It’s no secret that creativity has become a driving force behind successful marketing.
Think about some of the best-loved creative marketing campaigns like Chick–Fil-A’s “Eat More Chicken,” or Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” These campaigns are creative, they’re funny, they make viewers talk about their content and potential customers stop and look at their commercials, billboards, or digital ads.
But how does such a successful campaign come together? Oftentimes, behind that fun and creative brand image is a creative agency, working hard to provide them with the collateral and strategy they need to be successful.
You may heard about creative agencies before. They may even have been an option floated out to you as a possible way to finally complete those marketing projects that have been piling up on your desk.
But how do they work? Will they be worth it for you?
We get it. It’s completely understandable to want more information before you invest your time and resources into something that you’re not sure will be the ideal solution.
So, if it’s information about creative agencies that you need, then today’s blog is going to break it down for you. What exactly is a creative agency and what can they do for your brand?
Let’s dive in!
What are Creative Agency Services?
A creative agency or creative marketing agency is a specialized organization that offers creative and marketing services to businesses of all sizes.
What does that entail, exactly?
Well, think about those brands we mentioned above. They have to have digital ads, video ads, an appealing website, attractive packaging, clever copy, the works.
Creative agencies handle the content creation that makes those marketing assets possible, such as graphic design, web design, copywriting, branding, and marketing strategies.
What’s the Difference Between a Creative Agency and a Design Agency?
Sounds a lot like a design agency, doesn’t it?
You aren’t the only one to think so. While the names of these two platforms are often used interchangeably, just know that there are noticeable differences between how design agencies and creative agencies work.
While both creative agencies and design agencies provide a variety of creative services, a design agency’s focus is primarily on the creation of these visual elements.
In contrast, creative agencies go beyond visuals and also offer comprehensive marketing services, much like an advertising agency would. They have the expertise to create marketing and advertising campaigns tailored to your unique goals and use the creative materials they’ve produced for you in the most effective way for your brand.
A Creative Agency's Scope of Services
What kind of creative services can you expect from a creative agency?
Some may differ a bit from others here and there, but these are the scope of services you should expect from a good creative agency.
Graphic Design
This is a big one!
If your brand wants to put out eye-catching and effective digital ads, brochures, packaging and labels, business cards, branded merchandise and any other assets you need for a strong brand identity, you’re going to need a professional graphic designer to make it happen.
Professional designers use your brand guidelines to create whatever assets you need to promote your products and services, enhance your brand awareness, and turn heads on the shelves.
They’re also skilled with tools like Photoshop to make touching up product photos or manipulating stock images a breeze. In addition to that, a pro designer is an artist who is capable of creating custom icons and illustrations for your brand as well so that you’re never left using Clipart again.
Good graphic designers can elevate your visual content and give you the polished and professional look that your brand needs.
Branding
Every successful brand has an identity.
Everything from their recognizable color palette to the tone of voice they use in their ads and TV commercials is part of it. Brands must set themselves apart from the competition and building an identity is how they do it.
Creative agencies offer these branding services to you as well to give you what you need to set yourself apart.
Your creative team will be made up of marketing experts, copywriters, and graphic designers who can create a strong identity for your brand, including the development of a brand guide book for your visuals, a recognizable logo, copy and tone guidelines for your written content, a consistent brand message, and ironing out the exact way you present yourself to your audience.
From the set of grammar rules you use for your copy to the exact hex codes of your brand's colors, these experts can lay out your brand for the ultimate consistency across all channels.
Web Design and Development
Creative agencies also have you covered when it comes to your website.
If your brand is to have any kind of online presence, you’re going to need web designers and web developers who can craft a responsive, easy-to-navigate, and effective website as well as the landing pages you need to drive even more traffic to your front door and boost your sales.
Are you an eCommerce business? These website designers and developers, front end and back end, can have your site performing at its best for your current and potential customers to aid your business’s growth.
Starting with wireframes to nail down your UX/ UI design up to launching and maintaining your site, these experts do it all for your websites and any mobile apps your brand is using too.
Copy and Content Writing
If it’s the right words you need, creative agencies can get you words.
They employ copy and content writers who can whip up written content like blogs, whitepapers, articles, press releases, case studies, and more.
Whether it's to inform, to inspire, to entertain, or to drive engagement, your brand needs a good copywriter on its team for not only the obvious written content above, but to polish all written aspects of your brand and your marketing assets like ads, emails, and websites to ensure that every bit of written content you put out is consistent in tone and the message its delivering.
Video Production
Nothing engages like video engages.
If you want to capture your audience’s attention and reach the segment of your audience that lives on YouTube, Facebook, or TikTok, you’re going to need some solid video content.
Creative agencies have video production experts on their payroll, who can create video assets like GIFs, motion graphics, animations, promos, and more.
These experts put everything from explainer videos to whiteboard animation to promos and live action ads in your wheelhouse, allowing you to engage your audience and generate leads like never before.
Marketing and Advertising
Once you have all of that valuable content, you’ll need to know how to use it!
As we touched on earlier, the difference between a design agency and creative agency is the marketing expertise that you’re getting.
Partnering with a creative agency puts marketing experts on your team who can help you with social media management to increase your followers and put your brand in front of the right people.
They can also help you use your content for engaging email marketing campaigns, as well as give you a strategy (and the scroll-stopping ads) for digital ad campaign with YouTube Ads, Google Ads, social media ads or whatever paid campaign you want to try.
There will also be SEO experts on staff to help you optimize for search engines and ensure that ads and content are reaching the right audience to drive the results that you’re looking for.
And if you already have a marketing and advertising strategy but it’s not performing up to par, then the marketing experts from your creative agency will also be able to look at your strategy, find what’s not working, and optimize it to improve your results.
Benefits of Hiring a Creative Agency
In addition to offering the above services and professional-grade deliverables and results, there are other ways that a creative agency can benefit your brand.
Benefits may differ depending on what creative agency you choose to partner with, but partnering with Designity can offer you the following:
Access to Expertise
If you’ve ever spent some time working in the freelance marketplace, you might have run across some duds. For every talented and reliable creative to be found, chances are that you ran into several more who vanished on you, took months and months to deliver, produced subpar content, or just didn’t get your brand.
Creative agencies, on the other hand, employ only vetted and proven creative talent.
In fact, Designity offers the top 3% of US-based talent to complete any marketing projects your brand needs. Graphic designers? Copywriters? Video editors? NFT artists?
You name it, Designity has the best of the best, with a proven track record of success.
On top of that, every Designity account has a dedicated Creative Director to act as project manager for your account, build out timelines, handle schedules, and source the perfect Creatives for the job.
Our Creative Directors have 15+ years of experience in design and marketing and this expertise is what can help take your next campaign to new heights.
Cost Savings
A quick look at the pricing plans of any design agency or creative agency will show you that experienced talent and top-notch results cost money. Oftentimes, a lot of money.
However, when you factor in hiring individual freelancers or the expense of hiring and paying salaries and benefits for an in-house team, creative agencies still come out on top.
Designity does one better by offering an alternative to other agencies who might have costly fees and expensive monthly retainers.
Designity keeps it simple with three straightforward monthly plans to choose from, starting at $3,495 per month. Each plan gives you access to a dedicated Creative Director to manage your account and all of the creative talent your marketing projects will need.
Enjoy a huge scope of services, unlimited revisions, and unlimited projects, all at an affordable monthly price that will never change on you or catch you off guard with unexpected fees.
Time Efficiency
Hiring freelancers can potentially save you money, but you’ll have to set aside time from your busy schedule to source the right creative talent for the job and keep up with them once you do to make sure your deliverables are being turned in on time and are up to your standards.
This is where a professional creative agency can help you out.
Other project managers might vary when it comes to how they handle projects, but at Designity, they handle it all. With a dedicated Creative Director on your team, you won’t have to worry about spending time away from your other duties to keep up with your marketing projects.
Your Creative Director handles every aspect of your account and with professional Creatives hard at work on your assets, turnaround on your marketing projects can be quicker than you thought.
Your Creative Director will build out a timeline with however many projects you want done.
Need something even faster?
Designity makes it even more convenient by offering convenient add-ons to allow you to add Creatives or get emergency priority for a deliverable you’ve just got to have.
Consistency in Branding
Because you have the same Creative Director and often the same Creatives project after project, your collateral will be super consistent with your brand.
And even if different Creatives work on your account, your established brand guide will keep them on brand and consistent in order to help you build the brand recognition you need for a loyal customer base.
If you need to some help with your brand development to ensure this consistency Designity can help you with that too.
The Creative Agency Process
So, how does it all work?
We can’t say much for other creative agencies but, at Designity, the process is simple and straightforward. It goes like this:
Step 1: Sign up and our amazing Account Executives will work hard to match you with the Creative Director whose personality and skill set are the best match for you and your brand.
Step 2: Soon after, you’ll have your Kickoff Call, where you’ll get a chance to meet your Creative Director and chat with them about your goals and the scope of services that your projects will be needing.
Step 3: Your Creative Director will build out a timeline, start your first project, and then source the right Creatives for the job.
Step 4: Your creative team works on your marketing projects one by one under the guidance of your CD.
Step 5: Once a deliverable is complete, your CD will send it to you for approval. If revisions are necessary, the team revises until you’re completely satisfied!
How to Choose the Right Creative Agency
So, is Designity the right creative agency for you? How do you even go about deciding in the first place?
It’s helpful to first answer some questions:
- What are your goals and your needs?
- What kind of budget are you working for and how much are you willing to invest in top-quality marketing collateral and strategy?
- Does your creative agency’s portfolio mesh with your brand?
- Are there other satisfied customers or case studies you can see to determine whether this is the right fit for you?
<div class="c-blog_comp-cta cc-component-1"><div class="c-blog_comp-cta-left"><div class="c-blog_comp-cta-left-wrap"><img src="https://global-uploads.webflow.com/61cdf3c5e0b8155f19e0105b/6369722e59155470b6840033_Potential-clients.png" loading="lazy" alt="" class="c-blog_comp-cta-left-img"></div></div><div class="c-blog_comp-cta-right"><div class="c-blog_comp-content"><div class="c-text-wrapper cc-mb-32"><div class="c-title-4 cc-bold"><strong>Want to save money without sacrificing the quality?</strong></div></div><div class="c-text-wrapper"><div class="c-text-2">Say goodbye to traditional, expensive agencies and unreliable marketplaces. Say hello to Designity.<br></div></div></div><div class="c-blog_comp-wrapper"><a href="/pricing" target="_blank" class="c-button cc-primary cc-inverted w-button"><strong>Get Your 2-Week Trial</strong></a></div></div></div>
Designity: The Only Creative Services Platform You Need
Now that you know what you’re looking for, is Designity checking all the right boxes?
If having a dedicated Creative Director who is your project manager and one point of contact works for you, if having access to the most talented US-based Creatives works for you, and if having all of that for a flat monthly fee works for you too, then we just might be the right fit!
Why not give our services a spin with a no obligation two-week trial? Try us out, kick some tires, see if Designity doesn’t meet all your needs and more.
And if we’re not a match?
No worries, friend, you didn’t put a ring on it. All you have to do is cancel within your trial period and we’ll shake hands and go our separate ways, no payment required.
What are you waiting for?
Sign up for your demo call today and let’s see what Designity can do for you.
