South Africa, June 24 -- As businesses face mounting pressure to move faster, prove ROI and deliver consistent growth, agency relationships can often become reduced to a cycle of briefs, deadlines and deliverables. While efficient on paper, Devlin believes this approach frequently limits the very strategic thinking brands are looking for.

"The biggest misconception many businesses have is that strategic value automatically comes with hiring an agency," he explains. "In reality, if an agency only receives a brief, they can only deliver against that brief. If you only share the brief, you'll only ever get expected outcomes."

According to Devlin, the most successful agency partnerships are built on something far deeper than project managem...