Do agencies add an X-factor for brands in content creation?

Making a brand stand out from the crowd in a hugely competitive marketplace is one of the biggest challenges for a business. For some of these brands, in-house teams are capable enough to streamline the brand’s objectives, while others partner with relevant agencies to execute campaigns and break the clutter.

But which one of these two strategies work best and in favour of the brands?

Vikas Bagaria

Vikas Bagaria, Founder and CEO at Pee Safe, said that having an in-house team to curate content initiatives helps the brand to create strong communication and align with other teams. This helps not only produce the best of outcomes but also results in catering to different departments in terms of performance, generating organic traffic across all platforms, and being aligned with the vision as it becomes a day-to-day drill for the team.

He said, “Having an in-house team for any brand collaboration directly aids in keeping communication in line with the brand's vision and continued communication with content creators for any form of brand integration, resulting in content that is best aligned with the brand's objective as it directly contributes to it.”

ASICS India works with multiple agencies depending on the type of campaigns. However, Saurabh Sharma, Head of Marketing, ASICS India, feels that when it comes to preparing content with an influencer the brand should be on top of it and be in direct contact with the content creator, since they know the brand and its requirements the best.

“Working with an agency could be helpful, since it would work with the influencers on multiple brands and give a quantum of work which helps in making the association cost effective,” he added.

Nobel Hygiene works primarily with in-house agencies for all its content initiatives. Agencies always have a wider breadth when they work with talent across brands, time or geographies—so it’s only appropriate, said Kartik Johari – Vice President, Nobel Hygiene.

“It benefits us by getting easy contact with talent and having a buffer in place. Plus, it really isn’t an agency versus direct contact conversation. Be it the agency, the client or the talent there is one common goal—the creation of good content, smoothly and quickly in a way in which everyone’s interest and boundaries are respected. In terms of collaborating with creators, I think it's more from the perspective of what the content creator prefers. As a brand, we would like the opportunity to directly interface with certain key talent and then come to mutually agreed terms about what sort of content needs to be created,” he said.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of trust across this divide, as talent sometimes does not easily trust a brand, and brands are sometimes not very articulate or authentic with talent. Hence, Johari said, agency becomes a much-needed buffer in such situations.

Alin Choubey

Chimp&z Inc's Associate Vice President, Alin Choubey, said that creators working directly with the brands is a good approach until the creator is able to control every aspect of a deal without letting the delivery get impacted. That being said, he added that agencies come with an expertise in cracking the brief, which in turn accelerates the process of creation. This is a symbiotic relationship where both parties can focus on their expertise. The creator creates, while the agency helps in the execution, measuring the impact created, and ROI for the brand.

While the digital space has become a wonderful opportunity for people to collaborate with brands, getting an agency on board can benefit not only businesses but the creators and influencers as well, said Preksha Seth, Co-founder, Yellophant Digital.

When it comes to filling any gaps in taking a strategic approach, an agency can not only help achieve the marketing goals but also take the entire collaboration a notch further. From innovative execution to amplifying the reach of collaborations, he believes, an agency can get better ROI for the campaigns.

Also, unlike agencies, creators aren't trained in marketing whereas marketing agencies are professionals in their area.

Vaibhav Odhekar, Managing Director India and Middle East, AnyMind Group, said that agencies in general understand perspective from both sides.

“They understand the overall marketing objective, the creative strategy behind it and ways to achieve it via multiple creators. Also, today whether we work with one or multiple influencers, each of them brings a particular skill or specialisation, these are individual contributions. The agency gets the full view of all of them together and how to gel it with the larger brand objectives. Influencer marketing agencies are up to date on the latest social media and influencer marketing trends. They form strong connections with trusted influencers with whom they've partnered. Because of their personal relationships, they use a hands-on approach that results in smooth communication,” he added.

How does having an agency impact the relationship and collaboration between brands and creators?

According to the experts, agencies exist to nurture and protect the interest of creators and brands, facilitate delivery, and provide a pool of brands to the creator which would require a lot of time and resources for them on their own.

Choubey said that agencies with exclusive contracts with creators can also help in their branding, public relations, and networking.

With regards to collaboration between brands and creators, an agency can chalk out a thoroughly planned out strategy, push the right kind of creators, take care of the production scale and most importantly maximize the results, said Seth.

Having the right agency onboard can elevate the campaigns to the next level for both the creator and the businesses.

“Agencies job is to ensure seamless communication, bring creative strategy, ensure execution as per plan, meeting timelines and most importantly maintain a cohesiveness between multiple execution by individual influencers, so that the whole campaign looks one and not multiple, individual pieces. Furthermore, agencies are skilled at deciphering and extrapolating useful information from campaign metrics. This not only makes the creators' work easy but also saves time, that's why both the parties go hand in hand,” said Odhekar.

Pulkit Agrawal

As per Pulkit Agrawal, Co-Founder and CEO, Trell, engaging with partners can enable brands to interact with potential customers, based on their social media habits. Partners can help brands choose the right influencers or KOLs (key opinion leaders) who match with the brand’s target audience, devise the approach, content strategy, and monitor the outcome generated.

Aanchal Agrawal

Aanchal Agrawal- Digital Content Creator and Stand-up Comedian, who signed up with Monk Entertainment earlier this year, believes that having an agency take care of conversations helps her maintain her image, since she doesn’t have to deal with awkward conversations with the brands.

“I also don’t have to overextend myself because my managers don’t let the brands take me for granted and make sure we’re paid for the value we add and maintain a good relationship. Having an agency also gives insights on other aspects, it’s surprising how much effort creating videos takes, from strategy to publishing and feedback, it’s a lot of data and your team can work around that and present the important details to you. Management is like a filter for everything, they protect you from unnecessary interactions and collaborations thus helping you do what you’re passionate about- creating,” she said.

Aastha Shah

Another Digital Content Creator, Aastha Shah, shared that opting for an agency as a mediator helps gain transparency and bridges the gap between a brand and a creator. Any kind of communication or brand approvals become easier when there is a mediator since the agency knows how to tackle all these problems.

She suggests creators to opt for agencies because doing so could increase the quality of their content.

Tarini Shah

Vrushali Jawale

Both Tarini Shah and Vrushali Jawale aka Vinewali - Digital Content Creators- agreed that management agencies land creators the best deals in the market.

Johari shared that it can be rather tough to approach influencers directly the first time, unless of course one is in the top 0.1% brands, or anyone in the Nestle or the HUL portfolio—they have the strength to call up any influencer directly.

Kartik Johari

“For other brands, I say it's best to approach, at least the first time round, through an agency. Once mutual comfort has been established, it's far easier to get into a direct relationship of sorts. Of course, important to bear in mind, that the goal is at no point to cut the agency out or anything of the sort. It's more from the perspective of delivering better content because the talent can learn about the brand more deeply from you and your experiences. And at the end of it, it’s this deep understanding that will benefit one’s customers,” he added.