The average agency website or creds presentation will always have a ‘client’ page where they boast about the brands and organisations they work with. It would be fair to say that some of these stretch the truth a bit, encompassing the FMCG brand the agency produced a one-off standee for and the Blue Chip firm they last worked for in 2005.
image by Graphic Design Communications 2009 students from Chelsea
But I’m increasingly coming across agencies that aren’t allowed to publically admit that they work with a particular client. I’m not just talking about awards entries or agency creds – they flat out mustn’t be linked with the brand in question in the media.
I once went for an interview at an agency I thought had a fairly uninspiring client list – only to discover that they also did a lot of work for a mega famous worldwide entertainment brand but weren’t allowed to talk about it.
It doesn’t really help any agency’s reputation or profile when they’re unable to talk about their biggest and/or coolest clients, and as a freelance I have a similar problem. The agencies I work with are reasonably OK with me discretely admitting that I work with them – but for obvious reasons don’t want the world to know which of their top clients are being Planned by a Planner who is technically not on staff.
The actual clients I do come into contact with don’t seem very bothered that I work with rather than for a particular agency, but it still means that I can’t really publicise my own work. My CV is full of vague references to ‘leading FMCG brands’ and ‘high profile retailers’ and my LinkedIn profile is even less specific. I suppose it’s a good job I’ve got an honest face and that other agencies seem to enjoy playing ‘guess the client’ when I show them my CV…