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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.

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

Understandably, when agencies closed their offices, the focus shifted to delivery. Agencies made sure that employees had the equipment and tools needed to produce client work. The results were a huge success. Most agencies reported that the transition was seamless. Their teams worked together (sometimes better than in the office), and work was delivered on time and on budget. Clients were hugely appreciative and quickly became accustomed to working this way.

Some agencies considered this “mission accomplished” and turned their attention to new business. However, agencies cannot take existing clients for granted, especially since some budgets are shrinking due to the pandemic’s effect on the economy. Agencies must maintain their focus on driving their current clients’ business in what still are challenging times.

Having mastered remote delivery, agencies must focus on mastering surprise and delight in a Zoom world.

This is unchartered territory. It is up to the best agencies to create. Here are some ideas:

1. Set strategic goals: It is easy for the team to default to delivery and lose sight of longer-term strategic priorities. Agencies should work with clients to set monthly goals to address brand challenges and explore new audiences, channels, ideas, and messages.

2. Keep it fresh: While many of us are enjoying the benefits of working from home, the days can become monotonous. One Zoom meeting blends into another. Agencies should use their inherent creativity to add some zip to Zoom meetings. Just as agencies are experimenting with new approaches to pitches, current clients deserve the same attention.

3. Take advantage of the new intimacy: Agencies pride themselves on their ability to develop deep client relationships. WFH creates new opportunities as you view everyone’s bedroom, office, or children in the background. You may discover that your client loves cats, plays the guitar, or collects stamps. Lean in. Create a connection by sharing personal videos of new team members, planning an occasional icebreaker (show me your shoes!), or competing for the most diverse bookshelf, oldest office supply, etc.

4. Remember the real world: With so much of our lives managed in front of a screen, there is a craving for old-fashioned experiences where we can see and touch things. Send clients sweatpants and face masks with agency logos. Frame a copy of the latest ad. Send balloons and a cake to celebrate the most recent launch.

5. Manage strategy the way you do tactics: Clients’ most frequent critique pre-COVID was that agencies did not generate business-building ideas proactively. Today’s economic climate makes this activity a must. Agencies should use the discipline, tools, and planning they use to implement tactics (weekly status meetings, project management, resource management) to ensure ongoing strategic thinking. Agencies must assess program results, industry news, competitive activity, and market dynamics for new learnings and recommendations.

6. Rethink assumptions: The events of the last few weeks have radically changed consumer thinking and behavior. We do not know if these changes are temporary or permanent. Agencies should partner with clients to understand new consumer mindsets and implications for brands. It is an opportunity to help clients create their next normal.

And yours.

Stacey Singer is a client retention and growth specialist. She can be reached at stacey@staceysinger.com. Please, zend me any questions or comments.

Stacey SingerJune 10, 2020