Five areas to improve client-agency relationships

Campaign teamed up with Worldwide Partners (WPI) – a network of over 70 independent agencies worldwide – to carry out research about the ever-evolving client-agency relationship, surveying over 600 brand marketers and agency leaders across the world.

 

The mission? To find out what makes the relationship tick, what makes it stick, and where it can be improved to foster better ideas, more successful campaigns, and drive growth for all parties. Here’s what we found. 

 

1. Honesty counts

One marketer said that having a trusting relationship with an agency “was the secret sauce to deliver the best work I have ever produced in my career”

 

While most brands and agencies believe the work is the most important determinant in a relationship, what else builds trust? Brands believe clear and honest communication is a vital ingredient for driving business growth: at 81% it was second only to strategic thinking (82%). It was the same top two for agencies, but with a bigger gulf between strategic thinking (85%) and clear and honest communication (75%). This tells us there’s room for agencies to use the simple power of communication to an even greater extent – especially in a world that has normalised remote communication.

 

 

2. Continuity’s paramount

It is, however, much easier to communicate when you are working with the same people throughout a project, from pitching to delivery. The majority of marketers (74%) prefer to work with agencies when the team that pitched for the work delivers it as well, or at least some of the same team. Fewer than 2% of marketers expect to work with separate pitch and delivery teams.

 

“Having to continually explain the brief to agency staff beyond the management team,” was one criticism from a marketer. Another was: “In many cases there are too many managers involved in pitches, people who don't actually do the donkey work. So the original message can often get distorted when it goes down the line.”

 

Read: Agencies need to keep the team constant from pitch to production. 

 

 

3. Ideas rule

While an effectiveness track record (45%) and a customer-centric approach (45%) are also both very important to brands, if an agency is presenting great ideas, then they’re more likely to move into pole position to win work. 

 

Every good campaign comes from a good idea, so unsurprisingly it is the crucial factor when selecting an agency. Specifically, 61% of brands said they select an agency partners, with 61% saying it is very important based on the quality of their ideas.

 

And agencies cite great ideas as the leading factor for winning new business (54%). This might seem self-evident, but it’s a reminder that the creative environment is critical to a campaign’s success. Great ideas won’t happen if an environment is too narrow or insular. 

 

4. Overpromising kills

Marketers’ biggest pain point, at 74%, is agencies that oversell and under-deliver. Again, it’s also a matter of trust: 95% of brand marketers said that agencies delivering what they pitched was important or very important when it comes to trusting an agency partner.

 

Agencies should be open about what can be delivered, and that helps to avoid issues further down the funnel. But there are two sides to every story: “Clients put unrealistic expectations on us, but make us plan towards them and then make us answer for under-delivery at the end,” says one agency leader. 

 

This sentiment matches the two biggest pain points for agencies: Unrealistic expectations on cost (60%), and being treated as a supplier rather than as a partnership (52%). It’s also a matter of trust: 92% of brands said cost discipline was either a very important or an important factor when it came to trusting their agency, while 86% of agencies said it was very important or important when it came to building trust with clients. 

 

These pain points around value and cost are solved if both sides understand the commercial imperatives and values of each business from the start of a relationship. This should include mutual data- and insight-sharing. Being honest and open about costs throughout the process means agencies are less likely to find themselves over-promising and under-delivering, and if brands showed agencies a bit of partnership TLC, they’re more likely to create a relationship where agencies feel empowered and motivated to create great work. It’s win-win.

 

5 Acknowledgment matters

Marketers said they most value the fresh angles on their businesses that agencies can provide. And 71% of agencies say positive feedback from clients is the best part of client relationships. But not everyone gets it. 

 

“It’s very hard to find a client that rewards the agency for its outstanding effective work that has an outstanding impact on business,” wrote one agency lead. “Instead, you pitch for every project and have the pressure to deliver every time under the constant threat of ‘you will pitch or I will fire you.’”

 

This again shows the importance of communication and treating the relationship as a partnership. “What we most enjoy is clients rewarding us with more business or when they tell their CEO that the agency did a great job,” said another agency lead. 

 

For the best relationships build brands and careers. One marketer said that having a trusting relationship with an agency “was the secret sauce to deliver the best work I have ever produced in my career.”