I walk both sides of the street in the advertising and marketing worlds. This comes from my years as an agency person pursuing New Business and my experiences as an agency search consultant.
It is no secret that sometimes these relationships can often be strained and not optimized.
According to a recent study by RSW/US only 44% of Marketers are truly happy with their primary Agency. That’s worse than the divorce rate.
Why is that? Why are things so dysfunctional in the advertising, public relations, PR and Marketing arenas? Inevitably poor relationships can’t lead to the best execution and stewardship of the billions of dollars that are spent on advertising and other disciplines.
I had my gut feeling but I wanted to validate it. So I went out to my social network and posed the question that I wanted to validate an assumption. My belief is that most marketing people do not really receive any formal training on how to work with their advertising, public relations, or digital agencies.
This is the feedback that I received.
On the high bar, Diane commented “I received training when I was with General Foods (which is now Kraft). And I know when I worked with P&G, they also received training on how to work with Agencies, as well as how to judge Creative. I don’t know of anywhere else where this type of in-depth training took place. I was lucky enough to get it.”
From across the pound, I also received a comment from the UK from Annette saying, “Here in the UK, the Chartered Institute of Marketing has been a force for good in helping new and existing marketeers understand the different marketing communications disciplines, what works when, and how to ensure that integrated campaigns are developed, including digital marketing!” http://www.cim.co.uk/tandq/qualifications/qualificationDetails/whichqualification.aspx
Thank God for England.
The majority of other people said that they have never received any training in this area. That is pretty scary to think that you have to figure out those relationships managing that kind of investment by the seat of your pants.
Many said that companies expected that Marketing people would have an innate understanding of how to work with their agencies.
David wrote, “Hank, I concur with your observation. Many other aspects of Product Management and/or Product Marketing are assumed to be innately enabled when one assumes the respective title.”
How did those skills get into their DNA and wiring?
Some clients wrote back that “ You learn as you go.” Glad that they aren’t pilots.
Training certainly doesn’t seem to be happening in college. Karen was kind enough to send me this. “ I just finished my MBA with a marketing focus and in all of my marketing classes I don’t think this was discussed once even in my advertising and promotion class which was taught by someone with decades of experience on the agency side.”
Surprising those on the agency side said they had the added responsibility of training junior clients in all areas of advertising including how to work more effectively with their agencies. Thanks for that Chris.
Others said, “I was able to work directly with advertising/branding and digital agencies during my internship. The experience was great and I appreciate the individuals who took time to train me.”
I got another comment saying, “…They show up. We hope they know what they are doing.”
As a shareholder would that increase your comfort level and want you to increase the marketing budget? I don’t think so.
Does the lack of training lead to poor fundamentals, a variety of approaches that change with each company and eventual frustration? If a client is burned by one agency does that legacy go with them to other positions and other agency encounters. I think so.
In this recessionary environment I think that most agency people that I talk to would say that their people receive little training and that good AE’s are very hard to find. From clients I hear that within many organizations that training is a bad word.
That doesn’t make me feel more assured that this situation will change in the near future.
How about you? Where did you get trained? Did you learn to just tolerate a frustrating client agency relationship?
You can connect with Hank on Linkedin
http://www.linkedin.com/in/hankblankcom
Follow his updates on twitter @hankblank
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/hankblank
Watch some videos on http://www.youtube.com/user/MrHankblank
Hank Blank: Thoughts on Networking, New Business & Agency Searches 
Excellent article Hank. 44% is a pretty scary number! Being in the press release distribution industry, too frequently we hear from our customers exactly what you are saying. I think part of the training is having a mentor/educator that is up to date, open to fast change and organized.
Michael Iwasaki
http://www.24-7pressrelease.com
When I first broke in as a b2b Advertising Manager, my trainers were a squad of old-school media reps who talked nuts and bolts of how the client-agency-media relationship should work if all are to prosper. Creative? Well, that one was more like a HALO drop without an altimeter-controlled chute! You’d target what you hated in an ad…and learned from studying the good work of the masters (Della Famina, Bernbach, etc.)…and prayed that the zen you worked was the zen you needed.
Love the Discussion and responses, thanks.
DOOH & OOH (digital out of home media) is whee it is today. Euope Agencies get it. Agencies in the US are still not gettig it… we all see so much spending w TV ads, huge budgets and not doing the justice w Clients spending. Why? — unless news, live sports, maybe american idol – DVR Ad Skipping is “reality”. I wish clients would simply ask 10 of their neighbors/friend and find out 80% of TV Viewers simply do NOT watch ads anymore… it all about PC Living Room today.
So time for agencies to really roll up their sleeves – examine the source of where ads are most effective — at the stores, malls, airports, mobile triggers w hot offers, etc. – reach people when “on the go”. Reach people shopping that depend on ads, informations, offers to make buying decisions. THIS is what Agencies & Clients should be paying attention to – pure ROI.
Any questions or comments see my LinkeIn Profile, invite me to your network. OR, contact me as a DOOH & OOH Expert anytime jvandien@immersionooh.com
Hank,
Great post. In working with dyfunctional client/agency teams (or new client/agency teams that don’t want to become dysfunctional) I’ve found the need for a combination of joint training elements:
– Setting objectives (many times the goals are fuzzy, measurement poor, and desired outcomes misaligned)
– Project briefing and kick-off discipline (often clients are from Mars, agencies are from Venus)
– Basic process management and efficiency (how do we want this project to be managed, who’s in charge, what is the approval chain, if there’s a concern or problem – how do we resolve it?)
– Providing and receiving feedback (how to provide actionable strategic feedback, how to query and probe to get what is needed to move ahead and arrive at an agreed upon response)
– The last mile: what does it really take within both organizations to carry a marketing program across the finish line – (Client: operationally, training marketing and sales. Agency: creative process, production support, and production execution). Very often both sides are ill-informed about the time and work involved on the “other side.”
– The impact of inefficiency and what it really costs when the teams are not working effectively? This often shocks both parties. (Wasted time, rework, decision circles, production delays/overtime, etc.) Putting a pencil to the hard and soft costs is a great exercise to get everyone’s attention.
– Adult communications. (How to engage, understand, disagree but resolve, find solutions, be respectful and actually perform like a team.) This is actually a fun work session.
No new client/agency relationship ever started with the client or agency leader saying, “It’s great to be working with you. I look forward to our two teams misfiring a lot, being off strategy, bickering, wasting a lot of time and money, doing very mediocre work and generally making each other miserable, don’t you?” But it is surprising how many get to be that way.
On the positive side, when it works well, it’s a beautiful thing!
In the exhibits and events segment if broader agency/marketing world, there’s an organization that does a great job training and certifying young, new industry talent…might be worth checkin out http://www.exhibitoronline.org