Underground Blog

Agencies of all nature, particularly advertising, think their ability to specialize in a certain industry equates to better overall work. Which left me to ponder this:

What if you know a lot about an industry but your work from a creative standpoint isn’t very good?

See, specialization that forces an agency to be all about one particular industry can actually backfire. True, some specialists are excellent strategically and creatively speaking. They’ve got the ability to put their money where their mouths are because they know that experience and the portfolio of past work for other clients in a “that’s fine and good but what can you do for ME” world can only account for so much. I don’t have many issues with them.

But I do take issue with specialists who are trying to get clients to drink the Kool-Aid that says their ability to be so “laser-focused” on one industry only will naturally equate to better ideas and better results.

Nice try. But not always true. In fact, the specialized agency may even be worse. Allow me to elaborate.

Here’s the scenario: Let’s say an agency is completely focused on healthcare clients. They know the trends facing healthcare, they have a great familiarity with a variety of healthcare marketing challenges, they’ve written White Papers, blog posts, e-newsletters, the works. And yes, perhaps they even get one of the first calls from a prospect to participate in a pitch because that prospect associates the agency with being experts in that field.

Success or at least a leg up on the competition, right? Not so fast. Because the prospect also invited a few other agencies to the table too that are not specialists. And more than anything, the prospect has lacked a recognizable, striking brand identity that causes a potential customer to say, “Wow, this company is doing something different and I’ll have to think about them in my purchase decision going forward (note: I know this is total marketing speak but you get the idea).”

With this goal in mind, isn’t it conceivable that those non-specialized agencies are coming into the situation with the freshest eye of anyone? After all, consider this:

They don’t have any other client on their roster remotely close to that prospect they’re pitching. Which means they won’t have a “this prospect sounds a lot like that other client of ours” mentality. They won’t assume the challenges and goals are the same. And they won’t risk developing ideas that may be dangerously close to what was done for that other client.

An understanding of the client’s challenge and its audience? Definitely a must, obviously. But am I to assume that an ability to inspire audience participation in the way of purchasing and advocating the client’s brand to others isn’t as important, if not more so? Surely you must believe it is. So if the specialist presents strategic brilliance but a creative snoozefest while the non-specialist is just a tad behind that other agency’s knowledge curve yet triggers an emotional response during its pitch in the boardroom along the lines of what you’d love your audience to have, who do you choose?

The answer: At the very least in such a scenario, specializing is not the slam-dunk advantage some make it out to be.

Herein lies the hole in the argument of specialists who say their intensive industry knowledge equates to standout results – they may begin with head start, but the race is won not by winning merely the marketing decision-maker’s approval but by ultimately winning the target audience’s approval. The specialist can pull that off. But so can the non-specialist who may be able to show their versatility to connect with audiences across a wide array of different clients.

Each agency owner must make their own choice that feels right in the specialization/non-specialization spectrum. Personally, I choose to be non-specialized because I feel it gives our people the opportunity to come into an environment where no two days are ever exactly the same because they work on many different clients. That’s fun, challenging and exciting for them. They thrive in the unexpected. But most importantly, it benefits our clients who need ideas that are not only increasingly creative but increasingly cost-effective in challenging times.

To that end, I look forward to increased pitching against others who have done this or that for one industry only. I may win. I may not. But you’d better believe my team of non-specialists is surely going to give them a run for their money.