This was going to be heartfelt
I set out to write a perfectly reasonable, grown-up blog post about specialist agencies versus strategic agencies. I was going to make a clear, structured argument about the value of learning one thing from one client and bringing that to the table somewhere else. I was going to talk about how, after nearly 15 years and 37,000 hours with Hyatt, we absorbed their care and purpose ethos—not just as a branding statement but as an operational philosophy.
Instead, we have these scripts.
Which, honestly, might be the better proof point. Because what’s more strategic than stealing a structure, a touch-point, and perverting it?
A dim, grey room. Two men sit on low stools. The walls are bare, save for a single crooked sign that reads: “Godot Creative.”
VLADIMIR: (rubbing his head) What kind of agency are we?
ESTRAGON: We are waiting to find out.
VLADIMIR: Were we always Godot Creative?
ESTRAGON: Once, we were Godot Communications.
VLADIMIR: And before that?
ESTRAGON: Before that, nothing.
VLADIMIR: And now?
ESTRAGON: Now, we are waiting.
VLADIMIR: (thinking) We could have been Godot Strategy.
ESTRAGON: But we are not.
VLADIMIR: Or Godot PR.
ESTRAGON: But we are not.
VLADIMIR: Or Godot Design.
ESTRAGON: But we are not.
A pause. They stare at the sign.
VLADIMIR: Then why are we Godot Creative?
ESTRAGON: Because creative is what remains.
Another pause.
VLADIMIR: (suddenly agitated) But what does it mean? What do we do?
ESTRAGON: We think. We make. We move people.
VLADIMIR: But do we specialize?
ESTRAGON: Specialization. Pah.
VLADIMIR: You do not believe in specialization?
ESTRAGON: I believe in waiting.
VLADIMIR: (voice rising) But they say: Stay in your lane! Pick one thing! Be clear!
ESTRAGON: (shrugging) And yet, here we are.
VLADIMIR: (suddenly exploding) Oh, for the love of Godot! Why must we specialize?! Why must we be small?!
Abruptly stands, pacing, wild-eyed.
VLADIMIR: Who decided that creativity must be divided? Who stood upon some high and miserable hill and decreed, “This man shall only work on political campaigns, and that man shall only focus on hospitality, and never shall they dare to think of the other!” Who said that, Estragon?! Who?!
ESTRAGON: (shrugs) The specialists.
VLADIMIR: (shouting) The specialists! A plague on them! A curse! They sit in their tiny rooms, drawing the same line, making the same ad, choosing the same font—forever, Estragon! Forever! And for what? Profit?! Margin?! The illusion of certainty?!
Pauses. Breathes heavily. Gestures wildly at nothing.
VLADIMIR: The world does not move forward by repeating itself! The great ideas do not come from men who have stayed in their lanes! They come from thieves and poets, from the reckless and the restless, from those who take ideas where they do not belong! Dilly! Dilly!
ESTRAGON: (calmly) That is what we do.
VLADIMIR: (spinning to him) Yes! That is what we do! We do not specialize! We do not stay in our lane! We take from one thing and apply it to another! We are not a branding agency, or a media agency, or a campaign agency! We are all of those things and none of them!
Abrupt silence. He gasps for breath. Wipes his forehead. Sits down again, defeated.
ESTRAGON: (after a pause) And yet, people still ask.
VLADIMIR: (nods) They always ask.
ESTRAGON: What kind of agency are we?
A modest kitchen. A table is half-set. A pot simmers on the stove. Ruth, late 60s, quick-witted, stands at the counter peeling a potato like it owes her money.
Ruth: Miriam, listen to me.
I am losing my mind. Specialization—what is this nonsense?! Once upon a time, if you needed something done, you found a guy. He fixed your sink, built your cabinets, and maybe—maybe—did your taxes on the side. That was a man of substance!
She points at the audience with the potato
But now? Now? Now you need three people just to design a brochure. One picks the font, one picks the color, and don’t even ask the third one to touch the layout—not their department!
Are you kidding me?!
And the agencies? Don’t get me started on the agencies! My nephew—the smart one, not the other one—tells me, “Aunt Ruth, not all ad agencies are creative agencies, but all creative agencies are ad agencies.”
She stops. Stares at the potato in her hand like it just insulted her mother.
Oh! Ohhh! So what do they do, Miriam? If not the creative, then what? Vibes?!
And then you’ve got these specialist creative agencies—political agencies, nonprofit agencies, only-does-billboards agencies! Tell me, Miriam, why would you make a whole agency just to do one thing?! What if the thing is wrong? What if people need something else? Then what? You tell them, “Oh, sorry, we only do mailers”?
Listen, at Godot Creative, they tell you the truth. They could have been Godot Strategy, Godot PR—they were even Godot Communications once! But no, they are creative. They do ideas. They do execution. They move people.
And the clients? They need to pick the right agency!
She starts peeling another potato, faster, more erratically. The peels go everywhere.
If you want someone to press buttons, hire a vendor.
If you want someone to say yes to whatever you think, hire a consultant.
But if you want real creative thinking?
She slams the potato onto the counter so hard it bounces, then rolls away.
Godot exists!
That’s it! That’s the business! Simple!
Now help me set the table before my knees give out, and someone find that damn potato.
GRUG: Ugh. Work hard. Make fire. Hunt. Paint cave. Do many thing.
BLORG: No. Work small. Work one thing. Work… special.
GRUG: Special?
BLORG: Special. Only smash rock. Only smash rock good.
GRUG: But… what if need fire?
BLORG: Find fire specialist.
GRUG: What if need food?
BLORG: Find food specialist.
GRUG: What if need cave?
BLORG: Find cave specialist.
GRUG: BUT BLORG. IF ONLY SMASH ROCK, WHO MAKE BIG IDEA?!
BLORG: … grunt.
GRUG: Long ago, cave men do many thing. Cave men hunt, build, think.
BLORG: Think?
GRUG: Yes! Think! Make tool! Make picture! Make… story!
BLORG: …But special make many shiny rock…
GRUG: Shiny rock no make big fire in sky.
BLORG: …Oh.
GRUG: Godot no special. Godot make big idea. Godot take many thing. Smash together. Make new.
BLORG: Godot… no vendor. Godot… partner?
GRUG: Yes! Godot make thing that move people! Not just smash rock over and over.
BLORG: Godot… smart.
GRUG: Yes. Now shut up and help carry mammoth.
