Your agency’s obsession is your agency’s differentiation.


North CEO Rebecca Armstrong with her testimonial about Will Burns Consulting

With clients moving away from AOR relationships and towards more project work, agencies can’t rely on the same playbook anymore. Differentiation becomes even more important because you have less time and more Zoom meetings in the way of personally (or professionally) charming the clients.

I have a way to help your agency stand out. Way out.

YOUR OBSESSION IS YOUR DIFFERENTIATION.

You could have a “single point of difference” or you could have a “differentiating obsession.” Which do you think will resonate more with a prospective client? Which has more energy? The word “obsession” forces us to think not only about what’s different about the agency, but about the agency’s world view. Very different.

So when I audit an agency's existing marketing materials (e.g. RFPs, videos, websites, blogs, presentations, etc.) I look for evidence of an obsession. It may not be called out and articulated yet, but it’s usually there. Couple that with interviews with agency leadership, employees, and clients, and we’ll find it for sure.

It’s never my idea. It’s always yours. It’s just been left undiscovered.

Is your agency obsessed with a specific psychological effect that truly makes a consumer change behavior? Is it something about your own unique approach that you really believe in? Is it something about how you unpack a brand for its consumer? Is it about a common marketing enemy that you’ve identified and are built to slay?

a proven process

Immersion → 10 ideas → Manifesto (3-4 weeks)

Whatever the obsession is, we will uncover it and articulate it, so you can then BE it with passion. Watch all of your communications from RFP to the website to the presentations to the agency’s culture itself suddenly "galvanize" around this obsession. 

case studies

North Real is Beautiful beauty image with a hand prominently displayed over lifestyle images

North Case - click image

Jed Alger, Andrew Schafer, and Sean Donnell, partners at advertising agency Must Be Something

Must Be Something Case

the Deloitte Digital offices in New York City, modern and with "Everything is branding"

Deloitte Digital Case - click image

Heat Advertising in San Francisco with "We believe in the power of surprise."

Heat Case - click image