For 15 years, I worked on the client side of marketing and I loved it. I was fortunate to work for a number of great companies: Kraft, Oland Specialty Beer Company and Labatt. I enjoyed working with talented people to build and grow some great brands.

For the past two years, I have been working on the agency side of the business, here at Grip Limited, and I am finding that I love this side of the business as well. It’s very different, but equally exciting and challenging, and I am happy I made the move over to agency side.

With this move, however, comes a change in orientation that is hard to describe, but it is very real. You think about things in a different way, and while you are still working to build brands (your client’s versus your own, primarily) you are on the other side of the table and the role you play is a different one. That is until, once again, you are the client.

This happened to me last week.

There has been a project underway at Grip for quite a while to redesign and evolve the Grip website into something that accurately demonstrates our digital capabilities. I had been constantly using the analogy of the cobbler’s kids not having shoes when I tried to explain to people how we have this incredible digital capability at Grip but a website that looked like it was designed 8 years ago (which it was, by the way).

This all changed last week when we launched our new killer website. If you have not already, you really should check it out, here. While I could make this post all about how incredible the site is, it is what it made me feel when I saw it that took me back to my client days.

When Colin Craig (the genius who led the design of the site) walked me though the final version, it was like I was a client again. I eagerly watched as he toured me around the site, showing me the content, the unique ways the site could be navigated and some of the fun little Easter eggs that are hidden within (next time you are listening to one of our radio ads on the site, try scratching the 45 with your mouse like a DJ).

With each passing moment I became more and more impressed with what the team had created. I got this proud feeling. It was not just that the team here had done such great work, it was that I was seeing something that made me feel better about the Grip brand – a brand that, understandably, I have a huge amount of passion for.

It was one of those magical client moments that I am fortunate to have had a number of in my relatively short career. It was one of those moments when I thought to myself, “This is so much better than what I thought it would or could be.”

These moments are what drive us to want to be marketers and, as agency folks, they are what make our clients willing to trust us to help them build their most valuable assets: their brands.

I spent some time over the past couple of days trying to distill this experience down and trying to extract what it is that makes these moments as powerful as they are. How can we, as an agency, more consistently deliver this feeling of sheer excitement and joy to our clients? Here is what I came up with:

1) Truly understand what you are being asked to do for the brand, even if it is not perfectly articulated in the brief.
When our executive team briefed Colin on the site, we asked him to build something more contemporary that better fit with the Grip brand image. A weak brief, indeed, but Colin had a lot of the background from his time here at Grip. He truly understood what we wanted and needed. We needed a site that demonstrated how powerful the digital team here at Grip had become, something that showcased the talent of the group. Something that made clients want to work with us and talented individuals want to come and work for us. Understanding this nuance meant the difference between a good site and an incredible experience. We need to find this nuance for our clients.

2) Find a way to deliver a little more than is expected.
This may seem obvious, but it can be very powerful. When, as a client, you see something that truly comes above and beyond the ask in a meaningful way, it takes you back a little. This feeling of discovery is wonderful and impactful. How can we make sure we always come back with something a little better than expected? (Notice I say better not more – there’s a difference there that runs deeper than semantics.)

3) Present your work with passion and enthusiasm.
It will show through if you believe in the work you are presenting. Again, no rocket science here but the enthusiasm you have for the idea can and likely will be contagious. People want to be excited about the work. It helps if you are excited presenting the work. When Colin took me through the site, his excitement in moving from section to section rubbed off on me and I became exponentially impressed with each new element.

I hope in the future that I continue to have days like these, that I can look back upon as moments in my career when I was truly blown away by the over-delivery of what was presented to me. Equally, I hope as an agency that we can provide these moments for our clients on a consistent basis. I believe we can.