What is a Creative Agency?

A remarkable thing happens in the worlds of marketing and design when you say the words "creative agency".

You'll quite often hear the terms "digital agency", "advertising agency", "print agency", or "marketing agency" repeated back to you with a questioning look, as if you are talking a different language.

The thing is: we can't blame anyone. For some reason, the phrase "creative agency" is met with bewilderment and mystery. People often ask "but what is a creative agency exactly?" and speculate over what is exactly that we do, but generally, nobody can quite pin it down.

So, we decided to end the chatter and tackle the most common questions head on;

What is the definition of a creative agency?

A creative agency is a marketing services company that offers branding, design, marketing, advertising, PR and other digital marketing services for businesses big and small.

Creative agencies like ours at Huddle focus specifically on building and marketing a brand, which includes things like developing a brand identity and then driving brand awareness through the use of marketing strategies, online advertising, promotional materials and all other forms of brand design services.

THINKING OF WORKING WITH A CREATIVE AGENCY? CONTACT US TODAY

Many companies use creative agencies because it allows them to outsource the work they may not have an in house team for and to get specific expertise that is not easy to resource for. However, some businesses use creative agencies for help with designing logos or websites for their business.

What is Huddle’s version of a creative agency?

Put simply: we're a full service digital first agency. And what that means is that we're comprised of graphic designers, web developers, UX/UI experts, copywriters, video producers, digital marketers, brand strategists and other creative professionals who have what it takes to bring your entire business' vision to life.

All in all it makes for a pretty powerful (and creative) combination.

Who should use a Creative Agency?

Anyone or any company who needs help with their creative thinking, branding, or marketing and advertising campaigns.

Creative agencies focus on helping companies to achieve business goals by developing a brand, deploying a bespoke marketing strategy and creative approach, and then providing other digital solutions like mobile apps, client portals, creative work, content creation, visual elements and website design.

All of these elements are designed to help a brand talk directly the the company’s audience in a compelling creative language.

What can creative agencies offer you?

Creative agencies are able to offer their expertise in a variety of areas related to marketing or advertising. This might include anything from creating an engaging brand campaign through a core strategy or insight, developing a memorable logo for your company, planning out what fonts you should use on different platforms and social media sites, web design & development, email marketing campaigns and more!

If you're comprehensive growth marketing capabilities, specialized growth marketing services agencies provide strategic planning through creative execution and results optimization.

What are some benefits of using a creative agency?

There are many different benefits to working with a creative agency, but what they all have in common is that they are capable of helping business to achieve its desired goal by improving the customer experience through creative design, branding, and an enhanced user experience.

Some other great reasons to consider hiring one include: having an expert handle what can be a complicated process, having access to an established network of specialist resources (like videographers), and full service marketing from helping you to craft consistent messaging across all of your different channels, to producing the right brand voice, and designing distinguished branding materials that separate you from competitors.

The Common Versus: What's the Difference?

Creative agencies vs Digital Agencies

The most common versus is a creative agency vs a digital agency. The difference between Huddle and a digital agency is that a digital agency will typically focus more heavily on marketing strategy, lead generation, search engine optimisation and search engine marketing exclusively for the digital world.

Basically, most digital agencies will look after your digital strategy and aim to boost profits through online marketing efforts.

Whereas a creative design agency will focus more on how you look, what you stand for, and how you resonate with customers before ensuring you're ready for marketing services to splash you across the world wide web.

We'll look at things like your font choice, colour semiotics, and brand values. A digital agency will look at your clicks, content and customer reach.

Creative agencies vs Advertising Agencies

The differences between creative agencies and advertising agencies get a little more granular, because we both have crossovers. Creative and Advertising agencies in many ways are the same, and many people use either of these words to describe the offering. Creative agencies though are more involved in the creation of the brand behind the company, and advertising agencies are more used to then taking that brand forward into advertising campaigns that convert.

Market research is one area where a creative agency will differ from an ad agency.

An advertising agency will conduct market research to identify how and where to position your business for growth.

Whereas a creative agency will perform market research, but we'll angle it more as user research that assesses both market trends and client data to define exactly what it is your target audiences are looking for in a business in your chosen industry. Market research will identify demographics, but our user research will determine the psychographics of specific prospective customers to bring a truly fresh perspective to marketing efforts.

That's why in our own creative agency we have UX researchers and designers amongst our creative team: because user-focused design is at the heart of everything that we do.

Creative agencies vs marketing agencies

Creative agencies versus marketing agencies is less about the granular, and more about the time period.

Creative agencies like ours develop brands for the long-term. We plan for the future and ensure that your business can maintain a long-term brand identity with the intention of making it ready for evolution along the years and market fluctuations. We'll research your industry to see exactly what needs improving, or even transforming and we'll plan for innovation and evolution.

On the other hand, digital marketing agencies take care of specific targeting in the right now or the near future. They will focus on digital content optimisation and brand design, but it will not take into account a long-lasting identity. Instead they'll deploy the best digital marketing solutions for your brand and what it has to offer in the present, it’s all about reaching the target audience and conversion.

What does it cost to use a creative agency?

Depending on what services you need, costs can vary widely. There are many different factors at play including what type of work is needed, how much time your creative agency will be devoting towards your project and whether or not there will be any one-off fees (like renting a space for filming your social media video campaign).

How do you get started?

Start by contacting a few creative agencies and talking to them about what your business is looking for, what your ultimate goals are. Make sure that they’ll be able to provide what you need, how much it will cost and what types of deliverables (like graphic design files or web development documents) you should expect after the campaign is finished.

Alternatively, get in touch with us and we'll help you take your brand to the next level. Fill out our free brand audit and receive professional insights on how we can make it better!

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