When I worked agency-side, I couldn’t understand it. We’d send work to clients for review… nothing for days.
We’d try to book a meeting about something urgent… and get the reply: “How’s a week on Tuesday?
And yet if a client used the word urgent, we’d drop everything. Work weekends, late nights, Christmas Eve if we had to. Because urgent meant now.
But for the client? Urgent often meant… “sometime this week.”
The mismatch was infuriating. And it often led to resentment. Feelings like “Don’t they care about the campaign?” “Are we just not important to them?”
Fast forward to me sitting in the Marketing Director’s chair, and here’s the truth:
Sometimes no, it’s just not that important.
And no — you absolutely should not be missing your kid’s birthday to turn around a deck.
The Two Perspectives
Here’s the challenge, for agencies, the campaign is the most important thing.
It’s what the relationship revolves around. It’s the project the team has sweated over. It’s ultimately what they’re judged on and are incredibly passionate about.
For clients? The campaign is one of ten things — often not even in the top three.
Because alongside it sits:
- A board grilling on why the product isn’t working
- A finance team panicking over pricing
- A competitor dropping a better rate/idea/campaign – social media jibe
- HR fires, procurement issues, tech failures…
In that context, your brilliant creative work is important, but not existential.
Flip it around and the misunderstanding works the other way too.
Clients see agencies as extensions of their team. It’s true, even if it doesn’t feel like it all the time.
When they ask for a rebrief, or an extra round of concepts, or a “quick” full meeting, they rarely see the knock-on effect — or the ten other clients also expecting to feel like they’re the only one this week. And the best agencies account handlers always make you feel like you are number one!
So What Do We Do About It?
The answer isn’t in more Slack threads or polite email chains. It’s in talking more — properly.
- Be transparent about workloads and timelines, on both sides.
- Respect that “urgent” means different things depending on context. (Give the context!)
- Set expectations early: What’s the process, how do we flag slippage, what does a genuine emergency look like? How and when can we push back… on both sides.
- Learn how the other side works. Spend time in each other’s world and get to know each others priorities, be curious about what keeps each other up at night.
- Ditch the supplier/buyer mentality and treat it as a true partnership.
Because here’s the reality: shit happens.
People get pulled from pillar to post, on both sides. Deadlines slip. Priorities shift.
What matters isn’t pretending otherwise — it’s having the empathy, respect, and openness to navigate it together.
The So What?
The tension around time in client/agency relationships isn’t really about who’s busier.
It’s about perspective.
Agencies need to understand they’re one of many plates a client is spinning.
Clients need to understand agencies are spinning plates for many clients.
Bridging that gap takes honesty, empathy, and — most importantly — conversation.
Because if you want work to move faster, smoother, and with less resentment on either side…
Stop guessing and start talking. That’s where the magic happens.
The So What... 
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