Our latest client fee model has ticked the client’s procurement boxes and our commercial team is satisfied that our time commitment will be compensated. But does that compensation really measure value and will it create a feeling of disenchantment over time?
Creative teams crave flexibility. Time-based cost models require thinking to be given away free, or at least covered in production and implementation – cost areas procurement continually tries to reduce. Agencies are caught in a circle of justification and cost reconciliation, stifling the freedom of thought and creativity they were first appointed to bring to the table.
Time measurement should exist internally to check output efficiency and pricing validity, but not as the sole basis of client costs. When an agency doesn’t deliver, the time taken is redundant; the reason lies in the brief, the insight generated or the ultimate idea developed. Clients don’t care how long an idea took to develop as long as it falls within project timescales. If the resulting campaign idea comes in an hour or six weeks, costs shouldn’t change. The value lies in the idea’s ability to shift mindsets or influence purchasing habits.
How can we find a better way of agreeing a price and assessing value? Would any clients be happy to sign off on a model that relates to the commercial impact of the idea and campaign, and pay for it once the activity was complete?
Clients: please share your vision and concerns and take your agencies into your confidence. Reward them for the results they help you deliver.
Agencies: be confident in your skills. Differentiate and define yourselves to enable payments that don’t need time sheets to justify hours. Propose evaluation and remuneration models that go beyond time and are based on effect.
Let’s get back to the days when ambition counted for something and was rewarded. We’ll only do that by being brave on fees, taking risks and regaining the passion for a profession that has never been more essential.
Rebecca McKinlay is managing director of Ambition
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