Agencies have too many waiters and not enough chefs
Michelin star restaurants have three cooks to every waiter. So why do advertising agencies have a structure where creative is outweighed by other departments? Tom Elliston, CEO at LOLA Madrid, explains that too much agency process is taking away from the important creative work.
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Unilever has just been named the number one advertiser for both creativity and effectiveness in WARC’s 2026 rankings. Its CMO, Leandro Barreto, described creativity as “one of our strongest competitive advantages”.
That may make a few agencies feel a bit uneasy.
We have all been in the meeting where the agency side is packed with account people and the creative team is barely represented.
Creativity is still treated as one department among many, rather than the thing clients are actually buying. Nobody appoints an agency because its status meetings are beautifully run. They come for work that shifts something, earns attention and makes the business stronger.
Yet many agencies still put more people around the work than on it.
Nobody appoints an agency because its status meetings are beautifully run.
Agencies have more people managing the work than making it
We have all been in the meeting where the agency side is packed with account people and the creative team is barely represented. Then, a few weeks later, everyone starts talking about a lack of creative resource, as if the problem has appeared from nowhere.
Large accounts automatically need large account teams. The structure seldomly gets questioned because it has been normalised for too long. Meanwhile, creatives are stretched, with heart palpitating, shrinking timelines and squeezed ambition. It makes no sense.
Great account people are essential because they understand the client, protect the work and get involved properly. Hear me out. Account management is an art and without it everything fall to pieces. We just need to refocus.
A creative-heavy agency feels different. It can be chaotic, things evolve quickly and we sometimes work right up to the wire.
When there are fewer of them, they carry real responsibility. They can make decisions with authority, roll their sleeves up and stay close to the project rather than simply moving it from one side of the building to the other like a game of Pong.
Michelin-starred restaurants often have three cooks for every waiter. The service still has to be excellent, but people are booking for the food.
Agencies should be built on the same principle. At LOLA, 67% of our people work are creatives. We have put the weight of the business behind the part clients came for – and it changes the entire way the agency behaves.
Large accounts automatically need large account teams, but the structure seldomly gets questioned because it has been normalised for too long
Process is swallowing the time creatives need
A creative-heavy agency feels different. It can be chaotic, things evolve quickly and we sometimes work right up to the wire. There are moments when I see the work later than my blood pressure would prefer, but I am comfortable with that because I trust the team.
What we lose in layers, we gain in speed. There are fewer artificial review dates and fewer half-formed ideas dragged into meetings because somebody found a gap in the diary. Creatives get more time to think, make and improve the work before it is handed around for commentary.
Too much agency process exists to make people feel safe or simply because it was never really interrogated.
Planning works in the same way. A brief does not need to sit in isolation for two weeks while the creative clock runs down. Insights and ideas can come from anywhere, so the process needs enough movement to allow that. The old model, where each department completes its bit and passes it over, often leaves creativity with the smallest window and the highest expectations.
Too much agency process exists to make people feel safe or simply because it was never really interrogated. Having less people running around like blue-arsed flies means that people take real accountability, feel empowered and as a result grow a lot quicker. It makes everything leaner with the focus being on what is always most important - the work.
A creative-heavy agency feels different. It can be chaotic, things evolve quickly and we sometimes work right up to the wire
Average food with impeccable service is still average food
The obvious response is that clients expect more management now. Some do, and large businesses are complicated. Projects need control, budgets need watching and deadlines matter. Whilst chaos can drive creativity, it does need to be managed.
Agencies do need to be honest about where useful support ends and theatre begins. You can have the smoothest service in the world, with a perfectly run meeting and a follow-up email landing five minutes later. If the work is average, none of that saves it.
Good clients want ambition. They want an agency prepared to push the idea and put serious talent behind it. That means making choices about where the agency invests, rather than adding another layer every time an account becomes bigger or more demanding.
Agencies might want to look harder at who they’re actually hiring.
The commercial case is fairly simple too. Great work keeps clients, attracts better briefs and gives an agency a reputation worth having. Process has a role, but it should support the work rather than consume the people and time needed to make it.
At LOLA, 67% of us are creatives. Could that number go higher? Absolutely.
As Unilever’s Leandro Barreto recently put it, “As content becomes easier to create, creativity becomes an even greater competitive advantage.”
Agencies might want to look harder at who they’re actually hiring. They’ve spent years adding more people around the kitchen, but if they want better food, they may simply need more chefs.
