Tap below your knee and your leg kicks upward. It’s called the knee-jerk reflex—and if you choose your advertising-agency partner simply to prove that yes, everything you’re already doing is the best-possible way to position and market your brand, it’s what your agency relationship becomes: An exercise in self affirmation. And if you view your agency only as a service provider, a vendor, or an extension of your in-house resources, neither of you will get the best results from the other.

We pride ourselves on working with organizations that look to us as a source of insight and advice, and on maintaining a clear line of bidirectional communication that always puts answers first, regardless of whether they affirm or implicate the status quo.