If I Were an Agency Today

I read a series of posts today that made me want to write about agencies, digital or otherwise, and partnerships from the client's point of view. The series titled If I Were a Client Today is authored by The Kaiser. [hat tip to Kris Hoet]

Gavin Heaton writes in the comment to Kris' post (emphasis mine):

I strongly believe that the Agency World is well overdue for an overhaul. In fact, I fully expect a wave of business consultants to descend on the rich agency pickings any day now… once they have a model that can demonstrate the linkage between brand value, activation and the balance sheet, McKinsey & Co will cherry pick the brightest minds and wipe the floor with what/whoever is left.

This will also solve the problem of budgets — accurate measurement will show the correlation between brand value and share price etc. It won’t all be science at the expense of emotion, of course, it will just be a whole lot more accountable.

Same for outsourcing… at a certain point you lose ownership of the execution. As and when agencies start putting some skin in the game they will also be more judicious about which parts of their strategy/creative/technology they relinquish to their disjointed and unresponsive supply chain.

Finding an Agency

I admit that finding the right agency today is a daunting task. Have you ever hired an agency from a blind pitch? How about from a list? The first problem, of course, is that if you've got a marketing department of a decent size, you have potentially two to three recommendations from people in your department who know of an agency. You could start interviewing from there. The problem is that each agency would then pressure your colleague to put in a good word through various means. It can get ugly in a heartbeat -- and create animosity in your department.

As well, an agency that has done good work for your before in another company may be completely wrong for the work that needs to be done in this company. The markets may be different (for example, if you went from chemical manufacturing to technology) and the brand needs may be completely different. I agree with The Kaiser that my responsibility is to my brand, the company I work for and the people who buy our services.

We haven't gotten to the point of having business consultants descending on the opportunity, as Gavin describes, just yet. And talking with a number of agencies can get old quickly and time consuming due to endless capabilities presentations. Time you may not have. If I were an agency today, I would want to be known by companies like SMARTi whose entire work is based upon matching companies with agencies intelligently -- on the basis of a strategic brief designed with the client. Sending generic emails and making immediate follow up calls all about tactics and capabilities do not work. I wrote a post that kicked off a nice conversation at MarketingProfs Daily Fix about the dos and don'ts of corporate pitching.

Hiring an Agency

Is a process, not a one time deal. If I were an agency today I would not take my clients for granted. Even when a retainer or contract is arranged, there is a need to continue to provide value as perceived by the client. It's human nature to want to go with the flow and follow the path of least resistance, yet the very reason why you were hired in the first place was because the company needed to keep the conversation about its brand fresh and relevant.

This applies to marketers on the client side, too. We have the inside scoop on the company and its culture and need to remain in the driver's seat as brand navigators. Which means that if there are a couple of agencies at work, the coordination is very much the client's responsibility. In many companies this also means educating the organization on the value of the brand's equity for the business and its bottom line.

Right along the lines of what The Kaiser writes in his post #4, I am not one bit interested in capabilities presentations. Once we sat through one that lasted three hours and told us nothing of how it would work for us. We are not really interested in creative work done for other companies, nor in the technology as shiny objects. What we generally want to learn is how the agency would develop ideas that would benefit the people who bought our services and have a positive impact on our business.

__________________________

Is the answer a joint venture?

Is it perhaps what Dell and WPP just announced with Da Vinci? When I shared the news with my team, some said it had been done before. Which is also part of the commentary Da Vinci garnered "Most of the cynicism had to do with the subpar history of marketing-holding company integration and Dell's rapid plan for implementation."

Jim Garrity wrote at Jaffe Juice that it takes tremendous courage and a fair amount of patience to make such a dramatic change. I would add it also takes discipline and a willingness to shift some of the work that was done by local vendors to in-house staff to support the transition. That may be part of the inertia Joe talks about. This conversion can take place only with visible support from the top and, even then, with constant vigilance.

There has been talk of digital agencies leading overall brand strategy. AdAge just published an article about that [hat tip to Mitch Joel] I suspect that the data cited is heavily skewed towards B2C; I operate in B2B. In fact, having never worked at a consumer goods company I can pretty much predict that I may not work at one in the foreseeable future.

Which brings me to hiring philosophies and the state of advertising today. Just because a person has done something hundreds of times, it doesn't mean they are very good at it or that it can work for a new product or service. Especially if you are looking to think differently and move away from the "pack mindset."

If I were an agency (and a company) today, I would seek those who have consistently demonstrated a hunger for learning, experimenting and doing throughout their career, putting their skin in the game and being fanatical about results.

[the chart shows the most important marketing trends -- the return to basics is not surprising.]   

Comments

[The Kaiser]

Hi Valeria,

cool post, and a great extension the the conversation that is sprouting around the web.

Many thanks for the shout!

Warm regards,
The Kaiser.

[Mitch Joel - Twist Image]

Great post- with lots of meat and insights. My understanding is that B2B works even better in the online environment and, especially, with social media tools.

I did see a study on... I'll try to dig it up.

[Tom O'Brien]

Great post - I think the marketing world is changing - and this Dell/WPP deal is not the same as those that came before.

Agency 2.0: Front end owns the story - keeps it consistent, knows what the story is rooted in. Back end delivers the (consistent) story across channels (web, social media, TV, print, experiential, etc.). Department sitting over on the side measures it all and does more of what works. (ROI):

TO'B

[Valeria Maltoni]

@The Kaiser -- I can never resist a good storyteller and you part-series was really well thought out and written. I especially like the global nature of these conversation. You in Europe, me here, Mitch in Canada...

@Mitch -- I think I actually blogged about the research you mention. Was it this post? http://tiny.cc/yu7Cm - yes B2B companies are starting to look at online more closely. We do hear about the B2C case studies more.

@Tom -- you sum it up nicely and give me reason to share where the inspiration came for Conversation Agent. Exactly from the vision of an execution like the one you articulate here. Since I'm not an agency, I thought agent would be appropriate. Shhht... I didn't tell anyone ;-)

[Bob Pearson]

Read comments with interest and thought I would jump in. Our move to create a new agency with WPP will help us streamline from our current roster of 869 agencies. We want our agency to spend 100% of their time focused on our customers, rather than worrying about endless pitching. We all know how much time that can waste for agencies and companies. And, we also want to be able to create campaigns and/or new approaches to the market that we can introduce in days or weeks, not months, so having one firm globally will give us significantly more flexibility. There's more, of course, but these are a few key points. All that being said, we do this with open eyes and fully appreciate it is not without challenges.

All the best, Bob Pearson, Dell

[Valeria Maltoni]

Welcome to the conversation, Bob. It will be very interesting to see how Del''s and WPP's vision for this agency plays out. It's good to shoot for something in a way that "has not been done before". I wonder if we could also begin to move our internal dynamics away from inside-out thinking for the sake of customers.

Having worked in corporate America my whole career, I can certainly see the challenges companies have today. Yet, agencies face a good number of them as well. The only way is to keep an ear to the ground and be ready "to handle the truth". Thank you for joining the conversation.

[Mitch Joel - Twist Image]

I think I saw another study that dealt more with how the B2B purchase decision was made and how much Social Media does affect the purchase decision.

I will have to try and dig that one up now!

[Paul Soldera]

Nice post Valeria, my-two-cents - I've worked with both agencies and consultants on brands would have to say the level of strategic and creative thinking is very similar - both of these industries have very smart people. Consultants in the marketing space struggle with measurement and accountability as much as agencies - that's part and parcel of a 'social science' and it's never going to change.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Mitch -- now you got my curiosity peaked. I will need to poke around as well ;-)

@Paul -- here's another thought I had as I was re-reading all these comments. Perhaps part of the "vote" we cast goes to what's the experience of working with an agency? Are they easy to work with? Do they deliver quality and thoughtful products on time and on budget? Do they hold themselves accountable to execute flawlessly? These might not be part of the measurement consideration, yet in my experience they are what makes or breaks a relationship.