Preferred
The Category Claim
Run it when: you want to be the agency a vertical thinks of first.
The best occasions are ones you create and buyers find useful whether or not they hire you. Kestrel’s annual benchmark is one. An industry read published under your name is the agency version.
The signal
Three or more clients in one industry, or a market you already know well.
What the client seesYour agency named as the expert in that category.
The re-readYearly, with the next edition.
The play, step by step.
It starts with a Score read and ends with a re-read.
- Read the whole industry, moment by moment, with the same questions for every brand.
- Publish what you find, in your brand, with the method shown and no brand shamed.
- Pitch the brands that lose at the moments that matter most.
- Speak where the industry gathers: association events, trade titles, round tables.
- Repeat it yearly, so the category starts quoting it.
The playbooks it needs
The how-tos inside it
The trap
Naming and shaming. Publish the pattern; pitch the specifics privately.