They all sound similar!

What is an agency? If we’re being honest – even we don’t know! There are so many out there – who does what? Never fear! We’re going to explore the different types of agencies out there, what they do and some positives of each of them. Afterwards, we hope you’ll know the differences, should you ever need one for future business use!

Okay, so this is our fair warning – there is such a huge overlap in services offered by all of us that even though someone might describe themselves as a certain type of agency, it is usually more of a ‘this fits best’ rather than a golden rule. What we’re essentially saying is that even though you’re going to spend the next few minutes reading this – it still might not be accurate, it’s so subjective!

What’s an advertising agency?

An advertising agency creates a company’s advertising and plans its placement, publishing, format and anything else to do with adverts. Depending on how much information the company provides, an advertising agency might have to do research on customers, the company and platforms – and that’s before they’ve even begun designing an ad campaign!

Businesses may choose to use an advertising agency because they are experts in the advertising field, with a team of professionals working for them. Each person will likely have different skills which can be used – e.g copywriters, social media moguls, and more! Hiring a professional advertising agency means a high quality of work, and usually a very high ROI (return on investment) or ROAS (return on ad spend).

What’s a branding agency?

A branding agency’s main focus is to help create, develop, maintain and improve a brand. They will focus on brand strategy to develop and refresh a company’s branding – possibly tackling a complete overhaul of a company’s design or making adjustments as time goes on.

They have to develop an understanding of your business as well as its goals and objectives and translate these across to your audience in an effective way. Often, they will form a long-term relationship with a business, making improvements on a variety of aspects. Businesses may use a branding agency as they will have a wealth of relevant information, as well as their ability to cover a broad subject area.

What’s a creative agency?

A creative agency (that’s us – but you could also call us a branding agency, a digital agency, a social media agency, or even a web agency! See, we told you there is a crossover!) offers branding, design, marketing, advertising and even some public relations services, among others.

An ‘all-through’ agency might follow a company through every stage of its development, by building a brand identity, improving brand awareness and using marketing strategies, online advertising, promotional materials and other things to improve its image.

What can usually be a very complicated process can be easily handled by a creative agency, with the unique opportunity to utilise specialised equipment and personnel. Additionally, it can be must easier for a business to hand over the proverbial keys to a creative agency, although usually for such an all-encompassing process, there will be a large cost.

What’s a digital agency?

Digital agencies blend graphic design and copywriting together to make use of modern marketing techniques. They handle website design and development, as well as social media marketing and many other areas.

Digital agencies specialise in cost-effective solutions that only target a specific audience, meaning that if your business is marketing towards a certain target market (which most are, clearly!), you’re in luck! However, using a digital agency is becoming much more common due to the increasing prevalence of social media.

What’s a marketing agency?

A marketing agency helps a business with its marketing operations – by identifying valuable strategies, implementing solutions and evaluating results to make improvements. Full-service or digital marketing agencies might also offer SEO, content marketing, email marketing and other marketing services.

This type of agency will take over a business’ marketing needs, meaning that they will make any changes to inefficient marketing and make it more effective. By doing research about the company or the type of product/service it’s selling, a marketing agency will come up with strategies to improve sales.

What’s a media agency?

A media agency advises companies on how to best advertise their business, including the best places or times to do so. They tackle the relationship between customer and business, making improvements in communication, and suggestions on how to improve the business.

Sometimes, media agencies are part of larger companies with other specialities, such as public relations or even advertising. Like other agencies, a media agency will do their research on the company itself as well as its sphere of operations.

What’s a public relations (PR) agency?

A public relations agency is influential in improving the way a business comes across. They handle media relations, social media and influencer campaigns, product launches and much more. They’ll do this by using the pre-existing audience to an advantage, as well as promoting the business to a wider audience.

Public relations is very important to how a company runs, as a trustworthy image is vital for customers to not only purchase from a company, but also affects the reputation of the company through reviews.

You’ve done well!

Fin. We just covered the different types of agency, what they do any why a business might use them. Keep in mind that some agencies may be a mixture of one or more services outlined above, so you should carefully consider which ones are right for you!

The Identity Agency offers mainly creative agency services, although we’re expanding to cover all of our bases!