A recent study from the MAA highlighted a worrying gap between agencies’ perceptions of the agency/client relationship and those of their clients, with 90% of agencies believing that they understand their clients’ business issues, but fewer than 50% of clients agreeing with that assertion.
This probably goes a long way to explaining the drop in the average agency tenure from 5.3 years in 1997 to just three in 2015.
Switching agencies incurs significant costs for both parties. Long-term relationships should also deliver significant added value over and above cost savings. But while many clients and agencies talk about a desire for long-term partnerships, I question whether many of them are set up to enable such a relationship to succeed.
From an agency’s perspective, there has to be genuine commitment through the business to their client. The agency teams need to get to know their clients and their businesses intimately. If possible the teams should go and work in the business; they should understand their client’s pain points and aspirations. Whatever keeps the brand team awake at night should also be keeping the agency awake.
Agencies also need to be ruthless in ensuring standards never drop: complacency is the biggest killer of any relationship.
For their part, clients need to not only talk about long-term relationships, but commit to putting the effort into maintaining them. They need to be open and operate on a genuinely collaborative basis and shouldn’t be afraid of letting a good agency see behind the curtain. A strategic agency partner can add as much value to a business as a management consultant, but will rarely get the same level of engagement and senior level access.
Brands (and particularly procurement departments) are increasingly commodifying agency services, rather than appreciating the value of a strategic partner – something which can’t, and shouldn’t, simply be determined by hours and rate cards.
The perception gap that has been identified will only be closed through greater effort and better understanding on both sides.
Richard Southon is managing director at Communicator
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