Creative Ad Boutiques
There are three basic types of advertising agencies - full service agencies, creative boutiques, and media planning and buying agencies. In this article, we take a look at creative boutiques.
Creative Boutiques
The only service creative boutiques offer is the inception and production of advertising. Typically, the founders are "creatives," copywriters and/or art directors with established reputations who have decided to leave the full service agency environment. Boutiques tend to be independently owned, relatively small in size and focused on developing effective, creative campaigns. Clients, large and small, use creative-only agencies for a variety of reasons:
To explore alternate creative approaches to existing campaigns
To rejuvenate tired brands with fresh creative thinking
To save money on creative
To keep current agencies on their toes
Because of the focus on creative work, creative boutiques can be stimulating and enjoyable, not to mention kooky, places to work. But because of their size, job opportunities can be more difficult to find. Two of the more well-known boutique agencies are Mad Dogs and Englishmen in San Francisco and New York and Cliff Freeman and Partners in New York. (Cliff Freeman and Partners created Staples' long-running "Yeah, we got that" campaign.) A quick way to understand the difference between the large full-service agencies and the smaller, creatively oriented agencies is to visit their web sites (maddogsandenglishmen.com and clifffreemanandpartners.com) - you'll see they have a distinct sense of humor. Mad Dogs & Englishmen, for example, has a webcam set up so you can see what's happening in their offices 24/7!
|
This article is excerpted from the Vault Career Guide to Advertising.
Read more excerpts or purchase the guide
Discuss advertising careers at the Advertising Career Message Board
Get the inside scoop on top employers with Advertising Employer Surveys
|
