There was once a time when Jez Furlong, Creative Director of Cleverducks (part of Cherryduck Productions), used to shudder on hearing the stock ‘all-under-one-roof’ and ‘one-stop-shop’ descriptions of marketing agencies.

Now, he's running one. So, what happened?

To me, a one-stop-shop always used to sound, well, cheap – a bit lazy, tacky, a bit… pound shop.

So what made me swap my comfortable existence as a Creative in a plush central London ad agency, for exactly one of those outfits?

Well, the truth is, there is such a thing as too comfortable. After a while, ‘comfortable’ in an ATL marketing agency morphs into ‘cynical’, ‘restless’ and ever so slightly ‘insane’.

The nineties, mothballed as they now seem, were once all shiny and fancy – the ‘80s new and improved - with brave clients, extravagant parties and creative directors that started the working day in the pub at 11 and ended it face down on their desks at 5.

But, after a while, the novelty wears off - the flaming Sambuca’s burn out, along with the account executives; your standards are around your ankles, along with your pants and the horrible realisation sets in that things are no longer fun, and worse, no longer creative. This compounded by uninspiring and unadventurous clients, a painfully slow greenlight system and over-zealous suits who ‘knew best’ meant it was time to cut loose.

In 2012, Cherryduck Productions were producing beautiful online films, using only their own in-house facilities and there was a subtle shift in what clients wanted – they were looking for somewhere where they could get an idea as well as the finished article. Basically, a ‘one-stop-shop’ – gasp!

After a few meetings with the owners, it made sense to start an in-house agency “Cleverducks” that could work alongside Cherryduck, therefore streamlining the whole process and trimming the fat of a traditional marketing agency.

The online world presents its own challenges - smaller budgets and tighter deadlines - but that seems to give everyone more courage to just go for it.

We may not get £100k to produce one online ad, our clients want plenty of content for that just to keep the online market interested for longer than a nano-second, but that works well for us, keeps everyone on their toes.

One year on, we’re getting some great work out, in less time and for a fraction of the cost. It’s dynamic, exhilarating and anything but comfortable, and that’s a good thing. I look back on my early days as a Creative in a traditional ad agency fondly, but I reckon the ‘one-stop-shop’ marketing agency model is where it’s at.