If your organization needs help with brand or marketing, an agency can be a powerful partner. From a deep roster of talented thinkers, storytellers, and strategists to expertise solving your biggest challenges, agencies supplement your ongoing strategy or help build your infrastructure from scratch.
But choosing an agency can be overwhelming. There are plenty, often providing similar services. To help you make a decision, we’re going to offer a piece of strategic advice: take a deep dive into their case studies.
An agency can say anything with clever copy and a fancy website––but can they prove it? By examining how an agency solved another business’s specific challenge, a case study represents the success story between brand and client.
So, here’s a quick list of items to look for when analyzing an agency case study:
Look for someone in your industry. If you’re a large association, you want an agency that has dealt with getting internal buy-in, implementing audience personas, solving member challenges, etc.
Look for your ideal outcome. There is a fundamental question of knowledge dating back to Socrates: If you don’t know what you’re looking for, how will you know if you’ve found it? So, what do you hope to achieve from this project? A new visual identity? Shifting a magazine to digital? Merging two organizations? The clearer your objectives, the easier it will be for you to find case studies matching your needs.
Look for diverse, demonstrated results. A case study ideally showcases an agency’s style and capabilities. You’ll get an idea of their skills, approach, and personality.
Look for a story. How an agency articulates the story of a project is critical. No matter how beautifully the work is displayed, you want to know if they can solve your challenge with an end-to-end solution.
How We Work
An agency relationship is a partnership. If you’re curious about our audience-first brand, marketing, and digital experiences, we’re always happy to talk shop.
