Two Good Agencies.
Different in the Right Ways.
Duncan Channon is an independent advertising agency with offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles. They offer brand strategy, creative advertising, media planning and buying, and experiential and influencer marketing.
This comparison exists to help you decide. We'll tell you what they do well, where we differ, and which option is likely the better fit for your situation. We'd rather you make the right choice — even if that's not us.
What They Offer
Independent advertising agency, SF and LA
Duncan Channon is an independent agency with over $1 billion in media placed and offices in both SF and LA. If full-service advertising — brand strategy, creative, and national media buying — is the primary need, they operate at that scale.
Where Sidestreet Is Different
Built for mid-market businesses, not advertising campaigns
Duncan Channon serves brands with national advertising budgets requiring media planning, buying, and creative campaigns. Sidestreet is built for small and mid-size businesses — professional services, healthcare, faith communities, regional brands — that need senior-level marketing and communications without the overhead of an advertising agency built for national campaigns.
Broadcast journalism production background
Both produce video as part of their work. Sidestreet's production comes from broadcast journalism — NBC News, ESPN, regional TV — which is different from advertising creative production. For brands that need storytelling over advertising, that distinction is real.
PR and crisis communications
Sidestreet operates a dedicated communications practice. Duncan Channon's model is advertising and media — media relations, crisis preparedness, and earned media strategy are different disciplines from paid media planning.
Church media practice
Sidestreet maintains a dedicated practice for faith communities. Duncan Channon serves consumer and commercial advertising clients.
How to Decide
Duncan Channon is probably the right choice if: you're a brand with a national advertising budget that needs full-service creative, media planning, and buying from an independent West Coast agency.
Sidestreet is probably the right choice if: you're a small or mid-size business that needs marketing and communications without national advertising infrastructure, want broadcast-quality storytelling production, need PR/crisis alongside digital, or are a faith community.
If you're genuinely unsure, talk to both of us before committing. Any agency worth working with will give you a straight answer about whether they're the right fit — and so will we.