We’ve spent nearly a decade working with early-stage startups and growing companies enhancing their marketing efforts and leveraging their capabilities. What we’ve learned so far is that people remember only the impression they make, not the amount they’ve spent on advertising and marketing. And to create that lasting impression, requires expertise, fresh ideas, and perfect execution of campaigns.
The ratio of advertising agencies in Hong Kong has been growing steadily which attests to the fact that more executives are hiring marketing agencies in HK to help them scale their businesses. Because in today’s complex and competitive landscape, influencing customers to open up their wallets is no easy feat.
Many growing businesses lack the resources and expertise to consistently execute a successful advertising/marketing plan.
So, if you truly want to take your business to the next level, you must uncover untapped marketing strategies to bring your product/service to the public, effectively sell them, and drive demand and growth.
In this guide, we’ve shared all the genuine reasons (no intention of selling our services, we swear!) why you should hire a specialist HK advertising agency.
Read and decide for yourself if your business needs help from an external agency for advertising at this stage or not.
What is an advertising agency?
An advertising agency (aka creative agency or ad agency) is a company that typically has a creative team of specialists such as copywriters, marketing geniuses, ad gurus, design nerds, development ninjas, branding maestros, and media planning experts. The agency provides you with a flexible, contract-based opportunity to help you sell your product/service to the right audience and grow your business.
Instead of hiring an in-house marketing team, outsourcing your marketing efforts can save your business time and money while providing numerous other benefits.
What does an advertising agency do?
The agency is dedicated to creating, planning, and handling overall branding, promotion, advertising, marketing, and communication for its clients with the primary goal of generating sales. Typically, the target clients of advertising agencies include Startups, SMEs, large corporations, e-commerce businesses, SAAS companies, and NGOs.
External advertising agency Vs. in-house team
The ultimate difference between an external advertising agency and an in-house team is expertise and experience. External advertising agencies have worked with many clients which gave them hands-on experience in creating successful advertising campaigns, what’s working and what’s not. They can provide unrivalled assistance, expertise, and industry-specific help and can work seamlessly with your in-house team to drive exceptional results.
External advertising agencies are more focused on results. They help you remove roadblocks and problems that your in-house team can’t spare time to facilitate.
An external advertising agency has its own culture and can break the standards when it comes to being creative and extraordinary. Whereas, your in-house teams are bound to follow the brand’s culture every single day which is sometimes challenging for them to fetch game-changing results.
Overall, working with an external agency can provide access to specialised expertise and resources, as well as an objective perspective on marketing efforts. However, it can also be more costly than building an in-house team. On the other hand, an in-house team allows for more control and flexibility, but it may lack the technical skills and resources that an agency can offer.
The benefits of hiring an HK advertising agency
In addition to creating value for your business and successfully reaching consumers, hiring an ad agency provides numerous advantages.
1. Expertise
The greatest advantage of hiring a Hong Kong advertising agency is a diverse team of industry experts who have the knowledge and experience to help you achieve your business objectives. 35 percent of B2B marketers say they don’t have the resources available to handle specific tasks internally.
That said, they need assistance from an external agency to identify the problems and get the job done. Agencies bring collective expertise to do research and competitor analysis and apply the tactics to achieve better outcomes from the advertising budget.
2. Frequent brainstorming sessions
Marketing agencies typically have experienced creative directors who lead teams of skilled copywriters, designers, and animators. These professionals can transform a basic business concept into a memorable marketing campaign through various mediums such as websites, billboards, and advertisements. There are recurring brainstorming sessions before executing any marketing or advertising campaign for a client to come up with a cutthroat idea.
Brainstorming sessions encourage out-of-the-box thinking, which can lead to innovative solutions to problems. They allow team members to share their unique perspectives, which can give a business a competitive advantage.
3. Deliver human-centric creative ideas
“Creativity may well be the last legal unfair competitive advantage we can take to run over the competition.” – Dave Trott
Advertising agencies don’t follow the rules. They think outside the box to bring fresh, creative ideas to the table. And often these ideas are born out of human truth. The events of 2020 have driven a shift towards prioritising humanity over technology.
And one of the most powerful, emotional, and influential ideas of that time is summed up in 3 words: Black Lives Matter. While we may not all personally understand the experience of being Black, we can all recognize the inherent value of human life.
Even though Black Lives Matter is not a marketing slogan, understanding the value of human life can guide us in creating messaging that promotes positive change. We long for what’s familiar, nostalgic, and connect to our day-to-day lives. It’s not simply a matter of advertising, but of promoting values that are essential to an equitable society.
Advertising agencies realise that the audience loves ideas based on universal human truths—something we can all accede to. They don’t go after content pollution that is meaningless noise rather create meaningful, impactful messaging that resonates with people and makes them feel something.
4. Rejuvenate your marketing campaigns
As you spend more time running your business, it’s natural for your campaigns and ideas to start feeling repetitive. It can become increasingly challenging to come up with fresh, creative approaches to promote your products or services.
This is normal – we all have our own writing styles and ways of thinking, and there’s only so much you can do to keep things interesting when promoting the same thing all the time.
The HK advertising agency helps you break out of this rut and reinvigorate your strategy by bringing fresh ideas as two heads are better than one.
5. Advertising agencies are data-driven
Data is a powerful tool that helps businesses make better, more informed, and quicker decisions. According to a survey by Gartner Inc., 72% of data and analytics leaders with digital initiatives are heavily involved in their organisation’s digital transformation efforts.
Agencies have experienced data analysts who understand how to incorporate data-centric planning and decision-making into their clients’ businesses and their own agency culture.
To ensure a data-driven culture, agencies use the right tools to leverage data and empower their teams to make key decisions based on data analysis.
Additionally, this data-driven agency culture helps them win the right clients which ultimately helps them succeed together.
6. Advertising agencies know the traits of a successful ad
For years, digital advertising agencies have been offering a simple, oft-repeated value proposition to brands by creating the right ad and delivering it to the right person, at the right time.
Advertising agencies are well-versed in the traits that make a successful ad campaign which include clear and compelling messaging that resonates with the target audience, strong visual appeal, uniqueness, and relevance.
However, they also A/B test different variations according to industry and niche to figure out which ad format works best for which audience.
At Hypabeez, we’ve been running ads for over a decade for our clients and what we’ve observed so far is that relevance, attention-grabbing headlines, CTAs, and strong visuals always outperform content-heavy ads in terms of higher engagement and ad recall.
Also, when we include numbers, a bit of humour, bright colours, memorable catchphrases, and videos in ads, they drive 43% more neural engagement and inspire 70% purchase intent.
7. Make the most of your advertising budget
When it comes to advertising budgets, businesses want to fetch the best results out of their investments. They want maximum leads with minimum investment, especially from Google Ads. HK advertising agencies understand how to minimise budget spend and generate targeted leads. They know how the algorithms work and how to leverage the platform better.
8. Track and optimise results
Agencies with a decade of experience are chief problem solvers because they’ve been in the digital landscape for a while, gained a lot of experience, faced obstacles, witnessed failed campaigns, and tried and tested different strategies. They know how to pivot and create solutions to achieve great outcomes.