What is a full-service agency, anyway?

Beyond the menu

Full-service agencies offer a range of skill sets to bring clients’ creative visions to life. They often work across industries, platforms and project sizes.

It can be a small, one-off job or a multi-discipline, integrated marketing campaign. The beauty of being full service is that clients can use all of the available specialisms or just a handful (for example, creative and events, or web and social).

But think of it as less like picking from a menu and more of a private chef experience. We set our diner’s expectations and offer a range of courses – data and insights for starters, a sizzling main event and a side of analysis, before reviewing the success of the campaign for dessert.

All of this has strategy – the bigger picture – at its core. After all, without the right recipe, even the best ingredients can taste a bit drab.

But let’s move on before we stray too far down the meal analogy route and we start getting requests for a UX and SEO combo meal…

Silver service

At Denfield, our 50-strong team boast specialisms in creative, data, digital, web dev and UX, copywriting, social, video and events – to name just a few. Our output is the result of our talented individuals. We handpick hardworking, clear-thinking experts who love what they do – bringing passion and creativity to every project.

Since our beginnings (24 years ago – silver anniversary incoming!), we’ve worked with clients across a range of industries, including automotive, food and drink, pet products, conservation, childcare, retail, charity and finance.

This has given us a heap of perspectives, meaning we can be responsive and attentive to clients’ evolving needs. We’ve seen what works and what doesn’t, and we always give our honest opinion. We also take a data-led approach to everything we do, so we can back up our experience with numbers.

As well as having access to a wide pool of talent that you can tap into as and when you need it, one huge benefit of having a retainer with us is our ability to resource share. For example, if a client hasn’t used all of their design hours for a month, we can discuss other ways we can do an awesome job for them – a social campaign, PPC review, SEO webpages…the list is endless.

Our approach means many of our clients see us as an extension of their own team.

Full-service vs specialist agencies

That’s not to say there’s not a place for specialist agencies, for example dedicated PPC agencies or standalone social media agencies.

But for our clients, it hasn’t worked for them for a number of reasons:

• Having to juggle contacts/agencies, instead of one dedicated account manager.
• Specialist agencies are often sector-specific too. The pandemic has shown the importance of not being reliant on one sector.

What’s more, the marketing ecosystem is getting more complex and intertwined, meaning agencies need a need a deep bench of specialists with overlaps in knowledge. As a result, many specialist agencies have joined together to create agency networks or collectives –they’ll recommend a partner agency with a certain specialism. By that logic, Denfield is about 10 specialist agencies!

Jack of all trades, master of many?

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying: “A jack of all trades, master of none.” In some contexts, it can sound a bit disparaging or like a naff one-size-fits-all concept.

But it’s not common knowledge that this isn’t the full quote. Behold: “Jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.” In a marketing context, a broad skillset could in fact be more resourceful than a one-lane specialist.

So, Jack is less of a dabbler and more of a go-getter. A Swiss army knife. Much cooler.

Full speed ahead

So, what is a full-service agency? Do we really do it all? Or is it just a polite way of saying “We haven’t learned to say ‘no’ yet”?

Admittedly, sometimes the latter is true when it comes to last-minute client briefs, but mostly, it’s all about bringing together the industry’s best professionals to create pretty awesome – full – marketing offering to our clients.

We work together as a team. As an account manager, I feel like I’m confident to advise our teams because I understand their specialisms. In short, it means I can give the best brief for them to do their best work.

At Denfield, ‘Jack’ is the go-getter. He plans, but he doesn’t dither. He doesn’t sit on the fence. He doesn’t stop until the job is done and the client is happy. He’s not ‘can do’. He’s ‘Go. Do.’ And that’s what we’re all about.

Looking for a marketing agency in the Midlands? Tell us about your project today!