Agencies Are Great at Creating Narratives. Now They Must Write Their Own. Carefully.

Agencies sometimes create aspirational ads and press releases as a tool to help clients envision a successful, alternate future. Now we can imagine headlines like, “M&M’s redefines retail in Times Square,” or “CVS takes a stand on health by eliminating cigarette sales.” But before these were realities, they were possibilities—and research suggests that seeing a possibility makes it easier to achieve.

When done well, these aspirational exercises are rich in detail and create an overarching narrative—about the change in approach, the process forward, the challenges, and the outcome. They are compelling stories that people can visualize, remember, and share. Later (when the plans have been implemented and are successful), these stories become the foundation for corporate communications, reinforcing the company’s culture, history, and values.   

We have all heard compelling corporate stories. A Zappos sales representative stayed on the phone with a customer for 10 hours. Neiman Marcus once refunded a customer for a set of tires, although the store doesn’t sell tires. Both stories illustrate the companies’ commitment to customer service and define expectations for customers and employees.

Early in my career, I worked for an agency whose founder started the company with big aspirations. He leased a large space to reflect his dreams but had no money for furniture. The founder often recounted that in the early days, every time a client visited the agency, he moved the furniture in from his home and had his relatives sit in the office, posing as employees. I have no idea if the story was true, but it was repeated often enough to reinforce the company’s origin story and the importance it placed on resourcefulness and positive thinking.

In the midst of COVID-19, agencies are rewriting their narratives. Like the agency that immediately shifted all their clients’ communications online, with appropriate COVID-19 messaging. Or the agency that created job shares so employees could home school their children or take care of sick loved ones. The agency whose senior team cut their salaries to keep the rest of the staff employed. There are other stories, too, on the flip side—of the agency that immediately furloughed staff, leaving clients who are already unsettled to work with a new team. Or the agency that interpreted the shelter-in-place order as an opportunity to expect employees to work 15-hour days and penalized those who resisted.

This is not to say there will not be difficult decisions, as this crisis continues—there will be. Sometimes organizations need to sacrifice a foot to save the rest of the leg. Much of this situation is out of our control, but agencies do have control over how they treat employees and clients. Their leaders can be open, honest, and empathetic, communicating in virtual town halls, emails, and small group discussions. They can present options and work with staff and clients on solutions. The decisions agencies make now will become their story for a future article, “How Our Agency Handled the 2020 Pandemic.”

What should agencies do? They should do what they have done for clients for years—create a vision for tomorrow. Write the narrative from the perspective of 2021 and contemplate how the agency handled the crisis of 2020. Imagine the article printed in Ad Age or the details recounted on Glassdoor.

Then agencies should ask themselves:

1.      Is the narrative from the future consistent with our current actions?

2.      What does the narrative say about the agency’s culture and values?

3.      What does the agency need to start doing? Stop doing?

The answers to these questions will help inform the story and confirm your path forward. It is a narrative we never expected to write—but now we must imagine it to achieve the best possible future.

Stacey Singer is a client retention and growth specialist. She can be reached at stacey@staceysinger.com.