You don’t need to be the CEO to influence how a business changes.
We often talk about business transformation as if it happens somewhere far above us.
In the boardroom.
In strategy meetings.
In decisions about products, investments and business models.
And then there is marketing — somewhere further down the chain, translating those decisions into campaigns.
But that’s not really how influence works.
Especially in an agency.
You don’t have to own the business to influence it
An agency might not control the product.
It might not control the supply chain.
It might not control the pricing.
It might not even control the final business decision.
But it can influence the questions being asked.
And sometimes, that is where change starts.
A brief can be challenged.
A target audience can be reconsidered.
A KPI can be questioned.
A proposition can be reframed.
A different behaviour can be made desirable.
A client can be shown an opportunity they hadn’t considered.
None of these require a seat on the board.
They require a point of view.
The brief is a lever
We’ve already talked about how the best briefs don’t always start with the product.
But the same principle applies to the agency itself.
Every brief contains assumptions.
About the audience.
About the problem.
About the solution.
About what success looks like.
And agencies are in a unique position to question those assumptions because we’re often looking at the problem from outside the organisation.
That doesn’t mean we know better.
It means we can see something different.
The most valuable contribution might sometimes be a campaign idea.
But it might also be:
“What if we looked at this differently?”
Small decisions can have a bigger effect
Marketing has influence across much more than communications — from strategy and innovation to measurement, relationships and the choices organisations make. It also argues for a more active role for marketing in guiding and co-creating change rather than simply responding to existing demand.
That doesn’t mean every marketer needs to become a sustainability strategist.
It means recognising that marketing decisions have consequences.
What we put into culture matters.
What we make desirable matters.
What we choose to measure matters.
What we recommend to clients matters.
And what we choose to challenge matters too.
Influence doesn’t always look dramatic
You don’t need to transform an entire organisation overnight.
Sometimes it’s a small shift.
A different question in a brief.
A more ambitious KPI.
A product team reconsidering one feature.
A client deciding to test a different business model.
A campaign that makes a new behaviour feel normal.
One decision influences another.
And eventually, those decisions can add up to something much bigger.
This is also why agencies matter
If agencies see themselves only as suppliers of creative output, their influence will always be limited.
But if they see themselves as strategic partners, their responsibility — and their opportunity — becomes much bigger.
We get invited into conversations because we’re supposed to bring expertise.
So we should use it.
Not to dominate the conversation.
Not to tell clients what to do.
But to help them see possibilities they might not have seen themselves.
You don’t need permission to have a point of view
This might be the most important part.
Influence doesn’t always come from authority.
Sometimes it comes from being the person willing to ask:
Why are we doing it this way?
What are we assuming?
What else could solve this problem?
What are we actually trying to change?
And what happens if we don’t?
Those questions might not always change the brief.
But they can change the conversation.
And sometimes, that’s where the real work begins.
Because you don’t need to be the CEO to influence the direction of a business.
You just need to be willing to use the influence you already have.
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