Came across an great article on Ad Age by Milan Martin of Gyro International in New York entitled "A Few Steps to Help Your Challenger Agency Thrive" which made some very interesting points - read the artciel in full to get the whole story but the main points were:
Be better suited to create big ideas
1) Be better suited to create big ideas
2) Don't hide your creative people
3) Offer skin in the game
4) Share the hatred
He concludes "All in all, it's business as usual for us challenger agencies. These are the things we do in good times, as well as bad, to show our clients that there is a better way. As we would tell our clients, from crisis comes innovation and change."
We couldn't agree more with all the points and would add - the ability to be agile, keep your finger on the pulse of what is going on and consistently deliver great Client service - I am constantly amazed how the bigger boys just don't do this for example how many big agencies practice what they try and preach about the importance of new media by writing blogs and setting up their social media profiles ???
The time seems right for poacher to become gamekeeper.