How do you choose the right communications agency? Start with the problem.

Anyone looking for a communications agency usually starts the same way: browsing websites, comparing cases, drawing up a longlist and inviting a few agencies to pitch. Understandable. But not always the right path. Because an impressive portfolio mainly proves that an agency once did good work for someone else. A strong pitch shows it can win a pitch. And a sharp price says little about what the collaboration ultimately delivers.

So the real question isn't: which communications agency is the best?
The real question is: which agency fits the problem we need to solve?
That difference seems small. In practice, it changes your entire selection process.

Not every communication question needs the same agency

Sometimes the assignment is clear. The strategy is set, the audience is known and the message is sharp. What's missing is a strong campaign, a new website, a series of videos or extra execution capacity. Then you mainly need an agency that can produce quickly and well. But sometimes the difficulty sits earlier in the process. The organisation knows something needs to change, but not exactly what. There are different audiences with different interests. The offering is technical. The market is shifting. Internal stakeholders each look at the same issue from their own expertise. And everyone wants to communicate, while no one yet has full clarity on what the story should actually be. In that case, an agency that immediately presents three creative routes won't help much. What you need is an agency that first brings order. That separates the essential from the incidental, makes connections visible and helps make choices. Not to erase the complexity, but to make it understandable and workable.

For us, that's the core of strategic communication: not reducing complexity to a slogan, but translating it into a clear story that people understand and that an organisation can act on.

How do you recognise an agency that can do that? Five criteria can help.

1. Does the agency understand your sector, and does it dare to look at it from a distance?

Sector knowledge matters, especially in environments where technology, regulation, policy or multiple stakeholders play a large role. An agency that understands the context asks the right questions faster. It recognises sensitivities, doesn't need every concept explained, and knows that a message aimed at a buyer needs to do something different than one aimed at a policymaker, a user or a technical expert. But sector knowledge alone is no guarantee of good work. Anyone sitting too close to a sector sometimes adopts the same language, assumptions and conventions as everyone else within it. That produces communication which is factually correct but barely stands out or moves anything. The strongest agency therefore combines two perspectives:

• enough knowledge to take the complexity seriously;

• enough distance to look at it afresh.

So during a first meeting, don't just ask which clients an agency has already served. Listen especially to the questions it asks. Does it quickly grasp where the real tension lies? Does it make connections you hadn't made yourself? And does it dare to question your original brief? A relevant reference is useful. A sharp eye matters more.

2. Does the agency start from the solution, or from the problem?

"We need a campaign."
"Our website needs a refresh."
"We're looking for a new brand story."

That sounds like a brief, but it's often already a proposed solution. The question that precedes it remains unspoken: why isn't the current communication working? What needs to change, and for whom? And is a campaign, website or brand story actually the best means to that end? A strategic agency takes the brief seriously, but not necessarily literally. Maybe the problem isn't a lack of visibility, but unclear positioning. Maybe you don't need a new story, but more internal agreement on the existing one. Maybe you don't need more content, but sharper choices about what you no longer say. That groundwork doesn't slow an assignment down.

It prevents you from quickly making the wrong thing.

So ask how an agency fills in the first phase of a collaboration. Does it dive straight into concepts and deliverables? Or does it first take time to understand the context, objectives, audiences and internal tensions? A good creative solution can do a lot. But only if it was designed for the right problem.

3. Do the people who understand the story stay involved?

In complex assignments, quality doesn't just sit in the strategic plan or the creative concept. It also sits in the hundreds of small decisions that follow. Which nuance absolutely has to survive? Where can the message be simplified? What changes when a new stakeholder joins? When do you hold the chosen direction, and when do you adjust? If the people who set the strategy disappear after kick-off, part of the context often disappears with them. What's made afterwards can still look polished, but drifts step by step away from the original intent. So ask, very concretely:

• Who actually works on our assignment after the pitch?

• Who safeguards the strategic line during execution?

• Who do we discuss difficult choices or new information with?

• How is knowledge shared when multiple disciplines work together?

Seniority doesn't mean every task has to be done by the most expensive person. It means experienced people stay involved where their judgement makes the difference.
Strategy and execution aren't a relay where the baton is handed over once.
They need to stay in constant dialogue with each other.

4. Does the agency have an approach, or just talent?

Strong people matter. But with complex communication, you don't want to be entirely dependent on inspiration, gut feeling or having the right person around by chance. An agency needs to be able to explain how it goes from complexity to clarity. At Umbau, we use five movements for this: Understand, Map, Build, Activate and Upgrade. First we understand the context and the real issue. Then we map audiences, information and tensions. We build a strategy and creative system, translate that into concrete communication, and improve based on what we learn. Not every project goes through those steps to the same extent. Sometimes a short analysis is enough. Sometimes it takes months of research, co-creation and alignment. The value isn't in a rigid process, but in a shared logic: everyone knows which questions need answering first, and why. So don't just ask an agency what it will deliver, but also how it gets to that solution. A good answer is clear enough to build trust and flexible enough to account for your reality. Methodology should never become bureaucratic. It should make complex work simpler.

5. Can the agency define success before it starts?

Reach, impressions and clicks are useful signals. But they're rarely the end goal. A B2B campaign can generate a lot of traffic and still create no relevant opportunities. A participation process can be well attended without stakeholders feeling heard. A new positioning can spark internal enthusiasm but change nothing externally. Good measurement therefore doesn't start in the report afterwards. It starts before the first production. What does communication need to concretely change? More qualified conversations? A shorter sales cycle? More understanding of new policy? Greater use of a service? More internal alignment? Not everything fits neatly into one number. But without deciding in advance what progress means, every result afterwards becomes a success story. A strong agency helps distinguish between three levels:

• output: what was made and distributed?

• effect: what did people see, understand, feel or do?

• impact: what changed for the organisation?

Not every assignment has to generate revenue directly. But it should be clear what role communication plays in the bigger goal, and how you can tell along the way whether the chosen approach is working.

So what type of agency do you need?

There's no universal best agency. There is an agency that fits better with the assignment at hand.

Those profiles can come together in a single agency, but they don't have to. What matters more is that you don't buy more strategy than you need, and don't order execution too soon when the direction is still unclear.

And what about price?

A price comparison only makes sense once it's clear what value an agency needs to create. Two proposals with the same deliverables can have a completely different impact. And conversely, a more expensive process can turn out cheaper if it prevents you from having the wrong campaign, website or positioning built. A cheap agency that solves the wrong problem is rarely cheap. So don't just ask how many hours, workshops or concepts you get for a given amount. Ask above all which problem the agency solves with that, which choices it helps you make, and which risk it removes. Transparency about cost still matters. But price isn't a standalone selection criterion. It only gains meaning in relation to the complexity of the assignment, the expected impact and the responsibility the agency takes on.

And then there's the click

Strategy, expertise and methodology are rational selection criteria. Yet human collaboration still matters too. Complex communication is rarely solved in one perfect brief. New information surfaces along the way, priorities shift and discussions arise. So you need people who listen well, dare to be clear and can raise difficult issues without making the collaboration difficult. The right click doesn't mean an agency always agrees. On the contrary. A good partner doesn't constantly confirm what you already thought, but helps you make better decisions. Respectfully, with substance, and without theatre. So during a selection, don't just watch the final outcome of the pitch. Watch the conversation itself. Are you being questioned, or mostly persuaded? Is there room for nuance? Does it feel like the agency understands your complexity, or is it trying to push it into a familiar formula as quickly as possible? You often already see there how the collaboration will go later on.

Start with a better question

Choosing a communications agency, then, doesn't start with laying dozens of cases side by side. It starts with getting clear on exactly what you need help with.
Is the direction clear and are you looking for strong execution? Then choose an agency that excels at that.
Is the problem not yet sharp, are there many stakeholders, or do technical, strategic and creative expertise need to come together? Then look for a partner that first helps you understand, then makes choices, and then consistently executes those choices.
The right agency isn't necessarily the biggest, best-known or cheapest. It's the agency that understands what actually needs to change, and knows how to guide that change from strategy through to execution.

Do you have a communication issue that's too technical, too political or too new for a standard solution?
Then don't start by briefing a campaign.
Start by getting the problem clear.
Start with Simplify Complexity.

Frequently asked questions

What should you look for when choosing a communications agency?

Look for sector knowledge combined with enough distance, an approach that starts from the problem rather than the solution, senior involvement during execution, a clear methodology, and the ability to define success before the work starts.

Is the best communications agency always the one with the biggest cases?

No. An impressive portfolio mainly proves that an agency once did good work for someone else. What matters more is whether the agency fits the specific problem you need to solve.

What's the difference between an execution agency and a strategic agency?

An execution agency is strong when the direction is already set and you mainly need production capacity. A strategic agency first helps sharpen the problem before execution begins.

Why isn't price a good first selection criterion?

Two proposals with the same deliverables can have a completely different impact. Price only gains meaning in relation to the complexity of the assignment and the value the agency creates.

How do you measure the success of a communications agency?

By deciding in advance what progress means, and by distinguishing between output (what was made), effect (what people understood or did) and impact (what changed for the organisation).