Living Inside The Year of Agency Discontent
There was a great article published at iMedia Connection last week by Justin Berton called “How to survive the age of client discontent“. The article talks about 2007 being the year that a number of creative agencies lost some of their biggest clients because of the growing expectation on the agency to really impact their clients business through integrated campaigns.
It also offers tips for agencies to focus on to stay on top and retain their accounts. The article rang some pretty loud bells for me because I spent 2007 inside an agency where I routinely heard clients call for more strategic work, better leadership, and new and innovative ideas.
That discontent and sense of needing to do something about it is also what lead me down the path of creating the role of a digital marketing advocate. In my mind, for clients to truly start succeeding, they need someone inside with an agency perspective. They need to understand how an agency think. And they need to be prepared to lead their agency more.
I think so much of the discontent out there being felt by agency clients is fueled by the misguided expectation that because we’re spending money online we should be rolling in its benefits. This type of attitude is what built the first wave of the web and it was fueled by a rushed expectation of success by default. Because we spent money online, it should be coming back to us tenfold.
But letting the agency lead the client into this new world puts unrealistic blinders on the agency and the client. They both focus less on what they can do, and end up talking more about what they would like to do. It also means that the agency doesn’t get a true shot at success because they are always trying to outdo themselves rather than focus on delivering against the work they’ve already booked.
My goal for 2008 is to help more agencies succeed and for clients to feel less angst and frustration towards them. For an agency to really succeed today, they need savvy clients who partner with them in a true spirit of mutual success.
Did you find 2007 to be a tumultuous year for you or your agency? As always, your comments and thoughts are welcome.
Tags: , Agency discontent
March 21st, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Ahhhh yes. This reminds of Walmart who seem to kick of the idea at the beginning of last year that it was time to boot the incumbant after 32 years and move on. Reasons for firing Berstein-Rein….need for more innovation and creative thinking to deal with reinvented competition from Target. Walmart then when out and hired Interpublic Group and fired them after only one month!!! This was a great moment for all of us in the agency world, as this was a great demonstration of the shortsightedness of clients who think they can just replace an agency and immediately exceed expectations. How could a new agency even come close to overcoming a predecessor with a 32 year relationship. Walmart’s reasons for firing new agency after 30 days?….”the result of new information that we have obtained over the past few weeks.” Glad the client did their homework. Typical. Of course, Wal-mart did fire their VP in charge of selecting new agency too. Her screw up. I don’t even know what happened after they tossed Interpublic/Draft.
March 21st, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Clients feel itchy because they think everything should be coming together for them because they hire outsiders. What they don’t realize is the outsiders are still trying to figure it out too.