A cheat sheet from Jarred Cinman on how to consider the right agency partner.

Article published in marklives.com – 22 May 2025

By Jarred Cinman CEO of VML South Africa

IMAGE/PICTURE SOURCE: Marklives.com

If you’re in a big network agency like I am, you can’t have failed to notice the uptick in client and award wins going to independent agencies*, particularly the newer businesses out there. Why is this happening and should clients be planning to move their business to locally owned agencies and away from multinationals?

What I want to do here is honestly map out what each of these agency types is good and bad at. Having been in this industry a long time, I’ve seen various vibe shifts of this nature and they almost always have unintended consequences for clients. So, think of this as a cheat sheet on how to consider the right agency partner.

What are smaller, independent agencies good at?

The first and most obvious answer here is that they are good at keeping ad spend in South Africa. With any of the big network players, it’s a fact that our profits flow offshore, given that major shareholders in our businesses are companies headquartered in the UK, France, the US and elsewhere.

So, if your concern is to know that your marketing spend is going toward building the local industry or contributing to rebalancing wealth into Black hands, spending it with a locally owned agency is the clear option.

Smaller agencies (we used to call them “boutiques”) are also seen as nimbler, owner-managed and, in the most overused word of all-time, agile. This is probably a valid perception: as someone who founded and ran small agencies, there’s no doubt it was simpler, quicker and less cumbersome in getting things done.

Thirdly, it’s also fair to say that these agencies are more immersed in local culture and nuance — particularly those owned by Black shareholders. It’s no secret that some of the big network agencies (mine included) haven’t transformed enough and thus, at a leadership level, aren’t as representative of the South African population as they should be.

Finally, smaller agencies are competitive on price. I don’t want to make the mistake of saying “they’re cheaper” because this isn’t necessarily true and nor should clients expect to short-change them. But there’s no doubt that, without global management fees, SOX compliance, IT compliance or the same management overhead, they can compete more aggressively on price.

What are the big network agencies good at?

So, is the sun setting on holding companies and the scaled agencies that they own?

It’s probably not surprising that I think we still have some relevance. Without contradicting any of the above very real advantages of using an independent agency, there are still some reasons to consider the big organisations.

• Diversity of capability: While it’s true that on any one particular skill (let’s say creativity) the good independents out there can give us a run for our money, what we have by definition is a capability set that stretches from ATL to digital, from data to marketing automation and from commerce to CRM. This matters now, more than ever, because marketing has become a battle with many frontlines. It isn’t good enough to be brilliant at one thing. Plus you need a partner that doesn’t just dabble in the specialist areas but is an expert in them.
• Ability to “resource burst”: Large agencies have, by definition, a larger pool of resources to draw on. That means when they hit a crunch — either in time or skill — they’re able to deploy additional resources to solve this. So, for accounts that have a tendency to balloon at specific times of year or on specific projects, a large agency makes sense.
• Technological prowess: Large agencies typically have more sophisticated technology at their disposal. In my network, for example, there’s global investment that’s been made in artificial intelligence (AI) tools, which all our agencies have access to. These are tools that no independent agency could afford to build on their own. And so, depending on how important advanced technology is in your plan, that may make sense to turn to a big network agency for.
• Rigour: Having been in both a small agency and a large one, it seems manifestly evident that large global companies have a lot more process, methodology and structure than smaller agencies would have. This can be the flipside of “agility” and is, I would argue, what drives the perception that larger agencies are slower. However, being organised and methodical doesn’t necessarily mean going slowly. Planning and executing something with rigour may ultimately deliver a faster and more accurate result.

Is there space for both?

When we won the Vodacom account in 2020 [which was regained by Ogilvy South Africa almost a year ago — ed-at-large], we decided to include Think Creative Africa as partners on the account. In this, we were motivated by many of the above advantages that a smaller agency could bring, and we bargained that the combination of both would lead to a better all-round solution. In some ways, this worked well; in some ways it didn’t. But, in my career, this came the closest to delivering the benefits of both models to the client.

The problem I’ve observed is that these kinds of partnerships are often imbalanced. Large agencies may be arrogant, powerful and self-serving, and so smaller partners may get bulldozed or sidelined quite easily. Clients are rightfully sceptical when they see a consortium like this walking into the room because they often don’t play out as promised and the independent agency voice is lost.

Independents in many cases have also become so strong and capable on their own that this notion of a partnership comes off as patronising. So, this kind of thing needs to be handled with care, mutual respect and shared value.

AI & proprietary IP

Independents will continue to rise; they have huge sex appeal and are responsible for some of the best work coming out of the industry.

Unfortunately, with the rise of AI, the ultimate winner is going to be whoever can leverage this technology best. If it turns out these tools are democratised and every agency in the world has equal access to them, then it’s totally possible that a 10-person agency will bill R1bn in the next few years.

Alternatively, if proprietary IP (such as WPP or Publicis have developed) is required, then the playing field is going to change all over again.

*In the past couple of years, we’ve seen The Odd Number winning Loeries Grands Prix and Avatar winning the Absa account, to name just two.