Agencies and brands clash over credit—how shops are fighting for recognition of their work

A swelling tide of independent agencies is leading a push to have clients give them credit for their work. The industry has long wrestled with this issue, but it is bubbling up again as a bumper crop of new shops rises up, making it critical for them to establish their credentials. New shops seem to open every day and promoting their work is necessary for getting recognized by potential clients and search consultants who choose which agencies get invited to new business pitches. Even established agencies are realizing that marketing their own brands has become more important to stand out in this increasingly crowded market, and part of that includes promoting work. Ad Age Small Agency Conference & Awards Join us July 23 & 24 in Boston Learn more here The growth of in-house agencies, creative departments and brand design departments over the last 10 years has caused “this fight of who did what and who takes credit for what,” said a small agency founder who was granted anonymity to speak freely. “It’s a big political game that unfortunately ends up hurting agencies the most because you’re not able to promote yourself, your capabilities and your newest work. A lot of portfolios start to age quickly.” Shops are fighting back, employing strategies from becoming more aggressive in pushing clients to allow them to promote their campaigns and, in some cases, writing into client contracts the right to take credit for their work. Via, a Portland, Maine-based independent agency, recently started prioritizing having “mutual ability to promote our relationship” written into master service agreements, or MSAs, the contracts that establish basic terms between vendors and clients, CEO Leeann Leahy said. Also read: Brands add AI restrictions to agency contracts “It’s not in all of our MSAs, but when we start a relationship with a new client, we try to make [promotion of the work] part of it, because it really comes down to the simple fact that we’re proud of our relationships with our clients and they chose us because they believe in investing in advertising,” Leahy said. “PR is our advertising. It’s how agencies get the word out about them … It’s a cluttered world out there and it's hard to break through.” The issue of agency credit recently sparked a spirited discussion at an event for OwnIt, a group of women-owned agencies, where Leahy was among those who advised other shops to have these rights written into MSAs. At a recent event for OwnIt, a group of women-owned agencies, Leahy was one of the audience members who advised other shops to have these rights written into MSAs when a spirited discussion of the issue broke out. Related: 7 agency reviews to know about right now Degrees of disclosure The level to which clients—which often claim the need for confidentiality for fear they will tip off a competitor—allow their agencies to discuss their relationship varies widely. Some allow their shops to talk freely about the work they do; some will allow only a line in a press release noting which agency they partnered with on a particular campaign; and others allow their agencies to put work on their websites, but not to necessarily actively promote it, according to 10 industry executives including consultants and agency leaders who spoke with Ad Age for this story. Clients will often want their own public relations teams to handle the promotion of the work and might promise to mention their agency partners, although they don’t always uphold that promise, these people said. Typically, the larger the client, the more sensitive they are to press, according to some of the executives. The small agency founder said clients have flat-out told the agency, “We’re going to do press on [a campaign] but we’re not going to mention you.” Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Some clients will allow agencies to promote their part in a campaign after it has already been released and promoted, said Dawn Wade, managing partner and chief strategy officer of Louisville, Kentucky-based Black-owned creative marketing agency Nimbus. “We’ve had campaigns that were launching and we wanted to take a certain angle and the [client] was like, ‘No, you can't do this until we’ve let it run its course and then we can put something out.’ But [the media] is not going to want to interview us once the news has hit.” Some agencies are also in competition with other roster shops for receiving credit. For example, the small agency founder said one of its biggest clients won’t allow the shop to promote its work because the client has a longstanding agency of record relationship with a well-known agency—and doesn’t want to risk the AOR relationship by acknowledging publicly that it works with other shops on certain campaigns. If multiple agencies and partners are working on a campaign or project, clients sometimes won’t mention any partners because it’s easier than trying to establish the proper credit for everyone, some people said. Clients think that will help them avoid complaints of missing some partner or misattributing some part of the work to someone, according to some people. The problem in this project-based environment is only getting worse, with some clients that used to allow the agency to promote work suddenly saying they can’t anymore, while not giving a good reason for the shift, the small agency founder said. Related: How agencies are marketing themselves To be fair, some clients are gagged from talking about anything in the press by strict corporate policies. “Many clients are very proud to discuss and announce the relationship, but they are not always allowed to pursue speaking opportunities or public press as employees,” said Lindsey Slaby, founder of brand consultancy Sunday Dinner. “There does often need to be an understanding and discussion around this beyond the ‘We need the credit to be amended in a contract as we are a small business.’ To me the question is do they want the credit or to manage a press release? These are different things and discussions.” Slaby added that she’s “never seen issues with work being shown in a portfolio or credentials.” Still, some agency executives said it seems that some clients just don’t want to give them credit because they want everyone to believe their in-house team handled it. Wade said that’s especially true in the diversity, equity and inclusion space, where Nimbus often specializes. It’s “what I call, especially in the diversity space, ‘culture vultures,’” Wade said. “They want to get what you know, what they should do and how they should do it and then push you out and make it appear as if it was their competency all along.” Also read: Inside the multicultural marketing debate Workarounds for strict policies There are ways for an agency to get credit when a client is being particularly stubborn about allowing them to promote their work. There is always the option of leaking news to the press. One agency CEO, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said “we have our ways” of getting credit, adding that if an agency leaks news to the press, it could be “chipping away at the trust of the relationship” with the client. “It’s always better to negotiate that stuff up front,” this person said. “Sometimes you’ll get a ‘no,’ but that’s OK.” The small agency founder said they once went “punk rock” on a client and “didn’t listen” to a request not to promote their work. “We just promoted it anyway” and decided to “ask for forgiveness” later, the person said. Luckily, in that case, the client wasn’t too mad, the small agency founder said. In fact, that client is now more open to allowing the agency to promote campaigns, the person added. Getting promotion rights added into MSAs is not always possible because they are typically written as blanket contracts across all of a company’s vendors, Slaby, the Sunday Dinner founder, said. “The credit clause is one used for all vendor partners at a brand,” Slaby said. “And agencies, particularly creative ones, are one of the smallest in a roster of thousands of vendor partners. This is something that is incredibly hard to shift on an MSA on a corporate level.” It isn’t impossible, though. Leahy said Via has had success in getting clients to add some sort of line allowing the agency to promote their work in MSAs. “It’s really a negotiation,” she said. “No MSA can be totally standard across all of your partners because there are different issues of indemnification and relationships and boundaries and definitions. When we are negotiating, what we found is really effective is we negotiate simultaneously with a representative of the brand team, procurement and the legal team.” It’s always a good idea to befriend all of the client departments that are controlling whether an agency can promote work, including PR and procurement. “Your MSA gives you some coverage, but you’re always at the mercy of who’s making that decision,” Wade said. “I've always found that PR tends to side with legal and want to play defense and more conservative. At times, where it’s just a PR [department] not wanting to [promote] it from a contract perspective, if there is a supplier diversity or procurement-type team, you can reach out to them to ask for assistance. If you’ve been in the loop with them, they may be able to provide some influence to help the negotiations from a contract perspective.” Some people said that clients typically don’t have a problem with agencies entering their campaigns into awards shows, so sometimes that’s a way for a shop to get overdue credit for its work. The small agency founder said agencies often include work that isn’t allowed to be publicized in new business pitches or presentations to consultants in an “off record,” i.e. “don’t tell anyone I showed you this” type of situation. But that only helps once you’ve been invited into the room. See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Creativity Award winners here Picking your battles Leahy said clients often see campaigns they like in trade publications and then go search for what agency did it. She added that Via doesn’t necessarily need to get credit in every publication, just the ones that matter to her industry. For example, Leahy said she wouldn’t need to fight to have her agency mentioned in a People magazine story, but she would for an Ad Age story, because that’s where she might be getting in front of potential clients. “It's important to remember that we’re all in the same situation—agencies need to promote our work to raise our profile and generate new business,” said Micky Ogando, founder and chief creative officer of Bakery. “Even if it’s hard or awkward, agencies should be honest and direct with their clients about that fact. If we’re all pushing for that right, the collective will be all the better for it. And at the end of the day, positive press and awards reflect well on the agency and the client.” Not being able to promote work makes it hard for smaller, independent and diverse-owned agencies, especially, “to exist and grow,” Wade said. She said sometimes agencies need to weigh the risk and reward of fighting for credit, and sometimes walk away from a relationship where there is no mutual respect. “I don’t like to be treated like a vendor,” Wade said. “It has to be mutually beneficial. Some compromise is necessary in business, but you shouldn't compromise your values. Once you cross that line of compromising on business points to compromising values, then it's time to go."

Agencies and brands clash over credit—how shops are fighting for recognition of their work

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