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Agencies: Hate Project Work? Act More Like an AOR.

Most agencies hate project work because it’s less predictable and harder to manage and staff. What’s more, agencies believe project work negatively impacts the agency-client dynamic, with agencies treated more like vendors than partners, and their contributions focused on tactics rather than strategy. The relationship can feel transactional and shorter-term.

Will COVID-19 Destroy Your Agency Culture or Reinvent It?

Culture is the only sustainable competitive advantage that agencies have. After all, most agencies produce the same types of work the same way—and often with the same people (we all know it is a small industry). That is why an account, strategy, or creative person can move from one agency to another and immediately contribute. Culture is one of the most important differentiators—it makes one agency succeed and another fail.

Zurprise and Zelight: Surprising and Delighting Clients in a Zoom World

In the old days (about 12 weeks ago), agencies focused on surprising and delighting clients. They understood (the good ones, at least) that delivering work on time and on budget was the price of entry. Client retention and growth required a higher level of thinking, service, creativity, and connection.

Agencies Are Great at Creating Narratives. Now They Must Write Their Own. Carefully.

Agencies sometimes create aspirational ads and press releases as a tool to help clients envision a successful, alternate future. Now we can imagine headlines like, “M&M’s redefines retail in Times Square,” or “CVS takes a stand on health by eliminating cigarette sales.” But before these were realities, they were possibilities—and research suggests that seeing a possibility makes it easier to achieve.

To Have A Big Impact, Agencies Must Sweat the Small Stuff

Self-help experts have long instructed people not to sweat the small stuff. The basic philosophy is that by not focusing on life’s little annoyances, we can reduce stress and improve our lives. This might be true for individuals but not for agencies. For agencies to succeed, they must do the opposite: they must sweat the small stuff. Every client interaction—every phone call, email, invite, estimate, and meeting— must be as error-free and on point as possible. Why? Because the small stuff has a big impact on clients’ perceptions of the agency.

Let's Make Agency Meetings Great Again!

In the last few years, there has been a movement to reduce the number of agency meetings. Many internal meetings are considered a waste of time, energy, and money. The trend has also extended to client meetings, aided by the ability to meet online rather than in person.

I agree with the need to eliminate bad meetings—whether they are live or online, internal, or with the client. However, I think agencies are missing an opportunity—that is, to encourage great meetings.

Client Feedback: When No Response Is a Response

There is a saying that “no news is good news.” When it comes to client feedback, this is not true.

Many agencies send surveys regularly to get client input. Done right, these surveys can generate critical insights about the agency’s work and relationships. Done wrong, it is easy for the agency to misinterpret the data and focus its efforts in the wrong places.

Clients Are from Mars. Agencies Are from Venus

I am often asked to act as an intermediary between clients and agencies. It is the advertising equivalent of the old Ladies Home Journal column, “Can This Marriage be Saved?” I am usually called upon when the relationship is near its breaking point in a last-ditch effort to salvage it. Much like “Can This Marriage,” I start by speaking to the agency and the client separately to try to understand each one’s point of view and then bring them together to find common ground and a way forward.

What Your Email Style Communicates About Your Agency

I work with agencies to help them keep and grow business. My work requires a deep understanding of an agency's culture. I rely on all sorts of data to get to know an agency, including employee and client interviews, satisfaction studies, HR and financial data, and believe it or not, emails. Granted, email practices and patterns can be a bit more subjective, but I find them highly indicative of how an agency works.

Goldilocks and the Secret to Breakthrough Advertising

In psychology, the inverted U theory is used to explain achieving optimal performance. The theory states that there is a relationship between performance and pressure, and the ideal performance occurs when there is just the right amount of pressure—too much or too little can reduce performance. A similar theory is used in economics and sports. The axes are different, but the “just right” Goldilocks’ principle is the same. To create breakthrough work, agencies should consider the inverted U.

"Yes, and" or How to Say No and Make it Sound Like a Yes

An irate client called me from the floor of a convention. He hated the convention panel we had produced and said, “it looks like an impossible-to-read eye chart full of small type.” I promised to investigate and get back to him. I told him we would try to redo the panel, and also identify what went wrong so we would not do it again.

Psst! There Are No Client Secrets

Unhappily married couples often try to hide their marital issues from their children. They believe that if they spend lots of time together, or don’t argue in front of the kids, they will never know the marriage is troubled. If you talk to their children, most will say the secret was out. Some heard their parents fighting behind closed doors. Others noticed their parents only spoke to and through the kids and not each other.

Client Satisfaction Surveys: 5 Ways to Blow Them. And How to Ace Them

Client satisfaction surveys have become SOP for many businesses. Every call to my bank or stop at my Starbucks is followed up by an automated survey. (By the way - if a visit to Starbucks is the “best part of my day,” I consider it a pretty bad day).

Dear Client: I Am Not Your Partner

I have been in advertising for a long time. Somewhere along the way, clients and agencies started referring to each other as partners. I don’t remember the month or year, but I feel like the use of the phrase increased as the business became more transactional. I assume this was supposed to make the agency feel better about our changing relationship with clients—the equivalent of renaming second mortgages home equity loans to reduce the stigma of borrowing.

What the Bachelor Can Teach Us About Client-Agency Relationships

I admit it. I watch a lot of Reality TV. I cry at Say Yes to the Dress and restage half my house after each episode of The Property Brothers. However, I draw the line at The Bachelor. I am clearly in the minority, as the show has run for 23 top-rated seasons.

What the Bachelor Can Teach Us About Client-Agency Relationships

I refuse to watch because it is the least real of any reality shows; while a soon-to-be bride usually leaves with a dress, and a couple gets a beautiful home, 23 seasons of The Bachelor have resulted in two marriages (and a third to a runner-up after dumping the woman picked on air).

Why so little success? Because the basic premise does not work. A person who shines on a fantasy date—like a hot air balloon ride with champagne and caviar— does not necessarily shine in real life.

Here’s the dating reality show I’d like to see:

For their first date, the couple sets off on a two-hour drive to a mountain cabin for a digital-free weekend of hiking and relaxation. They hit traffic, and the trip takes six hours, including bathroom stops by the side of the road. The cabin bears no resemblance to its online pictures, and it rains all weekend.

On the next date, the couple has to furnish a room from IKEA. They must select the furniture, get it home, and put it together. They end the date sitting on the floor.

On the third date, it gets serious—a friend, parent, or pet is sick. It’s helpful to see when the going gets tough, if your date gets going—as in, gone.

I am not saying that couples that ace these dating challenges will get married and stay married. I am saying that if they succeed here, they have a better chance of long-term success because these dates resemble real life.

Which brings me to the agency pitch. The pitch is The Bachelor of the advertising world. It meets some emotional needs but is not the best way to select a long-term agency partner. Because the skills and behaviors required to win a pitch are different than the skills and behaviors to keep and grow business. Here’s why:

For agencies, pitches are an opportunity to win new business. A winning pitch creates great buzz and can lead to more pitches.

For agency staff, pitches are exhilarating. The best and brightest get to brainstorm without the limits of budgets or legal reviews.

For clients, pitches are an opportunity to get new ideas and invigorate the brand.
They feature big ideas, grand gestures, cutting-edge thinking, and great food.

Pitches are the hot air balloon, champagne, and caviar date of advertising. Sadly, they don’t predict the long-term success of a client-agency relationship.

Any agency (or date) can be at their best for a few weeks. The real test is how the agency holds up over time in the real world, despite its limitations and frustrations.

Once clients award the business, they have the day-to-day experience of working with the agency. They know the quality of the work and whether it’s fulfilling their needs. They know whether they look forward to agency meetings. They know if their brand is in trouble, whether their first call would be to the agency. Or not.

In fact, when a current agency is thrown into a review situation, a great presentation should not override months or years of bad experiences. The reverse is also true: a less-than-stellar presentation should not outweigh actual positive experiences with the agency.

That’s why assignments should be awarded based on current agency performance.

This change could have a profound effect on the client-agency dynamic. If new assignments are awarded based on ongoing performance, agencies are encouraged to invest their best talent and resources in current, not potential, clients. Agencies would focus on client satisfaction and experience, brand growth, organic growth, and long-term partnerships. The agency would be incentivized to continue the most expansive part of a pitch—stepping outside everyday assignments and imagining the future direction of the brand. Clients would be happier, more engaged, and focused on brand stewardship rather than agency management. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve helped it happen, at several agencies.

Most importantly, it would value long-term partnerships over the quick win. I can even imagine a time when reality TV gets the message: The Bachelor celebrating not an engagement or wedding but staying married. That is finale material.

Stacey Singer is a Client Retention and Growth Specialist.

You can reach her at (908) 313-6539 or Stacey@staceysinger.com.

Stacey SingerApril 30, 2019