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November 16, 2005
What's Wrong with the Agency/Client Relationship?
The recent Salz Survey of Advertiser-Agency Relations (conducted annually since 1986) indicates troubling rifts between those who make ads, and those who buy them to sell their products and services. 35 percent of respondents claim "more hassles" in their relationships. At the same time, 41 percent of advertisers and 46 percent of agencies point toward "more tension." The trend continues across multiple measures, with several major indicators down, and some at the lowest ebb since the survey began.
On the surface, it looks bad. But digging down, we suspect that the tension is around performance. How well is this stuff working? Creativity, after all, is wonderful... as long as you're defensibly building brand or selling product. We found a similar tension inside financial service corporations in a recent survey conducted by MCorp., with the value of marketing and branding as difficult to quantify for marketers as ever... and demands from executives for internal accountability growing.
If agencies took a step back and looked at the client (and performance) centric service delivery model adopted by the management consulting world, they may find their relationships looking a little rosier next year. As discussed by Ethan M. Rasiel in his book The McKinsey Way, the hierarchy is pretty clear. The Client. The Firm. Then You. Ad and marketing agencies need to ditch the creative "prima-donna" attitude and take ownership of their roles as business partners whose existence is justified only so long as they are effectively increasing sales, income and profit.
Posted by MCorp. at 16.11.2005 16:00 | Permalink