Clients get a better deal with small shops
Small and independent shops have less layers, and a greater proportion of people who get directly impacted by the agency-client relationship. If an account gets lost, everyone from the CEO down gets impacted.
At large agencies, like the one I work at, who’s affected if an account is lost? The people servicing the account don’t lose money - they can just pick up and switch agencies. The CEO will perhaps get a smaller bonus and the stock price will dip. Maybe this is just the way I feel…the account I’m on is so big that I can’t really control whether it stays or goes. If the agency gets fired, I know that I won’t really be blamed for it. However, if I were at a small company and the client I was servicing made up one-fifth of the agency revenue, I would be making damn sure that that client was happy.