to create something truly unique. Browse our project portfolio and see how it can be done!
Got an idea for a product or service and need an agency to help promote it? Write to us, tell us about your project, and we’ll plan the first steps together.
