My First Agency Experience.

A week with Meanwhile Agency, Manchester

After 14 years working in-house at Coventry Building Society, I go the chance to spend a week experiencing agency life first hand at Meanwhile

5 Days | 15 plus concepts | 3 Creative reviews | 1 big learning curve

Modern black brick building with large windows, surrounded by trees with fallen autumn leaves on the ground.
A cluttered desk with two computer monitors, a tablet, and many figurines, plush toys, and decorations, with a purple wall and window in the background.

The Challenge

I’ve been working as in-house graphic designer at Coventry Building Society for while now, I have to say I’ve never experienced agency life. With this opportunity I was given, I wanted to understand how agencies work differently the pace they work, their processes and their collaborative structure.

When I was given the opportunity to spend a week with Meanwhile Agency (the creative agency Coventry Building Society works with), I jumped at the chance. This was a great chance to challenge myself to learn new approaches and bring valuable insights back to the in-house team.

Three objectives I set myself:

  1. Understand agency process & workflow - How do they juggle multiple clients with tight deadlines.

  2. Experience agency culture & pace - How does it differ from 14 years in one environment.

  3. Develop presentation skills - Present confidently to senior stakeholders I'd never met before.

The Experience

Meanwhile Agency gave me a real brief - Chester Zoo's 2025 campaign "Endless Adventures" and I worked through their full creative process over five days.

My Objectives for the week

Agency process and workflow

Understand how Meanwhile structures projects from brief to delivery, and observe how they manage multiple clients simultaneously.

Why this mattered:
In-house, we work on one brand with long timelines. I wanted to see how agencies juggle multiple clients and tighter deadlines.

Agency culture and pace

Experience and adapt to agency culture and working pace, particularly understanding the differences between in-house and agency environments.

Why this mattered:
After being at the Coventry building society for so long, I wanted to challenge myself within a different working environment and understand what makes agencies tick.

Presentation and feedback skills

Develop confidence in presenting creative work to a totally different audiences and learn how agencies structure creative critique.

Why this mattered:
I used my skills I learnt on my LinkedIn Learning “Public Speaking Foundations” course earlier this year and wanted to put those skills into practice.

  • A tablet on a wooden desk displaying handwritten notes and a PDF document, with a white wireless keyboard and a collection of small figurines of cartoon characters nearby.

    Monday (WFH)

    10am: All-agency catchup, where I met the whole team. The team was discussing their weeks scheduled for the week ahead.

    11am: Briefed by their Design Director, Senior Account Director

    Rest of day: Initial ideation I spent the rest of the afternoon brainstorming ideas using a couple of different ways of thinking. One way was to use my learning from a D&AD course I went on back in 2018.
    The second way of thinking was using my voice memo app on my phone and going for a dog walk to come up with some more ideas.

  • A workspace with a wooden desk holding a large computer monitor, a tablet, a laptop, and a wireless keyboard and mouse. The desk is decorated with numerous toys, including figures from The Simpsons and other characters. There are books, a mug, a small fan, and a basket with pens near the window. A purple wall behind the desk has posters, and a person with gray hair is partially visible at the bottom of the image.

    Tuesday (WFH)

    10am: Check in with Duncan and continued concept development.

  • Hand holding a smartphone displaying a podcast titled "AI Changed Design & It's Not Pretty" inside an airplane cabin with red and white seats.

    Wednesday
    (In office - Manchester)

    7:45am: During my train journey I took the time to listen to some podcast. I managed to listen to a handful of the Angry Designer podcast, with subjects like - AI changed design & it’s not pretty, You’re a thief - How stealing can make you a better designer.

    10am: Arrived at Meanwhile Agency and went on an office tour.

    12noon: I was invited to their team lunch at their local pub in Mediacity, where they were celebrating the successful launch of an ad campaign for an online mobile app company.

    2pm: Presented my mid-way creative review with some really positive feedback.

    Rest of the afternoon: Worked with the feedback I received and whittled the ideas down to two executions.

  • A modern black building with large windows, surrounded by trees with fall leaves. Some leafless trees with fallen leaves on the ground. Air conditioning units and a pathway leading to the entrance.

    Thursday
    (In office - Manchester)

    9am: Continued developing my ideas

    1pm: I was invited into a meeting to run through a campaign for online gambling company, which was
    round 3.

    4pm: Check-ins with Design Director Duncan

  • Modern living room with a mounted TV displaying a purple screen with colorful text, a wooden media console, a soundbar, decorative vases, a corner of a sofa with a patterned pillow, and a large green plant, with a wood-paneled wall on the left.

    Friday (WFH)

    9am: I was invited into a different meeting and what I did notice at the start of the week was the capability to be able to work multiple projects. I was shown some visuals from an ad ready for print.

    2pm: Final creative review

The Brief

The Brief

Tablet displaying colorful handwritten notes and mind maps with a stylus on the side.

Chester Zoo 2025 Campaign

Objective:

  • Develop one big idea for Chester Zoo’s 2025 campaign

  • Elevate Chester Zoo above every other UK zoo

  • Big drive to record footfall

  • Overarching campaign for 12 months

5 different events through the year
Easter focusing entirely on the new Heart of Africa, including an African themed Easter Egg trail, plus memberships, and dual language Welsh executions

Summer (as before, but with focus on Heart of Africa)

Halloween (Super-Natural again, but going big and exclusively on the pumpkin trail this time)

Lanterns & Light at Christmas Afterglow (evening access to the zoo with special offers and extra entertainment – info to follow)

Feb half term 2026 (activation TBC)

Key Message:
Endless Adventures

Two Distinct Audiences:

  1. Families with kids (under 11) - aware of Chester Zoo but may not realise how amazing it is

  2. Couples without kids - aware of Chester Zoo but haven’t visited (or not since childhood)

The Insight:
Chester Zoo has so much to offer that no two visits are the same everyone can craft their perfect day

Living room with a wall-mounted flat-screen TV displaying a purple graphic with text, a wooden TV stand, potted plants, and decorative items on the stand.

Creative thinking

Creative thinking

I explored multiple creative thinking approaches, to find the strongest route. My approach was to generate volume first, then refine based on feedback. I split my ideas into four different groups:

Personalisation | Scale & abundance | Discovery & hidden moments | Perspective shift

Area one: Personalisation

The Idea: Everyone experiences Chester Zoo differently craft your perfect day.

How Do You Zoo? Chester Zoo That’s Who
Different stories from different visitors - families vs couples,
adventurers vs relaxers

Crafting Your Own Perfect Day
Visual metaphor of families/visitors building their ideal experience

Building Your Perfect Day (Building Blocks)
Modular approach experiences as building blocks that combine differently

Your Chester Zoo
Personal ownership “your” perfect day at “your” zoo

Choose Your Own Adventure
Interactive approach audience controls their journey

A presentation slide titled 'Crafting Your Own Perfect Day' includes examples of family and craft activities. The slide features four images: a family gathering, a decorative sign, and two colorful paper crafts. The text discusses building family visitor experiences and crafting activities
A presentation slide titled 'Building Your Perfect Day (Building Blocks)' featuring four images of building blocks and construction activities, with bullet points and a map of Kuala Lumpur.
A presentation slide titled "How Do You Zoo? Chester Zoo That's Who" explaining the zoo's role in conservation and engaging visitors, with images of children and families in colorful, relaxed scenes, and a purple-themed space with lounge chairs and a computer.
A flyer describing a conceptual personal ownership of Chester Zoo with text, colorful images, and logos.
A presentation slide titled 'Choose Your Own Adventure' with images of children and teens engaging in various activities, including riding a bike, playing with toys, and relaxing indoors.

Area Two: Scale & abundance

The Idea: Chester Zoo is so vast you literally can’t see it all in
one visit

Hard Hitting Facts - Scroll Stopping Stories
Lead with impressive scale “128 acres, 35,000 animals,
1 perfect day”

The Never-Ending Zoo
Continuous visual device showing endless discovery

Endless Adventures - Looping, Continuous
Visual loop that keeps revealing more

Peel Away Those Visions
Layered reveal like unwrapping a gift that keeps giving

Compilation of six posters with motivational, humorous, and reflective messages about life, social issues, and personal habits, arranged in a grid on a white background.
A presentation slide titled 'Endless Adventures - Looping, Continuous' showing various innovative display and digital entertainment concepts, including smartphones with looping screens, outdoor interactive displays, and digital art environments.
A colorful presentation slide titled 'The Never-Ending Zoo' with a purple border and the Chester Zoo logo. It features three illustrations of forest scenes: one with tall trees and green landscape, one with a sunset scene with trees and animals, and one with stylized green trees.
A colorful infographic titled 'Peel Away Those Visions' with layered, vibrant illustrations including a hand peeling away a landscape, a person taking a photo with a phone, and various abstract designs, promoting creativity and visual exploration.

Area Three: Discovery & hidden moments

The Idea: There’s always something new to discover at Chester Zoo

Hidden Moments
Finding animals in an over-populated forest - Where’s Wally style discovery

Going on an Adventure
Lord of the Rings style map - charting your journey of discovery

Kaleidoscope of Adventures
Every turn reveals something completely different

A page from a publication titled 'Hidden Moments' with photographs of animals in nature, including a dense collection of animal illustrations, a lush jungle scene, a tree in a coastal area, a small animal on sand, and a large animal silhouette in the desert.
Educational poster titled "Going on an Adventure" with a Lord of the Rings style map, a campfire with smoke, a scenic river view with trees, and an ancient map of Middle-earth.
A flyer titled "Kaleidoscope of Adventures" featuring colorful kaleidoscopic designs including animals, a logo for Chester Zoo, and text about engaging audiences with kaleidoscope images.

Arena Four: Perspective shift

The Idea: See Chester Zoo through fresh eyes.

Larger Than Life
Honey I Shrunk the Kids perspective - see the zoo from a toddler’s
wonder-filled viewpoint.

Face-to-Face Connection
human/animal close-ups creating sense of connection

Human eye to animal eye, creating empathy and wonder

A page from an educational leaflet titled 'Larger Than Life' explaining children’s perspectives of zoo animals with four pictures: a beetle on a leaf, a butterfly on a rock, a child in a cornfield, and a child looking through a magnifying glass.
An informational poster explaining face-to-face connection, emphasizing human and animal eye contact to foster empathy and wonder. It includes examples and audience types such as families with children and couples without children, with the Chester Zoo logo at the bottom right.

Key lessons learned

Key lessons learned

Agency vs in-house insights

Volume over perfection
Agencies generate LOTS of ideas quickly, then refine. In-house we tend to develop from one idea. Then refine that idea to final stage.

Speed as a creative constraint
Tight deadlines aren’t really the enemy, they allow you to think differently. The 5-day timeline made me less precious about ideas. Sometimes constraints unlock creativity.

Collaboration is built into everything
The agency structure every stage around the team having their input,  Monday briefings, Wednesday reviews, Friday presentations.
In-house we often work solo for long stretches. I’ve now realised we could benefit from building more feedback loops into our workflow.

Multiple clients and using different creative muscles
The team switch between brands constantly. This keeps their creative thinking fresh. At the Coventry, we work on one brand for years which means we need to actively seek inspiration.

Presentation is part of the work
Every concept needs a clear, strong narrative and have good visuals to help sell those ideas in. Don’t be afraid to use ‘AI Image generators’ to help you get that strong narrative.

Personal thoughts

I’m more adaptable than I thought
After 14 years in one environment, I did wonder if I could adapt to agency pace and culture. I feel that I can and actually thrive with the energy and structure.

My presentation skills have improved
That LinkedIn Learning course I did at the start of the year really help me. When I presented to the team, I felt confident and well prepared. The training really pays off.

I love collaborative ideation
 Working solo really highlighted how valuable it is to bounce ideas off other people. Going forward we should really think about doing more creative collaboration especially with the wider marketing team members who are involved with the campaign.

Validating my creative instincts
When the team narrowed my concepts down to my top 2, it confirmed my idea thinking I learnt from D&AD course worked.
Trust your instincts more.

There’s value in discomfort
Working independently, was uncomfortable. But that discomfort drove me to think harder. I should actively be more confident and step outside my comfort zone more often.

Matt wearing sunglasses and a sports jersey holding a box labeled "Custom Astromech Units" with a small character and logo on it.

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