Why we front-load the hard conversations
Most agency-client relationships deteriorate because of misaligned expectations that were never surfaced at the start. We've made the same mistake. Since 2021 we've deliberately moved every uncomfortable conversation to week one - budget constraints, internal politics, who actually has approval authority, what 'done' looks like. It's not always comfortable, but it means by week four everyone is building instead of negotiating.
Week one: intake and immersion
Before we do any creative work, we spend the first week getting the full picture. This means a three-hour kickoff with the founding team (not just the marketing lead), access to all existing brand assets, analytics, and previous agency work, and a 30-minute call with your best customer (we arrange it). We also send an internal questionnaire to everyone who touches the brand - often the most revealing step. We want to know where the disagreements are before we start proposing solutions.
Week two: competitive and market context
We run our own competitive audit independently, without client input. We've found that showing clients a fresh-eyes view of their competitive landscape - how they look relative to peers without the internal assumptions - is consistently the most productive moment in the engagement. It either validates the brief or reframes it. Either way, it's the foundation for strategy.
Week three and four: strategy before anything visual
No logos, no colour palettes, no typography in the first four weeks. We don't move to visual work until the strategic foundation is agreed in writing. The positioning statement, the audience definition, the messaging framework. This delays the 'exciting' part of the process, but it means every visual decision that follows has a defensible rationale - and fewer revisions. Clients who've worked with us before now appreciate this more than any other part of how we work.