Choosing an advertising agency is a big decision. The right one will understand your audience, find the idea that moves them and get it in front of them in the right places. The wrong one will make ads that look good and change nothing. This checklist from Gatecrasher, a Perth advertising agency in Subiaco since 2001, covers what to look for and what to ask.
1. Start with the problem you need to solve
Before you call an agency, write down what needs to change. More applications? Fewer people speeding? More enquiries? An agency should ask about the behaviour and the business result before it talks about ads.
2. Look for research before ideas
Good advertising is built on a sharp insight about the audience. Ask how the agency finds it. When the WA Police Force needed to recruit more than 950 new officers within 12 months, we interviewed and surveyed well over one hundred officers before writing a word. That research found the insight behind the campaign: policing is fundamentally about people. It became Police are looking for people like you.
3. Check the work, not the awards list
Look at campaigns the agency has made for organisations like yours, and ask what each one was trying to change. Our work includes road safety, public health, mental health, education, tourism and brand campaigns, such as Speed Shatters Your Excuses for the Road Safety Commission and Wrap yourself in wonder for Rottnest Island.
4. One team or many?
Many campaigns lose their idea as they move from strategy to creative to production to media. Ask who does what, and whether the work is outsourced. At Gatecrasher, strategy, creative, digital and production sit in one team, with filmmakers, editors, animators and writers in-house. One brief, one team, one response.
5. Ask how they plan channels
An agency should choose channels based on where the audience will see and act on the message. For No Voice to Violence, which aimed to reduce the sharing of school fight videos, the message ran on the platforms students use every day, including Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Spotify, as well as in schools and public spaces.
6. Agree how success will be measured
Agree up front what will be counted: applications, quit line calls, enquiries, sales, observed behaviour or tracking research on attitudes. If an agency cannot tell you how a campaign will be judged, it will be hard to know whether it worked.
7. Make sure it can move fast
Deadlines move. With production in-house, an agency can turn work around quickly without dropping quality. Alzheimers WA needed a video for its 2025 Dementia Symposium at short notice: "Gatecrasher delivered beyond expectations for our Dementia Symposium 2025 video, turning around a high-impact, beautifully produced piece at incredibly short notice," said Tracey King of Alzheimers WA.
8. Look for a culture you want to work with
You will spend a lot of time with your agency. Ask who will work on your account, and whether they care about the problem as much as you do. At Gatecrasher our motivation is people who are like-minded and results that matter.
Questions to ask in the first meeting
- What research would you do before writing the creative?
- Who in your team would work on our account?
- What is done in-house and what is outsourced?
- How would you measure whether this worked?
- Can you show us work that changed what people did?
Talk to a Perth advertising agency
Gatecrasher is a full-service advertising and creative agency based at 1/8 Alvan St, Subiaco, working for clients in Western Australia and nationally. Read about behaviour change marketing, see our work or get in touch.
