The Agency Graveyard: Why You Keep Firing Partners and Hiring the Same Problem
I've watched this pattern repeat for years. A business owner sits across from me, frustrated, explaining how their last three agencies failed them. The stories sound different on the surface, but the structure is identical. "They didn't get our vision." "They couldn't execute what we needed." "The relationship just stopped working." Here's what I've learned: the agency wasn't the problem. The problem was sitting in the chair telling me about the agency. The Briefing Blind Spot Let me show you something that stopped me cold when I first saw it. Research from the BetterBriefs Project surveyed over 1,700 marketers and agency staff across 70+ countries. They found that 80% of marketers think they write good briefs. Only 10% of creative agencies agree. That's not a small perception gap. That's a canyon. The same research revealed something even more damaging: an estimated 33% of marketing budgets are wasted due to poor briefs ...