Agencies preach differentiation.

They just don't live it.

A quick prompt to a few LLMs and marketers will learn that agencies all look pretty much the same. They either focus on creative product or process, and use descriptors espousing creativity, storytelling and human insight. As proof point of success, their social content boasts of awards and recognition. This generic approach is literally the opposite of what we champion.

Why are the shoemakers’ kids going barefoot?

Some advertising executives feel they should focus on clients’ positioning while keeping their own brand broadly inclusive. Others perhaps struggle to define a clear point of view.  Little surprise then, when agency leaders of some of the top Canadian agencies are quoted in the press about what makes their agency distinct, we hear phrases such as, “We’re reimagining creativity for the modern era.” Or “We create what matters for people and culture.” Or “We create work that people talk about.”

Not only are these sentiments misaligned with the growth, speed, agility and tech/data integration demands of the modern marketer, they’re just not different.  And let’s face it. People buy differences not parity. Great work is table stakes. And that barely gets you on the list. Nobody really buys a Porsche for its engine or chassis.

Sameness doesn’t sell. A distinctive point of view does.

Your clients or prospects will find you through a ChatGPT prompt.  So how are agency positionings showing up in LLMs? You could swap the language between agencies, and few could tell who’s who. Take the following test. I failed miserably.

Ideas that serve progress.
Connected brand experiences.
Do big things.
Never finished.
Fight sameness.
Doubt the conventional.
The challenger mindset.

Great strategists often start by interrogating a brand and expressing what they find in novel ways. So, it’s curious they don’t focus what’s at their core.

Over-invest. Under-leverage.

Agencies invest 60–70 percent of their annual revenue in staff. It’s called the staff-cost ratio. In retail, hospitality, or healthcare, the SCR seldom tops 40%. In most industries, it’s under 20%. Ad agencies invest more than any other sector in their people, yet do little leverage that investment. Imagine Apple ignoring its iOS.

Think of Hollywood’s golden age. Studios like MGM and Paramount put actors, writers, and directors under contract. They trained them, promoted them, and built their reputations because talent was the differentiator.  Today’s agencies may bankroll a stable of creative “stars” but they treat them like interchangeable extras. Imagine Warner Brothers paying Margot Robbie $50 million for Barbie then burying her name in the appendix of a pitch deck. That’s the modern agency model.

If agencies truly want to differentiate, they need to treat their most significant investment like intellectual property: scout unconventional thinkers, train them deliberately, and brand them as thought leaders who attract both clients and culture. Technology and operating systems will never differentiate great from average. Greatness will come from cultivating enviable talent, then merchandising it. Until that happens, agencies will keep talking about creativity while failing to cultivate the very thing they sell.

Branding human assets

• If your agency touts creativity, what is it about your staff that makes them creative experts? How are you helping them publicly demonstrate their creative vibrancy?

• Your agency has an expertise in AI, are you certifying more staff than your competitors with credible certifications?

• Your agency tells brand stories, but your still using 100-page “PowerPoint decks that destroy clients’ will to live. How do you turn them into Martin Scorsese, Barack Obama or Brené Brown?

AI is called an existential threat to agencies. Agency leaders should be more concerned with parity. LLMs wont be able to distinguish you from your competitor, and neither will humans.

Struggling with differentiation? We'd love to hear from you.