Big Agency vs Small Agency
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- seventys0
I don't know how things work in London, but normally, in a big agency, you will receive better pay and more benefits. Additionally, the chances are very good that you will occupy a very specialized role, usually divided along designer, copywriter, animator or developer. This can be a good thing in that you no longer have to keep up with all of the latest programming paradigms and methods, but you may miss being so close to the technology.
Now, even with bigger ad agencies or what not, there is a great deal of variety. There are some that may belong to a bigger holding company, but within its interactive division, things may still operate like a small agency environment, in which case you can benefit from higher profile projects, while being able to get your hands dirty. But there are also agencies, which tend to be so large that it is mired in bureaucracy, a bloated creative hierarchy and review process, and general political bullshit. You'll likely have politics wherever you go, but normally in a smaller agency, you can hash things out with people on a one-on-one basis.
Personally, I have always found the work being done at smaller agencies to be more cutting-edge and innovative, at least where interactive is concerned. I think that is largely due to the fact that a small agency can be more nimble with newer technologies and be more focused. In a big agency, chances are that the clients need to speak to the largest demographic possible, which will usually entail watering down your ideas for the lowest common denominator. But it's not always that way either. There have been plenty of big agencies, where I've seen some very innovative thought. I tend to find that big agencies do better conceptual thinking and strategy than smaller agencies. My observation has been that small agencies tend to be more like a 3rd party vendor being outsourced to do very specific things for a site or a project, whereas a big agency comes up with the broader thinking. If you're into doing the high-level concept work, a big agency is definitely the place to be.Anyways, that's my two cents. I hope that helps.