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Working with Agencies

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Working with Agencies

An Insider's Guide

Wiley,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Text available

What's inside?

Working with an ad agency is challenging, but if you manage the relationship, it can be the best investment you ever make

Editorial Rating

6

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable
  • Well Structured

Recommendation

When a client selects an advertising agency, that choice marks the beginning of a very special, potentially profitable affiliation. When the relationship works well, it creates an energetic creative and business mix. But when agencies and clients fail to connect, conflict brews and often becomes public and expensive. Thankfully, advertising consultant Michael Sims makes the job of hiring and managing an agency much easier with this detailed, U.K.-oriented guidebook. He sketches the primary pitfalls and explains how agencies work. Sims explains how to manage the business and creative aspects of the relationship, and he includes checklists and forms so you can follow his recommendations. Yet, while helpful, Sims delves into unnecessary detail and his long lists seem somewhat simplistic. Still, getAbstract finds this treatise eminently practical for anyone who needs a primer on ad agencies and wants to maximize this crucial business relationship.

Summary

When Clients and Agencies Clash

Companies hire creative advertising agencies for their extensive expertise in “sales promotion, design, brand advertising, PR, event management, digital media or direct marketing.” Most firms require these integral services in one form or another. However, in a client-agency relationship, the client dictates. It hires the agency, pays for its services and concludes the contract at will. This inequity can result in conflict, since the involved people at ad agencies often feel underappreciated, undercompensated and subjugated to their clients. Often an inherent mismatch between the client’s and the agency’s company cultures impedes the relationship, leading exasperated clients to exclaim, “Agencies: Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.”

To minimize the possibility of conflict, conduct a business-to-business analysis. If you are a client, you are looking for a productive relationship. You want to work with an agency whose people understand your products and market, and think strategically. You seek an agency whose corporate culture fits with yours and whose talented staff provides solutions that can be integrated easily into your...

About the Author

Michael Sims is a freelance advertising consultant in the U.K. He has worked with major international corporate clients.

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