Attention is the most expensive currency in 2025, and most brands are broke. Audiences expect more than advertising: they expect ideas that connect with their values, cut through endless scrolling and spark real conversations.
The best brands are working with creative agencies that understand how culture moves, from social-first storytelling to branded entertainment and immersive experiences. These agencies are no longer side players but essential partners in shaping how people see, talk about and act on a brand.
This piece explores what creative agencies do today, the services they offer, and how to choose the right one.
What Is a Creative Agency?
A creative agency exists to stop people scrolling past your brand like it doesn’t matter. In 2025, that can mean anything from a campaign platform and visual identity to TikTok-native content, branded content or large-scale experiences.
Different from agencies focused solely on media buying or performance, creative agencies specialise in shaping the concepts, stories and assets that audiences actually engage with.
The goal is to take a strategy and translate it into cultural moments that travel across channels - work that captures attention, earns media and creates lasting impact for the brand.
What Does a Creative Agency Do?
Creative agencies turn strategy into stories, campaigns and experiences that earn attention. The exact mix of services varies, but in 2025, most agencies cover:
- Brand and communications strategy – insight, positioning and campaign platforms.
- Creative development – concepts, storytelling, copy, design and visual identity.
- Content production – video, social-first content, photography, animation and branded entertainment.
- Social and influence – TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, creators and community activations.
- Experiential and immersive – stunts, pop-ups, AR/VR and live events.
- PR and earned thinking – ideas designed for media pick-up and cultural buzz.
- Measurement – tracking earned reach, engagement, sentiment and brand lift.
Creative vs Marketing vs Branding Agencies
The terms often overlap, but each type of agency plays a distinct role:
- Marketing agencies buy the space.
- Branding agencies write the rulebook.
- Creative agencies make people actually give a sh*t.
In practice, brands often use a mix. A creative agency is the partner that makes strategy visible and memorable, turning a brand’s promise into work people talk about.
Why Work With a Creative Agency
Working with a creative agency gives brands access to diverse talent and fresh perspectives. In a crowded market, the right idea can achieve more than a media budget alone. Creative agencies help:
- Cut through noise with concepts designed for earned attention and cultural relevance.
- Reach new audiences on the platforms where they spend time, from TikTok to immersive live experiences.
- Build trust by creating stories aligned with consumer values like sustainability, diversity and social impact.
- Turn pennies into punchlines and airtime into headlines.
- Measure impact in terms of engagement, reach, sentiment and brand response.
Don’t Panic: Creativity with a Conscience
Don’t Panic was founded on the belief that creativity should matter in the real world, not just in adland. Our ethos, creativity founded in protest, means we make work that entertains, engages, and, when it needs to, enrages. Every campaign is designed for cultural cut-through: ideas people share, journalists write about, and audiences act on.
A defining moment came with Save the Children’s “Most Shocking Second a Day”, which reached more than 50 million people and reframed the Syrian refugee crisis. More recently, projects like WaterAid’s “The Girl Who Built a Rocket” and Netflix’s “The Two Sides of Christmas” have shown how bold creative storytelling can dominate news cycles, spark conversation and drive action.
Whether for charities or commercial brands, our approach stays the same: combine creative courage with cultural insight to deliver campaigns that create impact and drive brand response.
WaterAid – The Girl Who Built a Rocket
An animated short telling the story of a young girl who dreams of travelling to Mars to collect water for her village. Voiced by Sir Trevor McDonald, the film dominated news cycles and social feeds, sparking debate on global water access. It showed how imaginative storytelling can take a complex issue and make it compelling, shareable and urgent. Read the case study.
Netflix – The Two Sides of Christmas
A festive campaign that broke away from traditional holiday cheer by giving a voice to those who don’t love Christmas. Mixing humour and cultural insight, the film tapped into a universal truth and turned it into conversation, proving that brand campaigns can be both entertaining and newsworthy. It’s a strong example of how creative work can connect by reflecting real-world feelings. Read the case study.
DEC – Ukraine: Never Alone
Created in response to the war in Ukraine, this campaign featured choirs of Ukrainians and Brits singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” in solidarity. Released at a critical moment, it struck an emotional chord and helped drive donations to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s appeal. The work demonstrated Don’t Panic’s ability to act fast, capture cultural sentiment and inspire action at scale. Read the case study.
Who’s on a Creative Team - and How We Work
A creative agency is more than a group of designers and copywriters. The value comes from how different disciplines collaborate to stress-test ideas and make them stronger. At Don’t Panic, three teams work closely together from start to finish:
- Creative – writers, designers, directors and makers with backgrounds in advertising, film, branding and digital.
- Engagement Strategy – insight specialists who ensure every idea is rooted in culture, optimised for shareability and planned for earned media.
- Client Services – account directors, producers and managers who act as an extension of client teams, keeping projects on brief, on budget and on time.
By involving strategists and client services in creative brainstorms, we challenge assumptions early and identify opportunities to make ideas more powerful. This process helps us build campaigns that aren’t just clever, but culturally relevant, newsworthy and effective.
How to Choose the Right Creative Partner
When you’re assessing agencies, focus on the signals that show they can deliver work that lasts:
- Proven earned attention – campaigns that generated headlines, shares and conversation.
- Shared values – an ethos that matches your organisation’s purpose, avoiding surface-level “purpose washing.”
- Robust measurement – clarity on how they track impact beyond vanity metrics.
- Diverse perspectives – teams with varied backgrounds and lived experiences.
- Direct access to talent – confidence you’ll work with the people shaping the ideas.
- Collaboration – an open, integrated way of working with in-house teams and other partners.
The strongest partnerships are built on trust, cultural alignment and the ability to create ideas that spark action.
If your next campaign isn’t built to earn headlines, why bother?
The best ideas don’t just fill ad space - they earn attention, spark conversation and leave a mark on culture. That’s what we do at Don’t Panic. From bold stunts to social-first storytelling, our campaigns are built for shareability and designed to deliver real impact.
Explore our work to see how brands and charities alike have cut through with ideas that matter. Or get in touch to talk about your next project.