Ad expert provides strategies to improve agency/client relationships in ‘14

Rethink approach to talent

Survey after survey tells us that employees under 35 are largely unhappy. Not because we don’t pay them enough (although starting salaries are still an issue), but because they want to contribute and we’re not letting them. We have to realise that millennials have been creating content for most of their lives. Be it videos, photos, song lyrics or drawings, they are used to sharing and receiving immediate feedback. Agency structures don’t encourage or celebrate that kind of contribution from the start. We must change that. Hiring the best and brightest isn’t enough if we relegate them to spreadsheets and menial labour. Yes, we all had to pay our dues. The difference is that they have other options. Options that allow their sharing mentality to flourish. Options with a more glamorous reputation. Options that seem to remunerate at higher levels.” Wouldn’t you rather pull someone back than constantly ask why they don’t speak up? If you ask why they have been so giving of their time to industry efforts, they will tell you it’s because they care. It’s because they feel like they can make a difference. Harness that or lose them.

Alter new-business processes

Agency search and selection has always been integral to our growth. But the process is time consuming for marketers and costly for agencies. Most marketing leaders are frustrated by the mating (dating) ritual. So, how can we improve it? Stop ambulance chasing. An agency leader once said to me, “We have to be careful what we eat,” meaning we should be more selective about accounts we pursue. Desperate agencies will do desperate things. Best-in-class agencies are disciplined and rigourously screen opportunities. Those that have the most consistent record of new-business success have management buy-in to develop and adhere to screening guidelines. Agencies can dramatically increase new-business by learning to be more selective with new-client opportunities. Marketers must also do their homework. Before embarking on an agency review they should step and begin by assessing their own marketing organisation. Once internal enhancements are in-place, then — if new or expanded agency resources are a priority — they can invest the time and apply the discipline needed to conduct a rigorous search and selection process.

Create a fair value exchange

Some compensation arrangements purport to drive efficiency into the client-agency relationship. The problem is that all the procurement benchmarks are largely based on old information. “Working” and “non-working” ratios based on old-media models are no longer relevant in social media and other sharing platforms. Master service agreements that have agencies indemnifying clients against patent assertions are turning us into insurance companies. And extended payment terms that ask agencies to wait 75, 90 or (ridiculously) 120 days put us in the position of acting like a bank.

We have to work harder to show value to clients. Agencies must generate ideas in new ways. Sometimes that’s an ad, sometimes a platform and ever more frequently, a new way to look at what a client sells and how they sell it. We used to do this as a course of business, but we’ve gotten away from it and we need to return to this practice. We must constantly prove our worth in ways that go above and beyond delivery of scope and drive for results that make a difference in a brand’s destiny. Standing up for what we believe in will go a lot farther than caving. The letters “N” and “o” form a word, and we need to know when to use them together.

– Adage