Role of an Advertising Agency

Every business owner understands the importance of advertising and marketing to the success and growth of their company. While it’s imperative that you want your company to touch the realm of success, do you know where to start? Are you aware of the types of advertising agencies and what they do? Well, we’ve curated this guide to help you choose an ad agency that will work as the best facilitator for your brand.

Typically speaking, an ad agency is a company that is involved in planning, creating and implementing advertising strategies that are tailored to the client’s needs and business objectives. As they possess expertise in the field, they dig out exhilarating and well-thought strategies that will make sure the brand reaches their potential customers and their products are sold effectively.

With so many advertising agencies out there, choosing the right one can be quite an intimidating process. How do you know which type of ad agency is best suited to your needs?

Thus, to simplify the process, we’ve chalked out the different types of ad agencies along with their pros.

Types of Ad Agencies & their Outcomes

• Full-Service Agency: As the name implies, a full-service agency offers end-to-end advertising services to a client in the area of marketing, communication and promotion. Planning, creating and producing the advertisement are their forte. Other services offered include media selection, strategic market planning, event management and public relations. Most big brands in the market opt for full-service agencies that will be an extension of their team for the next several years.

Pros: Working with a full-service agency gives a company access to a stronger pool of talent and professional strength in the marketing area. It may be even less expensive in the long run.

Example: Food-tech app, Swiggy, rolled out its first-ever integrated campaign with a full-service agency.

• Creative Boutiques: A creative boutique is an agency that only provides creative services. Their expertise includes creating interesting and innovative advertising themes. Certain full-service agencies even outsource their work to creative boutiques during busy periods. GingerCup is a perfect example of a creative boutique agency.

Pros: With an external creative team you can expect a desirable outcome at a decent cost.

Example: Foster’s Lager leveraged the services of a creative boutique in India to appeal to their Indian audience and position their brand.

• In-house Agency: An in-house agency is an ad agency set up, owned and operated by the advertiser. Such agencies are often established to cut the cost of advertising. Small and medium enterprises and start-ups often work with in-house agencies.

Pros: While it greatly reduces the cost of advertising, it also gives companies more control over the process along with increased coordination.

Example: Consumer durables company, Usha International is one such brand that set up an in-house agency.

• Media Buying Agencies: These are independent companies that specialise in the buying of media particularly radio and television. As niche service agencies, they specialise in the analysis and purchase of advertising time and space.

Pros: Since they receive large discounts, they can save a client’s money on media buying.

Example: Food & Beverage Company, Nestle, has retained its media-buying agency since 2005.

• Specialised Agencies: As the name suggests, a specialised agency offers its services only within a certain industry such as real estate or finance. These agencies specialise in providing valuable insights on investment decisions and proper communication of financial results.

Pros: Such agencies possess the required expertise to communicate with clients belonging to a niche segment.

The type of ad agency you need to tie up with solely depends on your brand objective and budget. The services offered and functions performed differ across different agencies. Based on your requirement, choose an ad agency that will help you bring the best out of your product.

If you are looking for a personalised paper cup advertising campaign, choose GingerCup, a pioneer of cup branding and corporate activation in India.