Category experience helps most where rules and buying behaviour are unusual - healthcare, finance, real estate, education - because it shortens research and avoids compliance mistakes. For most other businesses, adjacent experience with a similar buying journey and price point matters more than an exact industry match, and can bring ideas your direct competitors are not using.
When industry experience is essential
If your category carries advertising restrictions, licensing language or regulated claims - clinics, financial services, education admissions, real estate - hire someone who has already navigated it. The cost of a compliance mistake is higher than any efficiency you gain elsewhere.
When adjacent experience is better
A studio that has grown premium D2C brands can usually help a jewellery label, a skincare line or a boutique hospitality brand, because the buying journey rhymes. Hiring the agency that runs your closest competitor often means inheriting their playbook rather than beating it.
KritSite works across D2C and ecommerce, healthcare and clinics, finance, real estate, technology and SaaS, hospitality, fashion, beauty, education, manufacturing, food and beverage, and automotive, with a dedicated page for each showing how the work differs.
- 01Regulated categories: insist on direct experience.
- 02Everywhere else: a matching buying journey beats a matching industry label.
- 03Your competitor's agency will likely reuse your competitor's playbook.