The Agency Race: A Level Playing Field for Competing Creative Concepts

When a global brand works with multiple creative agencies, choosing the winning concept can become political. The Agency Race removes that problem. By producing all test animatics through a single production partner, every concept is executed to the same standard, and the decision comes down to consumer data rather than presentation skills or existing relationships.

Myth Labs regularly works on agency races for global FMCG brands where 3–5 scripts from different agencies are selected for testing. In this setup, we work directly with each agency on behalf of the brand, and we are contracted to the brand rather than to any individual agency. That independence is the point.

How It Works

We start with a kick-off call with the brand to scope the total number of deliverables, deadlines and format requirements. Once the project shape is clear, we arrange separate briefing sessions with each agency to fully understand their concept, script and creative intent.

Each animatic is then produced in parallel. We run review sessions with the brand and the respective agencies, working through a fixed number of revision stages. Once all animatics are finalised, they are delivered in the correct format for the brand's chosen testing methodology.

After Round 1

Testing typically produces a clear winner. In an agency race, the next step is usually a second phase of work on the chosen concept: further optimisations, regional variations or localisations for additional markets. This is often where the real value compounds, because the brand is now refining a concept that has already been validated with real consumers.

What Brands Get

Agency races take the subjectivity out of concept selection. Rather than a winning idea being chosen on the strength of a well-designed tissue session or an existing client-agency relationship, the decision rests on how the target audience actually responds. Through this model, Myth Labs has built long-standing relationships with both brands and their agency partners, often continuing to work on the winning concept through production and localisation.