Hiring a Creative Agency: Lessons from John Frieda

Most startups wait too long to take “brand” seriously—and then try to fix it with a flurry of ads when growth stalls.

John Frieda didn’t do that. The haircare brand appointed VCCP as its global creative agency after a competitive pitch (won in 2024), and it’s already unveiled the first work from the partnership. On paper, that’s a big-brand agency story. In practice, it’s a clean case study in how to pick an agency, what to brief them on, and how to structure marketing so you’re not just buying attention—you’re building memory.

This post sits in our British Small Business Digital Marketing series, so we’ll translate the agency move into actions a UK small business, startup, or scaleup can use—especially if you’re trying to improve brand awareness, sharpen your positioning, and make your digital spend work harder.

What John Frieda’s agency move signals (and why startups should care)

Answer first: Appointing a global creative agency is a commitment to consistency—one strategy, one voice, many markets and channels.

When an established brand consolidates creative with a partner like VCCP, it’s rarely about “prettier ads.” It’s about strategic clarity. A single agency relationship makes it easier to:

• Create a consistent brand story across paid social, video, retail media, and packaging
• Make faster decisions (fewer stakeholders interpreting the brand differently)
• Build distinctive assets over time (colours, tone, characters, recurring messages)

For startups, the parallel is simple: you don’t need a “global agency.” You need a repeatable creative system that makes your marketing cheaper and more effective each quarter.

The myth: performance marketing replaces brand

Answer first: Performance works better when brand does its job first.

I’ve found that many UK startups treat brand as decoration and performance as the real engine. The reality is more annoying: once the cheap clicks disappear, you need people to recognise you, trust you, and remember you—and that’s brand work.

Even if you’re running purely digital campaigns, your creative still has two jobs:

1. Earn attention (stopping power)
2. Create memory (so the next impression is cheaper and converts better)

That’s the logic behind many big brand agency appointments—and it’s the same logic that stops smaller brands from burning money on churn-and-burn acquisition.

How to choose a creative agency (without wasting six months)

Answer first: Pick for strategic fit and operating rhythm, not just a “nice reel.”

John Frieda’s appointment came from a competitive pitch. You probably won’t run a formal pitch, but you should replicate the discipline: clear criteria, real-world tests, and a decision that optimises for execution.

Use a 4-part selection scorecard

Answer first: Your scorecard should reward clarity, speed, and channel realism.

Here’s a practical scorecard I recommend for UK startups hiring a creative agency (or even a freelance creative team). Score each category 1–5.

1. Strategy strength

   • Can they explain your customer problem back to you in plain English?
   • Do they have a point of view on positioning, not just visuals?

2. Creative effectiveness

   • Do their ideas simplify the message?
   • Can they show evidence of impact (e.g., lift in branded search, improved CTR, improved conversion rate)?

3. Channel fluency

   • Can they design for paid social, short-form video, landing pages, and retail placements?
   • Do they understand how creative testing works (hooks, variants, cut-downs)?

4. Operating cadence

   • Weekly working sessions?
   • Clear feedback loops?
   • A process that won’t collapse when your roadmap changes?

If an agency scores high on creativity but low on operating cadence, you’ll feel it by week three.

Ask for a “first 30 days” plan

Answer first: The best agencies can explain exactly what they’ll do next month.

Before you sign, ask: “What do the first 30 days look like?” A serious answer includes:

• A messaging and positioning workshop
• Competitive teardown (your category, not generic “insights”)
• A creative platform proposal (one organising idea, not ten random concepts)
• A production plan that fits your budget

This is also where you detect fluff. If they can’t outline week-by-week actions, they’ll struggle to drive outcomes.

Briefing like a grown-up: what to give your agency so the work lands

Answer first: A good brief is a decision document—what you’re willing to commit to, and what you’re not.

Big brands like John Frieda can support new creative work with distribution and time. Startups need to be sharper: your brief must reduce ambiguity.

The “one page that matters” brief structure

Answer first: Write one page that nails audience, promise, proof, and the single action.

Keep it tight:

• Audience: who exactly, and what situation are they in when they buy?
• Promise: what outcome do you deliver in human terms?
• Proof: what makes it believable (data, mechanism, testimonials, credentials)?
• Single-minded message: what should someone remember the next day?
• Call-to-action: what do you want them to do now?

Snippet-worthy truth: If your brief has three primary messages, you have zero.

Define what “good” looks like with measurable signals

Answer first: Agree success metrics that match your stage: awareness, consideration, or conversion.

For lead-generation startups (the goal of this campaign), use a small set of metrics depending on maturity:

• Early-stage awareness: branded search volume, direct traffic, video completion rates
• Consideration: landing page engagement, email signups, demo intent clicks
• Conversion: cost per lead, lead-to-meeting rate, meeting-to-close rate

You’re not trying to “prove brand” with one number. You’re trying to remove arguments later.

What “first work” should do: build a platform, not a one-off

Answer first: The first campaign from a new agency partnership should establish a creative platform you can repeat.

The article notes John Frieda has unveiled the first work from VCCP. For startups, the useful question isn’t “was it pretty?” It’s: does it create a repeatable structure for future marketing?

A creative platform typically includes:

• A consistent tone of voice (what you sound like)
• A visual system (what you look like)
• A core claim (what you’re known for)
• A set of flexible formats (how it shows up across channels)

A simple test: can you make 20 ads without inventing a new brand?

Answer first: If every new ad requires a new concept, you don’t have a platform—you have a content treadmill.

Try this internal exercise:

1. Write your single-minded message in 10 words.
2. List 5 proof points.
3. List 5 customer scenarios.
4. Combine them into 25 rough ad angles.

If that’s hard, it’s a positioning problem, not a production problem. An agency should help solve that.

How UK startups can apply this in digital marketing (even on a tight budget)

Answer first: You can copy the structure of big-brand agency partnerships with a smaller team by focusing on systems.

You don’t need a global AOR relationship to benefit from the same principles. Here’s what works for UK small businesses trying to improve digital marketing outcomes.

Build “distinctive assets” that make every channel cheaper

Answer first: Distinctive assets reduce your cost of attention because people recognise you faster.

Pick and commit to:

• 2–3 brand colours used consistently in ads and site
• One font system
• A repeatable visual motif (frames, shapes, product shot style)
• A recognisable opening pattern for video (first 1–2 seconds)

This is unsexy work, but it compounds.

Use a two-speed creative approach

Answer first: Separate “platform” creative from “testing” creative so you don’t burn out.

• Platform creative (quarterly): the hero story, visuals, and messaging guardrails
• Testing creative (weekly): hooks, angles, offers, objections, UGC-style iterations

Agencies are often good at platform thinking; performance teams are often good at iterations. Your job is to connect them.

Make the agency relationship lead-friendly

Answer first: If your goal is leads, your creative must connect directly to your conversion path.

Practical moves:

• Use the same phrasing in ads and landing pages (message match)
• Put proof close to the CTA: testimonials, logos, simple numbers
• Reduce form friction: ask fewer questions, qualify later
• Track the full funnel: not just CPL, but lead quality and close rate

A lot of “creative that doesn’t convert” is actually creative that isn’t aligned with the landing page and sales follow-up.

Quick Q&A: what founders usually ask before hiring an agency

Should a startup hire a creative agency or build in-house?

Answer first: Hire for strategy and a platform; keep production and iteration close to the business.

If you can only afford one thing, prioritise positioning + creative direction first. Then use lightweight production (freelancers, templated editing) to scale.

When is the right time to appoint an agency?

Answer first: When you have product-market fit signals and need consistent demand generation.

Signs you’re ready:

• Sales process is repeatable
• You know your best customer segment
• You’re spending enough on marketing that inconsistency is expensive

What should we put in an agency contract?

Answer first: Define outputs, cadence, ownership, and decision rights.

At minimum: deliverables per month, revision rounds, turnaround times, IP usage, and who signs off.

The real lesson from John Frieda x VCCP

John Frieda appointing VCCP as global creative agency is a reminder that brand building is an operating choice. It’s choosing consistency over constant reinvention, and clarity over cleverness.

For UK startups working through the same problem—how to stand out in crowded categories while still hitting lead targets—the playbook is straightforward: pick a partner (or a small team) that can set a creative platform, then run a disciplined testing cadence on top of it.

What would change in your marketing this quarter if you committed to one message and one recognisable creative system—then gave it long enough to compound?