Lara Varrica.
Lara Varrica, Senior Account Manager, Vonnimedia
As a previous marketing manager, I have worked very closely with agencies. Now I sit on the other side of the fence, and that shift has fundamentally changed how I think about the partnership, value, and what agencies are actually utilised for.
If there’s one thing I wish more marketing managers heard earlier in their careers, is the understanding that using an agency well is one of the most strategic decisions you can make.
As a marketing manager, your job isn’t to be the best media buyer, copywriter, or platform expert in the room. It’s to know your business inside out, the goals, the constraints, the politics, the budget, and when something is going to land and when it's not. You’re the connective tissue between commercial reality and marketing activity.
Agencies exist to complement that, not compete with it.
Agencies work best when they take ownership of the craft so you can protect the strategy. Execution-heavy tasks like media buying, platform optimisation, testing frameworks, and creative iteration don’t need to sit with the person steering the business direction. Marketers need specialists who live and breathe those channels every day.
The strongest client relationships I’ve had are built on that division of responsibility. Marketing managers own internal strategy, priorities, and alignment. Agencies own the “how”, grounded in deep channel expertise, pattern recognition, and executional excellence. When both sides respect that line, everything moves faster and works harder.
What surprised me most after moving to agency side was how much our role is about helping marketing managers and directors shine.
A good agency isn’t trying to be the hero. Our job is to make you look good internally. To help you connect marketing activity back to business outcomes, to surface opportunities you might not have the time or headspace to see and to pressure test ideas, flag risks early, and bring solutions, not just reports.
That mindset is intentional and every person in our agency has come from an in-house role. So we understand the pressure, the competing priorities, the scrutiny from leadership, and the reality of limited resources. That context changes how you show up as a partner.
And agencies can offer more than just “placing ads”.
One of the biggest advantages agencies bring is perspective. Agencies work across hundreds of brands, industries, and growth stages. We see patterns emerging before they’re obvious. We borrow ideas across verticals. We know what’s working, what’s fatigued, and where the next lever might be.
That outside the box in thinking is a strategic asset. It’s something internal teams can tap into when they need momentum, challenge, or a fresh lens, without carrying the full executional load themselves.
The best agency relationships feel like an extension of the internal marketing team. They’re collaborative, honest, and commercially aware. They respect that marketing managers are juggling far more than campaigns. And they’re energised by the opportunity to help businesses grow, not just deliver outputs.
From both sides of the fence, I’ve learned this; when marketing managers and agencies truly understand each other’s roles, the work stops being transactional; it becomes strategic, and that’s where the real impact lives.