<p>Want to know the hottest craze that’s sweeping young audiences? Not chasing trends with your brand’s marketing.</p>
<p>One of the most exciting parts of marketing to young people is their position at the center of the latest trends. Miss the latest happening on TikTok or some platform so cool it hasn’t been named yet, and your next campaign will never find the audience you need. However, hit the mark just right, and you can capitalize on the trend and score a big win for your brand, right?</p>
<p>Wrong. Unfortunately, you need more than trends and the right channel to deliver a successful campaign. The fact is, the minute you’ve heard about the latest trend, it’s already over. (Sorry.) That’s just how trends among young people work.</p>
<div class="insight-upgrade"></div>
<p>To connect with your audience, stop asking about the latest trends and focus on the underlying factors. In this white paper, you’ll learn:</p>
<ul>
<li>The right questions to answer when marketing to a young audience.</li>
<li>Why the factors influencing your target market are more important than the trends they follow.</li>
<li>How to place trends in context to reveal what your audience really needs.</li>
<li>Why marketing to the hot new channel for young people won’t move the needle for your brand.</li>
<li>When to ignore the published trend forecasts and listen to experts with experience.</li>
</ul>


If you’re discussing a trend in the youth market, that trend is likely already over. Discover how to get ahead of trends and effectively market to youth.  

White Paper: How Your Brand Can Get Ahead of Youth Trends

Don’t chase trends: A white paper on marketing to youth

Chasing trends to promote your brand isn’t just exhausting, it’s ineffective. Download our whitepaper now to learn what to do instead. Enter your email for the link.

Thank you!

Get our whitepaper on how to get ahead of trends and effectively market to youth

Whitepaper - 6/2022 - Don't Chase Trends


Are you ready to talk about what your brand is doing for Black Friday?

Yes, we’re aware how time works, especially as it relates to an article you found on the internet. We’re even publishing this not long after the potentially biggest shopping day for your brand has passed. In fact, you’re reading this at a time when Black Friday is months away; a time so far out you’ve barely had a spare moment to dread your need to start planning.

Ultimately, that’s our point. No matter whether your Black Friday campaign just launched or feels far out into the future, your time to start planning for the next one is now.

In fact, swap out Black Friday for any upcoming sales event for your brand that’s been tying knots in your stomach. The deadline may look far away now, but you can see it coming, and ignoring it doesn’t help you feel better.

When you know the deadline, why wait until the last minute to start collaborating with your agency to create the killer idea you need?

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## Why brands feel driven to push off evergreen deadlines

Procrastination in the face of a critical deadline is a pretty understandable impulse. After all, a project that hasn’t started still has a world of potential to satisfy and exceed your every sales goal. It’s when you start seeing and revising ideas that the pressure behind a day like Black Friday starts to get real.

But the biggest barrier to starting work early on the crucial dates on your calendar may come down to resources. Six months before Black Friday, you may not feel like you have time to consider distant deadlines amid so many short-term priorities. But having conversations early will be less time-consuming than attempting to start when the event is breathing down your neck. You already know the deadline for what’s going to be your biggest sales day of the year.

Why wouldn’t you take advantage of the extra lead time and dedicate as much brain power to the effort as possible? The real fact is, your agency doesn’t need as many details to get started as you may think.

### Waiting for all the facts leads to last-minute work on critical campaigns

You may not know the offer your brand is planning for Black Friday. Or, perhaps the date is so far out you may not know any specifics of the brief. As you wait for all the pieces to fall into place, the deadline pressure only mounts.

Evergreen deadlines like Black Friday aren’t just challenging because of the stakes involved. They’re difficult because of the impact they have on your teams. As the holidays approach, everyone starts making holiday plans. When you wait until the last minute, your team that’s already stretched too thin needs to burn through long hours to beat the clock.

Will all that stress and chaos deliver results? Frankly, it’s not the best way for the creative process to progress organically. Plus, no one can guess how the campaign will perform because there was no time to test the messaging or its rollout before launch.

Well, there’s always next year. But when you’re working with the right agency partner, you don’t have to repeat this cycle.

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## Talking to your agency early reduces deadline fears

Sales events like Black Friday come with a lot of pressure, which is why brands are reluctant to start without all the facts. But fear of the unknown is no reason to ignore a big deadline.

The surest way to alleviate your fears about an important upcoming event is to start talking about it. What scares you most about planning this campaign? What went wrong in the past? When a deadline like Black Friday is hanging over your head, think of your agency as a therapist.

Talking about your fears and worries is the best way to start working to allay them. Then, you and your creative partner can work together to mitigate them as ideas take shape. But addressing what makes you nervous about a project gets harder when you leave the work until the last moment.

Fundamentally, facing anxieties about your brand’s high-profile events comes down to picking your battles. Would you prefer to be anxious *and* in a rush because you and your agency need to create a campaign on short notice? Or do you want to feel nervous because you began without a perfectly laid out roadmap?

In one of these scenarios, your nerves are easier to manage. After all, when you start thinking about a project early, you and your agency still have time to make improvements.

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## Information gaps drive better creative for your biggest campaigns

High-pressure deadlines fuel a tendency to err on the side of information overload with your outside agency. The thinking goes: the more you communicate every detail in advance, the less your agency will have to do on their own.

However, spending time ensuring all the pieces are in place before working with your creative partner does more harm than good. In addition to narrowing the window for your project to be delivered, you’re also constraining your agency partner’s creative process. As far as we’re concerned, [the right agency will be ready to go with at most 75% of your story](https://www.wethecollective.com/insights/refine-creative-brief-better-results).

You’re facing enormous pressure to ship the perfect campaign on a crucial day for your brand. The right agency won’t require all the pieces in place to start thinking about what you need. Even if Black Friday was last week, you should spend time digging into what worked and what didn’t. That way, ideas for next year have started and have time to cycle through multiple iterations.

The more time you and your agency take to work on your brand’s problem, the more strategic thinking can be applied to the solution.

## How planning ahead helps your brand for its next big sales event

You and your agency understand that some deadline pressure is baked into all creative work. But you can’t allow every campaign to feel like a frantic race to the finish. Then, once complete, it’s shoved aside to make room for the next imminent deadline.

Under tight time constraints, iteration cycles become crunched and campaigns launch without the right research or testing. And your brand’s sales needlessly suffer.

Sometimes circumstances dictate a tight turnaround. But the recurring events on your brand’s calendar don’t need to work that way. [Iterative testing and consistent improvement](https://www.wethecollective.com/insights/test-and-learn-marketing-benefits) are crucial to the success of any marketing project. Starting early allows your project the greatest chance at success

The sooner you and your agency start, the faster your brand can dispel old assumptions and find the right solution. Better still, you open up possibilities for [your agency to find the unexpected ideas your brand needs](https://www.wethecollective.com/insights/outside-agency-accelerates-brand-creative).

The noise of Black Friday may be behind us, but the next one is coming. If you start working toward it now, you and your agency partner won’t just avoid toxic stress. You’ll be more likely to ensure your brand makes the most of a day that represents a huge chunk of your yearly sales.


Don’t procrastinate with your Black Friday marketing plans. You know this one day has huge sales numbers — start planning with your agency now.

Why Next Year’s Black Friday Marketing Strategy Starts Now

Why now is the time your brand should start thinking about the next Black Friday


When you start working with an outside agency, there’s a moment that can feel like the disconnect between fast food commercials and what you get at the drive through. Look at how they photograph the burgers, for one. The melted cheese, the fresh lettuce and tomato piled high. That would really hit the spot, wouldn’t it?

Then, you pick up your order and it looks like a sandwich that was found behind a vending machine then hit with a hammer. It not only doesn’t taste right, it’s simply not what you ordered.

Too often, large agencies serve up a similar disappointment. In the beginning, you meet a brilliant team who promises to deliver the solution your brand needs. Then once it’s time to get to work, the picture changes. Instead of collaborating with the people you know from the meet-and-greet, your project has been passed to a different team. They may be skilled, but you want the experts you were promised. And sure, you can speak to the CEO about it — are you free in three weeks?

When you need a sundae, you should get a sundae. And you shouldn’t settle for an agency’s B-team when your brand needs specialized expertise to move the needle for your project.

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## How hiring a specialized agency minimizes buyer’s remorse

Much like the difference between Applebee’s and your favorite neighborhood restaurant, [bigger isn’t always better when it comes to creative agencies. ](https://www.wethecollective.com/insights/full-service-or-specialized-agencies "Full service or specialized agencies")But when you’re trying to find a creative partner who will deliver a difference-making campaign, size isn’t your only consideration.

After all, a firm may be small but have plans for growth and global domination. Ambition is great, but your brand will see the best results from an agency with a size and scope that allows them to focus on the work. You need the kind of attention that’s possible with a boutique creative agency.

At We The Collective, we’re not entirely comfortable with the “boutique” label. It conjures images of cavernous stores with six items on a rack that you’re afraid to touch. [We’re a specialized, digital-focused agency](https://www.wethecollective.com/insights/how-to-hire-a-creative-agency "How to hire a creative agency"), which means our size and area of focus are both chosen with intention. We’d rather take on less work than lose focus on interesting projects aligned with what we do best. But more importantly, we want to ensure what we do for our clients always reaches a consistent high level.

A specialized agency doesn’t have to dilute its work by taking on work just to cover the costs of a huge overhead. Instead, we can focus on the craft as well as whatever it takes to find the right solution for your brand’s problem.

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## Specialized agencies don’t have the overhead of second-tier teams

As you’re considering the right agency for your brand, you may feel drawn to a high-profile name that will turn heads in a meeting. But as you collaborate with a big, international agency, you may grow self-conscious about ensuring you’re getting the right work.

Maybe it’s not the first time you’ve teamed with them for an online ad, which means the work has started to feel a little routine on their end. Or maybe your brand lacks the same name recognition as the other companies on the agency’s roster. Whatever the case, your project has been passed down to teams with less experience, which gives you a sneaking suspicion that your needs are a lower priority.

At a specialized agency, there isn’t any room to support a B-team. When agencies increase their capacity to take on more projects, they wind up with extra roles they need to keep busy. As work gets passed around, the creative team assigned to your project may not have the skills you need.

We’ve consciously designed our agency so everyone has a common goal and the singular purpose of creating great work. In the end, your brand benefits most from our determination to ensure your brand always receives the right people for the job. At We The Collective, we only have an A-Team.

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## Boutique agencies have to be selective about internal teams

When you’re working with a specialized agency, the team has to be selective about the projects they take on. After all, only so many people are available to ensure the results still reach a high level. But that same need to be choosy also works in your brand’s favor when it comes to the quality of the team.

As work gets divided among more people, creative teams grow bloated and unwieldy. Eventually, it becomes easier for those working on your project to find places to hide. After all, coming up with great ideas is hard. A bigger team allows some of its members to fly under the radar and produce average work for your brand.

Our goal is to ensure everyone working on your project is excited about the project and eager to make great things. [Plus, we want to build long-term relationships that allow our work to grow in new directions and constantly improve.](https://www.wethecollective.com/insights/outside-agency-accelerates-brand-creative "Why your agency should be pushing you toward unexpected creative ideas") As the collaboration goes on, that same team continues working with you and further evolves with your brand.

Ultimately, we have no choice but to hire people who are at the top of their game and hungry for more opportunities to perform at their best. With that kind of team, your brand gains the assurance it will receive the experience and insights your project needs — and the next one, too.

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## Why specialized agencies generate faster, stronger results for your brand

Operating as a boutique agency is a choice that’s a reflection of how we like to work. But a smaller, more focused organizational structure offers real benefit to your brand as well.

At We The Collective, our specialized approach prevents extra organizational layers from diminishing the clarity of what we’re trying to do. At the same time, the absence of those unnecessary structures increases your level of clarity throughout the process. Not only are you working with the same team you first met from when the collaboration began, you also have direct access to everyone connected with your project.

Whether you need to speak to the CEO or your project’s developer, you don’t have to navigate any extra layers to get the information you need. Since your team is smaller, you don’t have the overhead of playing a game of telephone. Instead of contacting the producer to reach the right developer, you communicate directly with the person you need. Consequently, you receive the targeted solution your campaign needs that much faster.

Does that sound like a collaboration that will deliver the results you need for your brand? [Let’s cut out the complications and get started.](https://www.wethecollective.com/contact "Contact We the Collective")


It’s nice to be able to brag about working with one of the top entertainment marketing agencies. But do they fit your brand? Don’t settle for B-team creative.

Don’t chase trends: A white paper on marketing to youth

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