Agencies shouldn’t white label
When Cameron Bryant started Sparro in 2013, he was asked by a financial services brand to white label his services. He said no. Every month, a similar request comes through. Every day, he's asked if he wants to outsource work. Every time, it's a no. Here, he explains why.
There’s a lot of talk in the industry about transparency, as traditional agencies move away from hiding fees, marking up media, kickbacks and overcharging. But true transparency means so much more than that.
When we first started Sparro in early 2013, the opportunity arose for us to work on a huge, financial brand, and, as an up-and-coming business, we jumped at the idea. Unfortunately, the company wanted to white label our services.
We quickly realised that this was to the detriment of the client, who had little transparency over who was actually completing the work. It meant that, when the client sat down and ran through the results, they were being taken through them by an account manager who did not know the channels, was unfamiliar with the campaigns, and was not closely tied to the performance. Being so disconnected from the channel, the account manager didn’t know what could actually be achieved.
We’re asked on a monthly basis if we can white label our services. We’re asked on a daily basis if we want to outsource our work.
The answer to both is obvious.
Transparency is knowing exactly who is doing your work, and being able to sit in front of clients and run through the results, good or bad.
We tend to get asked to white label our services by agencies that are managing other media channels for a client but don’t work across search products themselves. These agencies see search as an add-on, or a line item to add to what they are running on TV or OOH.
That’s wrong. Search is not an add-on. It requires skilled professionals to run campaigns successfully. Having access to the client, as well as technical and content teams, is important. You don’t buy search like you do TV, so it shouldn’t be sold that way.
Clients want to be closer to who is actually performing the work, rather than those who are selling it with buzzwords. They receive greater value for money when they can speak to someone who can action the tasks that are most important to them.
I hope the conversation around transparency can continue within the industry, but let’s move beyond billing, or who owns who.
Transparency means knowing exactly who is doing your work.
Cameron Bryant is a partner at Sparro
These guys believe in their work, their clients and their staff.
They get results when other can’t and you can see where your money goes.
You need experts in this field. Watch out, there are plenty of sharks and their not all overseas.
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It’s a no brainer that Sparro are doing so well. Just have a look at their growth from revenue and company size…I won’t be surprised if these guys come knocking down the big guys doors and shaking things up!
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Thank you so much Matt! Glad we were able to achieve those results for you!
Thank you so much! We love sticking it to the big guys and love that clients have the confidence and skills to choose an indie agency!
@Matt and @nobrainer
Both of your comments are extremely, eeerrrrm, suss.
Call me intuitive if you like?
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+1 On the Suss Count
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The irony of a piece about transparency followed by positive comment spoofing?
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Thank you so much! Your comment is important to us.
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What a complete joke.
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strategically planted…..mmm
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If I ran a young local independent agency like Sparro, I’d also run a preach piece to attract puritan prospects.
But the agency devil knows. We know you run small clients. We know you bill by proxy. We know you never won a big pitch. Or faced a real procurement team. Or re-invented a category. Or launched a glittering career.
I already forgot what you wrote. But I didn’t forget the industry was more fun when new agency upstarts like yours threw parties rather than preach the word of Google. Who do you work for again?
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If you don’t believe it’s possible that a client might leave a reference like above, you may be in the wrong career?
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Struggling to work out if this is an insult or a compliment?
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If you had done your research, you would find that we have a huge list of major clients. We have won these by facing real pitches, and real procurement teams – neither are as scary as you seem to make out.
Yes I’m sure there were better times when agencies focused on throwing lavish parties, but I think we will just continue to focus on doing good work.
Can you do both?–Great work and great parties
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Who do any of us work for?
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I believe there is still room for “white labelling”, when done in the right way.
I often provide my content and strategic services under the banners of others and vice versa. You can still clearly show the client who’s doing the work and get them results if you partner in the right way.
These types of collaborations are common within the consulting world, so perhaps we’ll see greater adoption now that they’re encroaching on the ad/marketing space.
Cammy B – you beauty and you got a bite!
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Disappointing to have an article by a well respected digital lead in Australia such a Cam be labelled as Opinion and not a sponsored piece.
King Kong piece the other week now this…Mumbrella if you’re running opinion pieces why not push guys like this to dig deeper into their expert fields for more engaging content. With Sparro’s growth and client base imagine there’d be plenty to share on their views and opinion on search/video etc
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