A day in the life... an agency day at AML

AML Group, are a strategic, creative and experience communications agency who we partner with on various client projects as well as our annual Investor Index study.  The team at AML invited us (Razia, Research Exec in the qualitative team and Zuzanna, Research Exec in the quantitative team, to visit and spend a day at their offices, learning and exploring the behind-the-scenes of a creative agency.

Our team got the opportunity to spend time with the agency teams involved in the creative development process – Account Management, Strategy, Creative and Experience.

We began the day with the Strategic team, delving into the processes behind how they break down a client brief to build a holistic and clear understanding of the client’s aims and needs. As the team took us through their process, we found many parallels with our work at The Nursery in how we approach a client brief. There is a lot of effort and thought that goes into the initial stages of a project, which is an essential step in building an accurate business proposition that can provide a clear understanding that can be easily communicated to other teams within the business.

Another essential part of the strategic phase is exploring multiple aspects of a business, ranging from internal factors, such as culture and motivation, to external factors like socio-economic influences on the market. We discussed how the team go through a detailed analysis of available information and use this knowledge to guide the development of a creative proposition.

Next, we had a chat with the account manager at AML working for one of the agency’s top clients. We were able to step into his role and learn that account management aims to be the eyes of the client, fully understanding their needs, whilst also providing a bridge between the client and agency to arrive at the best outcome possible.

We then spent the afternoon with the Experience and Creative teams who gave us an insightful understanding of their work at the agency. We were fascinated with the breadth of information the Experience team works with to provide strategic and effective solutions to the clients. After we developed an understanding of what goes into building a creative proposition earlier in the day, it was intriguing to see how the proposition becomes a creative idea and client’s brief gets brought to life!

What were their biggest takeaways?

Razia - I think my biggest takeaway from this day is to have more appreciation and understanding of the thought and effort that goes into these creative ideas. It’s easy to scrutinise and dismiss ideas as “not that great” but as researchers understanding how the agency got to that point is interesting and quite crucial when researching.

Zuzanna - I really enjoyed seeing how each team at AML has their own expertise, and they work together to arrive at the best possible outcome. The diversity of skills and perspectives helps to take into account the many aspects which go into building a strategic and effective creative idea. Each step of the process is equally as important as the next, and the whole team has an appreciation for all aspects of the process.

We are thankful to our friends at AML for this opportunity to see how our work helps to shape and inform creative ideas.