Agency SOS Turns One
Lessons from my first year of running a new creative agency
One year ago this month, I pressed “publish” on “5 Reasons I’m Starting a New Agency” and officially opened Agency SOS for business.
It’s been a wild first year with ups and downs, lots of lessons, and tons of help. I’m grateful to many, many people — our clients, the team of people who did the work, and all who supported this crazy dream. THANK YOU. (There are lots of shout-outs in our first-year wrap report video below.)
Year In Review
I’m sort of embarrassed that I embarked on this journey without a clearer set of first-year goals, but whatever they were, we probably surpassed them.
The “tale o’ the tape” of our first 12 months: 26 projects for 14 different clients and revenues of $1.37M.
Those projects included a wide range of work, from brand strategy to digital campaigns to TV production to trainings. (Maybe TOO wide a range…we’re likely to narrow our focus in year two; more on that in a moment.)
Frankly, it’s easier to share some of that work than others. (You can put a commercial on your reel; that 70-page strategy doc, not so much. But our clients found our thinking just as valuable as our productions.)
Some of those projects are on our website, such as our campaigns for Gametime, Ooma, Good Fur, and Anchor Brewing. But we’re just as proud of the other work that may not be on the site for one reason or another.
For example, one of our more popular offerings was something we call “10–10–10” — ten ideas in ten days for ten grand. They included some of our best creative thinking and, ooo baby, I wish I could share some of those with you…but the clients who bought and paid for that thinking might not appreciate it.
First Year Lessons
Any lessons we can share from our first year?
At our sixth-month mark, I shared three (you can read ’em here) about the power of your network, financial literacy, and the value of avoiding partners who are all talk.
At the one-year mark, the big takeaway is probably going to be wholly unsatisfying to read: starting an agency is both more complicated and easier than I imagined.
More complicated in that there are a MILLION little things about running an agency that you really don’t know until you do it. Things like the value of CRM software and limited liability clauses in your contracts and the art of cash flow management.
But it’s also simpler. This is a people business. People who work at brands have a problem and they need help solving them. Full stop.
If you’re good at solving problems and you’re easy and fun to work with, you can probably carve out a place for yourself in the creative services landscape.
Looking ahead to year two, we’re thinking a lot about how we can make it even easier to work with us. We see an opportunity in packaging some of our more popular services, in narrowing our scope and going deeper into a few niches, and in creating some on-demand trainings around popular topics.
Anniversary Celebrations
Besides a little cake and champagne, what did we do to celebrate the milestone?
We’re a creative agency…by making something, of course!
When we opened the agency, we put out a theme song to explain what the “SOS” stands for in our name. It turned out to be a fan favorite (and got us a fair amount of press, too.)
For our anniversary, we thought, “Why don’t we do a bunch of different cover versions of our theme song in different musical genres.” So that’s what we did. From country to heavy metal to love ballad to…Animal Crossing?! Plus, we even made a “Part 2” follow up to the original.
You can listen to them all here. There’s even a poll at the bottom of the page where you can let us know your favorites. They’re fun; check ’em out.
To mark the anniversary, we also pulled together lists of all the creative campaigns that caught our eye in our first year—inspiring work from OTHER agencies. (Second half of 2021. First half of 2022.)
Here To Help
As we roll into our second year, operators are standing by to take your call!
OK, it’s mainly ME…I’m the operator. But we are open for business and if you’re a marketing manager, we’d love to help take something off your to-do list.
Drop us an email and let us know where you need help. If we can help, we’ll get you a no-fuss, no-muss proposal and bid. If we can’t, we’ll point you to somebody who can.
Thanks again to all who made such a great first year possible. On to the next one!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Kovacevich is a creative director and the founder of Agency SOS. He writes a weekly email highlighting three bits of creative inspiration for modern marketers. You can subscribe, if you’d like.
