Joe Moarkech – May 7, 2025 

There is no doubt that the business ecosystem is now about the marketing agencies and their fundamental role in the digital transformation that is getting more complex by the day. 

And as the number of these agencies increases, driven by demand growing much faster than supply, problems in the projects are reaching critical levels.”

Most of these problems have nothing to do with the creative or technical part; they mostly have to do with the dynamics that are causing misalignment.

Here are some of the causes and their possible solutions. 

• They lack the understanding of the business ecosystem of their customers
• They tend to apply one size-fits-all rule, relying on the templates provided by the tycoons of the market.
• They don’t spend time studying the depth of the business and they rely on the high-level observation or reports provided about the industry or competitors.
• They don’t meet enough with the key people in the business.
• They don’t meet with the right people in the business.
• They tend to leverage trends on everything.
• They assume they know about the business far more than they actually do.
• They lack the technical understanding of the business aspect of the project. 
• They believe creativity is the solution for everything.
• They don’t admit they don’t know.
• Some of them are over-entitled and don’t listen to some valuable inputs.
• Some of them tend to blame everyone else without considering that they might have done something better themselves.
• Many other causes related to specific markets and individuals.

It is relatively normal to have these issues in the crazy growth pace in all dimensions, but what is not normal is to ignore them and not try to do something about them. 

Agencies should seriously consider the following: 

• Pause & Zoom-Out more frequently to make sure they are seeing the full picture.
• Have technical upgrades from a business perspective (training, advisory, …)
• Be more modest and realistic during meetings where input is given by various stakeholders.
• Have an adapted customizable process.
• Consider having consultants on board.