Being a marketer in today's agency world is more challenging than ever. Rapid industry changes and shortening attention spans mean marketers are overwhelmed by the demands of brands, from boosting revenue with tighter budgets to bringing innovative creative solutions.
So, how can agencies break free from this cycle and avoid becoming obsolete by failing to meet expectations?
The secret lies in staying ahead of the curve.
Jana Bogosavljevic, Head of Account Management at Hunch, reveals how partnering with Hunch positions agencies at the forefront of social advertising, offering an invaluable edge over competitors.
#1 What's the current state of Dutch agencies serving brands in social advertising, based on your experience?
Working with Dutch agencies has always been dynamic and challenging, but after a couple of years in the business, and working with agencies such as Fingerspitz, Adwise, Maatwerk Online, Springbok, and Tribal Agency. I am pretty safe to say we've got the hang of it. Tight budgets, crazy timelines – it's like a never-ending game of "beat the clock."
That’s why we’ve decided to step in and make tech and expertise help solve pain points that are not going away any time soon. And I know what time it is when I started pulling my Dutch roots, and now learning Dutch. 🙂
#2 What are the most common challenges agencies here face?
This can be quite a long list, but some that I would list are:
- Tight budgets and clients often demand cost-effective solutions without compromising on quality.
- Nobody wants extra work: Training and updating different teams: Design, Performance, Sales - Finding that “Why” and selling it to the clients. All of the additional training to adopt or change something can be exhausting
- Time limitations with tight deadlines that leave little room for thorough planning and creative exploration
- The ever-evolving updates of social media platforms require agencies to stay updated and adjust their strategies accordingly.
This is where Hunch steps in as an extension to their team, strategic partner, Meta Business Partner, and Snapchat partner - connecting them to the right people, including them in beta features such as Product Level Video ads, analyzing their work with their clients, so they can rely on us to be one step ahead and put their brains at ease.
#3 What are the main reasons agencies approach Hunch?
Often agencies approach us in need of automating workload through scaling creatives and optimizing media buying. So, tech is definitely what is leading them to approach us.
But what often surprises them is that we are more than tech, we are strategic partners - we will not just give you the key to the house and leave you to live in it, we identify together the pain points, and look for ways to improve it without leaving you with extra work.
We are aware that everybody just wants to hop on work and do as much as possible, better and faster. Nobody wants another tool that they will spend more time and months to adopt before it helps.
#4 What does it mean to have Hunch as a partner, how does it help overcome the challenges you mentioned?
Having Hunch as a partner means having access to cutting-edge technology and industry-leading expertise. It provides agencies with actionable insights and tailored solutions that enhance performance and maximize ROI.
But generic sentence to the side, us being partners with agencies goes way deeper than that - it covers from helping them win over new clients to fulfilling the potential they might be missing due to time constraints and hectic quarters to being an extension to the team due to layoffs, or people being out of the office or sick. And this all happened.
This is where we stand out, and what our clients see but the ones that are not our clients may miss. Because, where else do you have one dedicated person that is in charge to think about your business and make sure that you are making the most of Hunch? Or where else can you get the CTO on the call if needed?
If you hop on a call with me, you will notice how little I talk about operational staff and how much I talk about pressure, workload, communication improvements, etc. The whole point is to understand not only the business goals, but also the people, and fight together with them for both agency’s and individual KPIs. At the end of the day, we all have our own "boss" to impress.
#5 What is the price of not using Hunch?
I could say that the price of not using Hunch could be significant, but let’s be fair - there are more than 30k advertising agencies in the Netherlands as of 2024. This means some agencies don’t use Hunch or similar tools and that are doing just fine.
But with this number of agency competitors, you can’t allow yourself to be doing “just fine”.
Without access to tools such as Hunch, there is a constant risk of falling behind in delivering effective initiatives.
Brands are not waiting for the agency to start keeping up with trends, they want results, and they want it now. If you are not following it, there will always be another kid on the block and that one is probably working with us!
All jokes aside, my Hunch for 2024 is that agencies will continue avoiding learning by their own mistakes, and not wait up to lose something to the cool kid in the block - but rather be a cool kid in the block. Trust me, it beats being yesterday's news any day of the week!
Find out how Hunch helps agencies innovate while remaining efficient, and deliver nothing but outstanding results.
