Today marks the day of celebration for independence, which you will have direct experience of if you have colleagues, clients or family in the US, or you are American yourself – so our Managing Director, Lizzie Nayman, has sat down and talked to us about the benefits of working for an independent agency!
With such enthusiasm around this big cultural statement in the US, I think it’s a great time to think about celebrating the power of professional independence too. In my
You may think that the benefits are obvious from a team perspective, but for
CLIENT
Our independence allows us to create some fantastic and meaningful work for our clients, as we are able to work together in a true authentic partnership. Independent agencies have independent thoughts, which means our concepts and ideas are isolated from fixed hierarchy, structures and rigid agency frameworks that are based around the network or parent agency, not the client or the challenge. We use our imagination each and every day.
These true independent thoughts mean we can put our clients’ and stakeholders needs first. By working in this way and focussing on higher engagement, it inevitably leads to increased advocacy and uptake of new and amazing treatments.
I have found in my experience, there are less people in independent agencies who are trying to make things complicated. We concentrate on what you should be saying and how and when you should be saying it, keeping it as simple as possible to achieve the best outcome.
By keeping it simple and focusing our independent thoughts on putting our clients first, we create our best work, which absolutely drives our role satisfaction.
TEAM
I am lucky enough to lead an incredibly dedicated and talented team at emotive who all share the same beliefs and values that allow us to thrive as an independent healthcare communications agency. Those of you that lead or collaborate in a similar environment, I’m sure will feel the same.
Any independent agency will have a team that works incredibly hard because there are few spaces to hide in these environments. By working hard together, the team have a huge amount of professional respect for each other, which means we tend to work better together. We are naturally more collaborative, and we respect each other’s views; finding solutions together, helping each other as we go. It definitely takes the sting out of those days filled with back to back meetings when you know how willing everyone is to work together.
With all this hard work comes great reward! With less hierarchy and less red tape when it comes to promotions and development, you can really fly. I have always felt truly empowered in these environments. I’ve learnt the most, relished new opportunities and been given great chances to show people what I can do. This empowerment runs like wildfire in an independent environment, building confidence in our own skills, and those of others, so we can be consistently successful.
For me, it’s the blend of team empowerment and celebrating our ability to use our imagination for our clients in an unrestricted way that is truly unique to an independent agency culture.
Last but not least, you’ll never get a group of people that are harder on themselves than the independents. We hold ourselves to the highest standards and we believe in what we do. This integrity drives good communication in an agency, you will find more people across the business know the company’s goals and objectives, and if they don’t, they’re not afraid to ask. When was the last time you asked the MD out for a coffee? Could you?
So, let’s celebrate this Independence Day by sharing all the things you love about working for an independent, and laugh about the things that never change. Let’s be honest you’ll always end up making a cup of tea with a fork as there are no spoons left by 11am.
emotive is an independent, London-based, award-winning healthcare communications agency committed to changing lives by helping global life science companies bring novel and innovative products to patients. We
If you would like to find out more about joining emotive please contact Gemma on gemma.sawyer@thinkemotive.com. For more information about our services email chris@thinkemotive.com.