Small agencies should beware the big brands

It seems so alluring to be able to put a Fortune 500 logo on your agency’s website. Many of us dream of the creative things that we can do for these household names.

Yet often these big brands end up being bad deals for small agencies. They are time-consuming to sell, difficult to service, and often subject to onerous contractual terms.

In this episode, Chip and Gini take a look at the appeal presented by these opportunities, along with the risk that they present.

Key takeaways

* Gini Dietrich: “You would think that big brands equals big dollars equals fast growth, but it doesn’t.”

* Chip Griffin: “I’m not going to tell you that every big brand is awful to work with. Or maybe I will. Most of them are pretty bad.”

* Gini Dietrich: “You’ve had to go through the RFP process, the procurement process, the ridiculous payment terms, and now you can’t even use their logo to help you build your business.”

* Chip Griffin: “You need to be intelligent and deliberate and intentional about what kind of business that you’re seeking and make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons.”

Related

* Beware of dangerous agency RFP terms and conditions

* How agencies should handle procurement and legal

View Transcript

The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy.

Chip Griffin: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast.

I’m Chip Griffin.

Gini Dietrich: And I’m Gini Dietrich.

Chip Griffin: And Gini I think we need to get this show on, on ABC or, or CNN or something like that. That’s our mission, just to make sure that we get it on some big network, NPR. Absolutely. Okay. Right after this.

Ah, yes. Everybody wants the big logos for their agency. Yep. And I don’t think we’re going to be on NPR or ABC with this show anytime soon. I think it’s pretty unlikely.

Gini Dietrich: The audience is too small.

Chip Griffin: Yeah. It’s a pretty narrow audience. Right. I don’t think we would get the ratings that would, you know, light up the Nielsen book, so.

No. So I think probably we should, you know, be more realistic in our expectations and spend our time and effort in more productive ways. Right. Agencies should probably do the same thing. Correct. Particularly small agencies because I don’t know about you, but I talked to a lot of small agencies who just, they have stars in their eyes and they see these, these large brands out there and they put out an RFP and they’re like, Oh, I could do this for Coca Cola.

This would be great if we got this. Yeah, not a good idea.

Gini Dietrich: Not a good idea. No. And I, I will admit that I’ve been there like at the beginning of my business. That’s how I thought I was going to grow it right? Because I think you see big brands equals big dollars equals fast growth. And it’s an in your mind, I think it’s an easy way to grow fast without having to, you know, chunk away 5000 a month 5, 000 a month clients over and over and over again, which is true.