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Three priorities for client-agency relationships built on effectiveness

An effective client-agency relationship can bring the brand’s promise to life, but a broken relationship can hold effective communication back. As the prospect of a COVID-19 induced economic recession looms – and budget cuts now a reality – there is more need than ever for marketers to prove the impact of investment.

Building resilient, growth-oriented partnerships with agency partners is a crucial part of that puzzle.  According to WFA’s Effective Agency Management Survey (2019), 65% of clients believe a long-term relationship with their agency is either important, very important or essential in producing great work.

In this article, published by WARC, we explore the three critical pillars that give senior marketers space to deliver effective work in an ever-more complex marketing industry: effective resources, operating processes and agency measurement practices.

At a time when 55% of clients believe that their existing agency models are not fit for purpose, we share a number of top tips for driving improvements, including:

  • Insist all markets and agencies use the same terminology and language structures when talking about the business, products and campaigns.
  • To successfully develop a central strategic and creative function, and combine this with flexibility at a local level, brands need to ensure that common workflows and dataflows apply.
  • Train marketing staff to have the right attitudes, mindsets and skillsets to brief correctly and work collaboratively with agency teams; without these, there will be poor working processes that lead to mis-aligned creative and ineffective media planning.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach but going through a process of analysis and diagnosis across the agency roster structure, operational processes and agency measurement will bring improved clarity and organisation.

The full article was published by Warc and can be found at the here.

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