Creative Chemistry: 7 Ways to Turn Your Agency into a Stronger Creative Partner

In-house creatives at destination marketing organizations sit at the intersection of strategy, storytelling and execution. You are not just managing design requests. You’re a steward of a destination brand living across channels, partners and experiences. 

Working with an agency should amplify that role, not complicate it. The difference between productive collaboration and endless revisions often comes down to clarity of strategy, briefs, priorities and ownership. 

In-house DMO creatives need to set their agencies up for success so the work is sharper, faster and more aligned to what actually moves the destination forward.

1. Prioritize Strategy Over Design

A strong destination brand is more than a logo, palette or campaign look. It is a strategic framework. Anchor work in positioning, brand promise and audience to ensure a common thread runs through everything. Reviewing creative output through taste alone leads to inconsistency and generic work. 

Push your agency to constantly ask the same question: does this reflect and serve the agreed upon message of the destination client? Having a clear strategy from the start makes this easier to answer.

2. Write Briefs More Effectively

The brief is where good agency management begins. An effective brief gives your agency the problem to solve, the audience to persuade, the brand truth to protect and the practical guardrails that matter.

A clear brief removes ambiguity, reduces revisions and helps agency partners focus their energy on solving the right problem. Be generous with details and insight to set your agency up for success.

3. Differentiate Original Output vs. Adaptable Creative

Not every deliverable deserves the same level of creative exploration. Some moments call for originality, like a campaign platform, new brand identity, signature video, major launch asset or big idea that has to shape perception. 

Other moments call for adaptation of existing collateral, like resizing, versioning, translating, templating or extending an established system. 

Be explicit with your agency about when you need big ideas versus when you need efficiency and adaptation within an existing system.

4. Be Consistent, Not Repetitive

Consistency builds brand recognition over time, but that does not mean everything should look identical. Strong brands create recognizable patterns in tone, message, design behavior, photography, motion, partner materials and campaign assets.

Invite your agency to embrace these patterns to help the destination become easier to remember over time. Make clear which patterns are non-negotiable and which ones they can experiment with.

5. Prioritize Work to Advance the Destination

In-house creative teams move fast, managing many stakeholders and responding to urgent requests. The trap is treating every deliverable as equally important, but realistically, they aren’t.

Some assets are high-value perception builders while others simply need to be clear, correct and completed. Ensure your agency focuses time and energy on the work that builds long-term brand value and drives outcomes.

6. Build Relationships, Not Just Output

The best agency relationships are built on trust, candor and clear ownership. A DMO creative does not need to micromanage every pixel, but they do need to create the conditions for good work. 

Provide timely feedback, consolidated comments, access to context, clear decision-makers and respect for the agency’s craft. This communication fosters healthier working relationships that ultimately serve the client.

7. Match Production Method to Purpose

Canva, PowerPoint and editable templates have made design more democratic, which is often a good thing. DMOs need speed, flexibility and materials that partners can actually use. But not every piece of creative content should be endlessly editable. 

Decide early which assets need flexibility and which need control to protect brand integrity. Grant your agency access to everything they need to succeed, but don’t feel the need to hand over the keys to the whole house.

Ready to act?

Great agency management is all about brand stewardship. The more clearly you connect strategy, channels, production realities and creative ambition, the more useful your agency becomes. The result?  A stronger destination brand to serve your communities.

All of this only works when the in-house creative and agency partner have clear lanes, mutual trust and a shared understanding of what the brand is trying to achieve.

Looking to reevaluate how you manage your external agencies? Get in touch with Michael Mackay at Michael.Mackay@aboutdci.com to learn from DCI’s experienced team of destination marketers.