Why Do Agencies Stay Independent?

Jolene Delisle doesn’t have a problem saying no to new clients. As the founder and head of creative at branding agency The Working Assembly, she has gladly turned down work from big pharmaceutical companies and brands with values at odds with her own. According to Delisle, that professional freedom is a testament to the power of independence. “We try not to work with clients that are potentially problematic and divisive,” said Delisle, who has done work for brands like Klarna and The Museum of Ice Cream. “We’ve gotten offers to get acquired, but we’re able to make choices that don’t always make sense on paper and aren’t always financially driven. I could also risk losing my people if I take certain projects on.” Amidst pressure across the ad industry to become another shop under the big six holding companies, independent agency leaders are remaining confident in their statuses as individual entities. The benefits of working under a holding company are clear, including more credibility among clients, lower rates on benefits like health insurance and access to streamlined resources. But shops want the freedom to make their own choices, hire on their own accord and nix the age-old structures that don’t serve them. Independent agencies can often offer more white-glove experiences for clients, maintain healthier work-life balances and make nimble choices without having to sit through rounds of approval. They also don’t feel their value is dependent on their cash flow. When Karl Lieberman was a young creative at a much bigger agency, the shop's stock price for the day was displayed on a screen in its office. According to Lieberman, this type of pressure is not conducive to creativity. Luckily, he is now the chief creative officer at Wieden+Kennedy, and Dan Wieden has always stressed that "independence is everything to this place." "When you're independent, it can be less about the bottom line and more about the kind of company you want to make it, versus the outside world telling you what they want from it," he said, adding that "we have a great collection of people who aren’t afraid to fail because they’re not worried about the stock price going down the next day,” Avoiding structural sameness For 30 years, full-service agency VIA has leaned into the same motto: “Born in 1993, reborn every year since.” As one step in this continuous reinvention, VIA abandoned its chief creative officer position and established a creative council that reviews ideas before sending them back to clients. For brands that work with VIA, which include Arm and Hammer and Tractor Supply, this means getting six CCOs for the price of one. VIA CEO Leeann Leahy, who has worked both independently and for a holding company, said it’s not that this structure could never happen at agencies—they would just be more reluctant to try. “There is less of an appetite to completely change things up,” she said, adding that clients have been “thrilled” with how the concept has serviced their business. “We are open to changing in the way that the world requires by never being stuck in how we’ve always done it” Among a sea of agency offices with Cannes Lions and Pencil awards adorning their entrance walls, Wieden+Kennedy takes a different approach. The agency instead decided to focus on showing off its people, and at the entrance of each workspace are portraits of staff members. According to Lieberman, this is a testament to the shop’s “fierce independence” and ability to celebrate its staff over arbitrary achievements, something that isn’t always commonplace at holding companies. “Awards are great, but we try not to define our success by them,” he said, adding that joining a holding company inevitably comes with pressure to conform. “They’re out of our control. Instead we highlight our collection of really awesome and interesting people.” Wieden+Kennedy's New York office features 3D sculptures of its staff. Making individualized choices Full-service creative agency Fitzco bought itself back from IPG in 2020, and when the pandemic hit two months later, the shop wasn’t forced to lay anyone off. The same went for full-service shop GlueIQ, which lost 30% of its business during the Covid-19 pandemic but was able to cut overhead costs to protect its people. In contrast, IPG's annual report showed it cut more than 4,000 jobs during the first year of the pandemic. Fitzco’s head of account management Stephanie Hanley, who has worked at holding companies for half of her career, said sometimes the bottom line gets in the way of making the right choices for the agency. She added that independence not only allows shops to choose who they keep around, but also when it’s the right time to make a new hire, as finding talent doesn’t always align with a new role opening. “Sometimes you’re just given a number of heads to cut because the financials make the end call,” said Hanley. “For us, it gets to be a decision about the people and the resources that we really need to do our jobs correctly.” According to Hanley, independence is also helpful when strengthening in-house capabilities, which also keeps costs down for clients. Last year, the agency acquired Constant Analytics, allowing Fitzco to create custom, white-glove performance marketing services for their clients. Fitzco also doesn’t have to worry about how bolder work will impact other shops within the holding company—this allowed them to move quickly on a project earlier in the pandemic that addressed vaccine resistance. This also comes up when pitching new clients. As an independent agency, it doesn’t have the kind of competitive brand conflicts that exist in a holding company. “We get to make these choices without having to worry about how they would impact anyone else within our network,” said Hanley. Fitzco's campaign pokes fun at vaccine reluctance. Gaston Legorburu decided to start his own agency, GlueIQ, four years ago after he “got fed up with the whole holding company thing.” When his original agency PGI was sold to Publicis, Legobubru noticed a change in company culture. One of these changes was a lack of emotional and intellectual investment in clients, which bred a less individualized experience. “When we sold to a holding company, things just changed,” he said. “When you have such a big business, it’s very difficult to be human. When the only thing you care about is money, you’re going to behave in a certain way.” When asked why he stays independent, Garo Keresteci was quick with a response: “My question is, why would you sell your agency?” “We answer to ourselves, our staff, our client partners and our communities,” said Keresteci, who is a founding partner at FUSE Create, a small full-service shop based in Canada. “Not some number crunchers in New York, London, Paris or Tokyo.” Why Agencies Should Prioritize Making the Digital World More Accessible