I'm about to venture into my second largest project of the year (I won't say with whom), and once again (as with the largest) I will be sitting in a room with four other agencies in efforts to align toward our mutual client's needs. In this particular case, to take a multi-million dollar brand to a national audience, as opposed to its current local audience/small international footprint. My shop will play the role of digital strategy/execution in alignment with PR, Branding and Direct Marketing.

It seems as though there's a trend as of late for larger clients to source out bits and pieces of larger practices in efforts to get a "best of breeds" solution. Sounds great in theory, right?

Well, yes, and I suppose it could be great in real life too. I mean, it's a small world, chances are we've worked with most of each other before, Toronto is a small city with only a handful of agencies that deal with Tier 1 clients. I've worked with a few of them, and essentially you meet the same people every few months, either at the same agency, or another one in the mix. Everyone comes and goes, but ultimately it's just a big talent shuffle. You know you'll end up back where you belong, one of the seven sisters, or a periphery shop (like where I am right now and call home). Ultimately, provided you're working with a popular shop, you'll probably work with somebody you've worked with before, or somebody you know through somebody else and therefore it's quite similar to working with another team in the same company. The trick is to look at it from a macrocosmic perspective.

Agency = Department
VP = Team Lead
etc.

I don't really have much more to say about it right now. I'll update once teams start to align.

Cheers,
Jon