About 8 years ago, I had an idea for an agency presentation brochure entitled:

"Smart Clients, Foolish Choices"

  It was about the process of choosing an ad agency, and it borrowed its title from the pop psychology book popular at the time--for a very good reason.

  I stumbled upon this file a few months ago, and found it to be pretty current. So here goes:

Choosing an ad agency in the traditional manner is like looking for a wife in a bar.

  The agency that makes the best presentation may not be the best long-term partner. What attracts you in the first place may not be the values that last.

  Besides, what you see may not be what you get.

Participate in their decision

First, be realistic. Don't count on the 'mutual selection' aspect to prevent a bad matchup. When I was at Chiat/Day in 1982, a memo came down from on high proclaiming that the Creative Director would not look at work for clients billing under $3 million.

  Whose attention will you get? What will your presence on the client list do for the agency? Will you be the smallest account in the shop? The largest? Neither is ideal. Is this agency staffed to handle your account? Do they have experience in your field (desirable but not necessary)? More important, are they really committed to doing great work for you?

  Be sure your choice of agency has the desire and the ability to give you both the service and the work you need and do so profitably.

Be sure you are sincerely desired

There is an ad agency in Los Angeles that is a subsidiary of a large consumer-oriented agency. This subsidiary focuses on 'high-tech' clients. Unfortunately, the subsidiary consists of only a couple of management people. There is no creative staff, no research staff, etc. The people they show to prospective clients are 'borrowed' from the parent agency--people who for the most part, are quite reluctant to work on high tech.

  In fact, most consumer-oriented ad agencies treat high tech as a disfavored stepchild.

  Be sure you choose an agency whose staff is eager to work in your industry.

Know what it will be like day-to-day

Many agencies employ a "new business" team whose sole purpose is to get into and win competitive "pitches". They have no interest--and no involvement--in the day-to-day running of the account. They just move on to the next courtship leaving the client in the hands of a 'junior' member of the agency. This is not always a bad thing; but it is something to consider.

  You won't always get a straight answer on this question, but you can ask about what other accounts each presenter works on. If the list is too long, you're not going to get much mindshare.

  Always ask who will manage the account day-to-day. Call current clients and ask about their experiences with each person who is pledged to work with you.

Know their past

Along the same lines, many ad agencies can trundle out examples of great-looking work, with success stories to match. Often this work is done by freelancers. In other cases, the work was done by people no longer on staff.

  A large computer manufacturer in Southern California approached a very high profile ad agency to pitch their account. The agency management was eager to get the business, but there were no creative people willing or able to do the "pitch", so the entire presentation was given to an outside ad agency that the big client rejected as "too small" to handle the account. But the work was so good that not only did the big agency win the client's business, the entire first year’s campaign was done by the outside shop. To this day, the client doesn’t know that.

  Be sure to ask who worked on the ad examples you like. Ask when the work was done, and, if possible, ask about the results achieved. You probably won't be lied to.

Don't expect them to make you whole

If your work isn't as good as it could be, don't expect a simple change of ad agencies to solve it. It takes teamwork to create bad advertising.

  When your relationship with your ad agency fails, it is a time for reflection. If the problem is the work and your organization changed the work, it shares responsibility with the people who created it. If the problem is in overall direction, try to find out if the agency's recommendations have been altered by your own people. If the problem is in day-to-day working relationships, try to assess whether your company's people have contributed to it.

  One of the most common and dispiriting things a client does to an ad agency is withhold the final decision-maker from the process until the work is complete.

  Review your internal processes to determine who can say 'yes' and who can say 'no', and reduce the number of people in the decision chain accordingly.

  Try to make your ad agency relationship collaborative and keep the number of team members small.

Don't ask for pre-marital creative

If the ad agency can solve your problems after just a few hours contemplation, it's probably just luck. Or it's not really a solution, just new, seductively flashy stuff. To understand a marketing problem requires in-depth understanding of the marketplace, bolstered by research. From that comes a positioning statement, and from that, on-target advertising.

  Advertising that looks good but is based on an imperfect understanding of the market is destructive.

  Ask to hear examples of case histories where the agency participated in analyzing the problem then produced successful advertising.

Get a pledge of monogamy

If you aren't the biggest client of your kind in the area, be sure the agency you're talking with pledges not to run off with the more attractive one if the opportunity arises. One way to predict that is to find out if they have a history of doing so in the past.

  Many large agencies have multiple offices, and the decision may be made nationally to resign one piece of business so that another office can get a bigger one. This just happened to Ogilvy & Mather in L.A. When their New York office got the IBM account, the local branch was forced to resign Microsoft.

  Ask about how they handle possible client conflicts both in new business opportunities, and in the case of other branches of the agency getting competing business.

Chat with your gut

How do you feel about the people you've met with? Do you trust their ethics? Would you hire them to work for you with minimal supervision? Will you look forward to talking with them every day?

  If you follow these guidelines, it will help you avoid many of the less obvious pitfalls of ad agency selection.

Copyright 1995, Kelley Advertising & Marketing

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