How Agencies Can Lead Again.

Once upon a time advertising agencies ruled. Clients didn’t quite understand them but knew they needed them. Being with agencies was fun and amazing and insightful. It was the best part of a client’s day.  Agencies were different from clients.  Agencies were in charge.  It was a special and magic place.  Nobody on the client side could create the magic and elixir that agencies had.

Agencies did all the things that clients couldn’t do.

Then computers came and the agency magic was eroded.   It really wasn’t that long ago.

Clients learned to do some of the simple things that agencies could do but for far less money.  Marketers could increase their internal value by saying I have found a way to cut our costs. We are bringing some things in-house.  The most cost conscious ones did it first.  But they were probably the worst clients for an agency to have.

The one thing that clients couldn’t do was to create ideas. First clients paid for them and soon they found that some agencies gave their ideas away free. Some Agencies unfortunately reacted to the loss in revenue and clients by making their most valuable attribute a loss leader. They reduced their craft to a free commodity. Shameful and sad.  They chased the money and not their vision and beliefs.

That was the past. Here is my take on the future.

I believe that today agencies can lead again. Honest.  Some already are there.

The key today for the agencies on Main street and is not a CMO but an Agency Technologist.

Everyone is overwhelmed by technology.  We can’t keep up with it and neither can clients in today’s world. Alvin Toffler predicted that we will get to a point where we have information overload and he did that 40 years ago.

Understanding technology is today’s agency magic elixir that clients can’t match and where agencies can recapture their leadership.

Agencies will always be valued on creativity and innovation but that delivery needs to be changed to a navigator of the world of technology that has been reinvented before I wrote this sentence.

Clients can’t keep up with the pace of change. Clients will value that guidance and reassurance.

Finding Technologists can be a challenging recruiting task. They are difficult to find.  Just the same as when social media exploded and posers became trophy wives.

They aren’t people that do stuff.  They know how to align messaging to opportunity.  They see things that others don’t.

In the near future Technologist will have an important seat at the table.

They will be listened to and often decide the course.

What proportion of the budget will be directed to automated marketing, what proportion with intimate consumer dialogue in social media, what apps can help a business grow?  What tablets will be at point of purchase in retail locations to overcome the Best Buy decline.  What things I can’t see today but will need tomorrow before my competitors find them first.

Yes it is time for agencies to regain their lead.  You see innovation and being at the front end of the future has always been agencies best ways to lead.

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Watch: When Is It Time to Fire Your Agency

Read these articles:

The Most Powerful Word in Agency New Business is NO.

Should Clients Conduct Their Own Agency Reviews?

It’s Time for Clients to Change the RFP Process.

When is it Time to Fire your Agency?

I have worked for many great agencies in my career.  I have also conducted agency searches for clients like Jenny Craig, Raley’s Supermarkets, and Jacuzzi. I believe I have a perspective from both sides of the street.

Agency searches take more time than most people think and can be disruptive to an organization.  So when it is time to fire your agency?  Well there are a number of factors that lead to clients losing trust in their agency partners.

Today clients want agencies to bring them solutions to solve their problems and not sell them stuff.  Too many agencies often bring clients ideas that are nothing more than solutions looking for problems. They may be opportunities brought by their media partners and they aren’t really thought through at the agency end and are not strategically focused.  If that is what you are getting then your agency may be one dimensional in their approach.

A lack of knowledge of the client’s business is one of the biggest frustrations for clients.  Superficial knowledge is not insight.  It is painful.  Poorly trained account people are not acceptable these days.  You need A players at all levels of the team.  If you don’t have them ask for them.

If your agency prefaces many of their presentations with the words, “This is what we did last year, this is what we have done before, we’ve always done this,” they are going through the motions.  They may not know it but “this is the same thing that we did last year is akin to “we want to lose your business” in my opinion.  Technology and consumers are changing too rapidly to accept the same old thing.

If your agency isn’t bringing you new ideas all the time it is time to consider another partner.  Business is too tough these days and the brand deserves the very best thinking today.  People often ask me how does one stay top of mind with other people.  “If you want people to be thinking of you, you have to be thinking of them.” It is that simple.  The same thing applies to client agency relationships.  If you don’t feel that your agency is always thinking about the business it may be time to find somebody who would. If you rarely see the people that pitched your business and promised their involvement it may be time to look elsewhere where you might get more attention.

If your agency opens every briefing or conversation about a marketing problem with the question “What’s Your Budget?”  they aren’t really breaking new ground.  Most clients will try to find a budget for solutions they think can be successful.

The agency business is a service business that must be accompanied by a service attitude.  If you feel your agency is just an order taker and doesn’t go beyond then they might not be the right partner for you. You need to feel your agency is always infused with passion and interest about your business and the brand.  The business is also too hard these days for your agency always to be defensive or worst yet argumentative.

Agency change can cause short term disruption but if they aren’t bringing you their A game then it may bring long term gain.

 

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How Clients Can Get the Most from their Agencies: Part Three.

I think that this is a new time in client agency relationships, which is probably the result of the fact that this is a new world all around with many agency and client friends in transition, new technology, too much news and too many things to do with too few resources.  This is a time for maximizing efficiency with all your resources.

I wrote the first post in this series called How Clients Can Get the Most from their Agencies which was followed by Part Two. Not an overwhelming creative title but perhaps some perspectives in my blog can turn into knowledge if it created some learning.

My friend Joel Don summarized the first blog with a tweet  saying that clients need to educate their agencies, give them clarity, and inspire them. Part two talked about the power of clear and ongoing communication, how to be fair with timelines and the motivation of appreciation.  Agencies are companies but are comprised of people and in these times and throughout time everyone loves to be appreciated.

Here are some additional thoughts on how you can get the most from your advertising, PR, digital, mobile, or search agencies.

• To get good work from your agencies you have to pay them. You cannot expect to get investment thinking if you only pay agencies on a project basis.  They don’t have a lot of extra staff in the backroom playing cards waiting for clients to order.  Pretty simple but sometimes it is not that easy to change perceptions that agency life is a fun party life.  Not true. I think that there is a legacy of agencies that it hasn’t been true for a very long time.  The Mad Men era was in the 60’s and 70’s and is more about Hollywood than reality these days. Clients have created very lean agency partners with their compensation systems.  I wrote a blog once called Who Has the Great Recession Changed the Most?  Clients or agencies? The vast majority of agency people I know would rather be on the client side these days.
• Give them a report card.  My first account was McDonald’s in Canada.  During that time somebody on the client side shared with me three ways you can deal with people. You can praise them; give them a cold prickly or a lukewarm.  The worst thing was to be on the receiving end if it was a lukewarm because you didn’t know where you stood.  Agency report cards are good and should be a regular part of your yearly client practice akin to your planning process. On a micro level, you should have lunch with your agency at least once a month as a top line check in. More importantly you should definitely implement a yearly review or evaluation where you rate the performance of your agency on a number of key criteria measures that are important to you and the performance of your business. This should be in a business environment followed by dinner if it is going to be happy times.  If not, conduct it early in the morning at your office. It will hurt but in the end it may help everybody involved in the process.

Hope these blogs lead to productive experiences.

 

You can connect with Hank on LinkeIn

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Watch some videos on http://www.youtube.com/user/MrHankblank

In the spirit of Christmas download my free audio CD called Hank Blank’s Guide to Holiday Networking.  Adjust the volume up a bit.  Hope you enjoy.

How Clients Can Get the Most from their Agencies: Part Two.

I wrote the first post in this series called How Clients Can Get the Most from their Agencies.

I shared that I walk on both sides of the street so to speak as I have worked for many great agencies in my career.  I have also conducted agency searches for clients like Jenny Craig, Raley’s Supermarkets, and Jacuzzi. I hear the accolades and the frustrations from both worlds.

So here are more thoughts on how to get the most from your agency.  In many ways these aren’t just agency management practices as much as people and life practices.  I think that careers are different these days.  Sure where you work is important on your resume or Linkedin but the way you worked is important to your reputation and the word of mouth about you.  No matter where you live people always say that the advertising and marketing worlds are small worlds and social media and word of mouth makes it even smaller.

So here are some additional thoughts.

• Communicate with your agency and its people.  By this I do not mean just email and texting.  I mean talking and talking face to face.  I have felt that Face Time and not Facebook leads to relationships. When I worked at an agency and I didn’t talk to my client at least once a day I felt something was wrong. Lunch with your key client contact at every level of the organizations on both sides at least once a month.
• Be straight with your agency.  Don’t give them the political reasons for doing things, give them the truth. Confidences lead to trust and trust leads to commitment and commitment leads to hard work because you don’t want to let people down who trust in you.
• Be fair with timelines.  We all know what has happened.  Clients have more to do with less people with the additional responsibilities social media so they are often overwhelmed.  Agency resources are often stretched because budgets have been cut by clients.  You are both (fill in the blank).  Many clients compress the timeline to meet their internal commitment which strains the process and often relationships.  Some clients think that their agency has no choice but to meet them because they need them.  When things are tough maybe.  When things get better it may mean adios or get to the back of the line because fair people will come first.
• Appreciate them. Have a yearly Agency Appreciation Day where you take your team to a Hockey game (I’m Canadian), dinner, or whatever. If you have an AE who is doing an outstanding job and is living the brand send their boss’s boss an email recognizing them. You will create levels of gratitude and benefit from your action.  The person will be committed to you for life.  Your behavior and appreciation is a greater motivator to agency productivity than money.  Clients that recognize their agencies and appreciate them get better work in my opinion.

More thoughts to come.

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

In the spirit of Christmas download my free audio CD called Hank Blank’s Guide to Holiday Networking.  Adjust the volume up a bit.  Hope you enjoy.

How Clients Can Get the Most From Their Agencies.

I have worked for many great agencies in my career. I have also conducted agency searches for clients like Jenny Craig, Raley’s Supermarkets, and Jacuzzi. I believe I have a perspective from both sides of the street. Consider me a person who loves both worlds and wants to bridge some gaps.

I think that there are a number of factors today that are unique to these times that strain client agency relationships. I have summarized some in a previous blog called What’s Wrong with Client Agency Relationships? There is No Romance.

I thought I would offer up some thoughts on how to get the most from your Advertising, Public Relations or Digital Agency.

1. First off, Educate them.

The more your agencies know about your company and you the more they can help. This is more than directing them to your website. When I worked at agencies I rode with the sales force, I worked in stores; I smelled the product and sold the product. I met the R&D people. I went to the factory. I was immersed in the brand because a client invested in me. I appreciated that investment and I wanted to reciprocate with hard work and love for the brand. Disappointment was not an option.

2. Give them clarity. 

One of the worst feelings I had as an agency person was getting a terrible briefing from a client. You could ask all the right questions but sometimes clients provide a bunch of mumbo jumbo as direction. The briefing seemed to come out of a blender. Probably because they were trying to regurgitate a number of diverse inputs internally.  Driving back to the agency I knew it wasn’t going to be a good day because I was coming back empty handed. I would have to play the client and try to make something out of nothing.

3. Inspire them.

When I worked at JWT in a different day their symbol was an owl and a lamp. The owl was for knowledge which equated to finding insight and the hard work which knowledge takes. The lamp was for magic and yes advertising is magic. It is mercurial. To get great advertising you have to inspire your agency to innovate. That is scary for many clients in this consensus, safe, keep my job world. The clients who got the best work were the outlaw clients who were a different breed within their company. They swung for the fences and they got work which sometimes struck out but often went over the fences and their careers soared. Aren’t you tired of playing it safe? You can’t change many things in life but you can change how you play it. The amount of time spent in that client chair and that office will have a limit. Don’t you want to make if a hard act to follow?

More thoughts to come.

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