Growing businesses eventually reach a point where they face a decision: do they continue to work with a creative agency in Orange County to take care of their projects, or do they make the transition to an in-house setup, where they could ostensibly have more freedom, faster turnaround, etc? It’s a nuanced problem, with a lot of moving parts. Let’s take a closer look.
QUALITY AND QUANTITY
Quality work can come from any source. One thing to keep in mind, though for creative work is that building an in-house creative team that works well for all your needs can take years—and they can vanish when one key player moves on. On the other hand, agencies are designed to fit the needs of a wide range of styles, and can often execute for any industry, with ease. That’s because they stay abreast of changing perspectives and innovations in the design and advertising world.
Another benefit with agencies is they’re there for you as much or as little as you need them for. Hiring an in-house creative team is a HUGE commitment. To be cost-effective, there has to be a constant stream of production. On the other hand, a relationship with an external agency can be scaled up or down as needed, which for most cases makes for an overall cost savings.
ITERATIONS
Let’s set aside questions of quality and talk about the length of time that projects take. By nature, an internal team is more at liberty. While this has its benefits, especially for faster, one-off projects, it also means that for big projects, the team is at liberty to try one more iteration, to take a stab at the project from another angle, try on one more color scheme, and so on. This is true, probably for the same reason that families are more likely to disagree and fight: the team is just closer to the work. In this sense, a little professional distance from the project, like you get with an external agency, will almost always cut back on the number of iterations that happen before the finished project, and thereby make for faster deliveries.
POLITICS
Another cause for slowdown with internal teams is the very common occurrence of stake holders and higher-ups in the company exerting creative direction at various points in the project, which can lead to either excessive revisions on a project, OR the opposite problem: an enforced creative status quo that can hold an entire company’s brand back from blossoming. An external creative team, then, can be one potential solution to the setbacks of all this internal political baggage.
COMMUNICATION GAP
As you can see from the above points, the sticking point to any creative project is the communication of the project to capable creative hands. This communication gap, while potentially less for a dependable in-house setup, is always going to be there, and internal projects too can suffer from miscommunicated goals and visions. When choosing a creative agency in Orange County, make sure that the external agency has the intention of knowing your business, as well as your project, from the inside out. With great communication (as you get with Twelve12) you’ll get results that show the skill and professionalism of an agency, with the in-depth knowledge of an in-house team. It’s a win-win!