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Back in 2000-01, I was working agency-side and just about every new brief was for a website pitch. At the time, we’d go into the client’s offices (or invite them into ours) and discuss our methodology for developing a great website, gather their brief, show them relevant examples of our work for others and provide a proposal and estimate thereafter. As ours was a small boutique creative agency and the average site build was less than $30,000, this was most often adequate to win the website pitch.

Now, in 2012, things have changed–obviously. As surfers today, our online behaviour patterns are ingrained and we now have access to much more sophisticated analytical tools to assess user’s actions. So then, why do so many small, boutique digital and integrated agencies still pitch in much the same way?

I recently read a thought-provoking article by Andrew Marr entitled ‘Can Good Design Save The Economy’. Upon reading the article, I was proud to be creative industry as the central premise of the article is that the thinkers and creators who play in the creative/design industry may drive the UK’s economy in the future. Apparently, the design/creative industry contributes roughly the same amount to the UK’s GDP as Financial Services. But the article goes further to state that the number of individuals working in the Creative and Design Industries is nearly double that of the Financial Services. To my mind, the natural assumption which flows from these stats is that those working in Design are less business savvy than those working in the financial services industry.

If we really take a moment to think, the central message within the article is common sense. It’s been well articulated by others much wiser than I that our future economy (ie the world’s) will be fuelled by thinkers, professionals doing and creating new things of value which serve a worthwhile purpose and command a fair price from consumers.

In many ways, selecting a PR firm is a lot like selecting a life partner. Companies must select a firm in which they have confidence to operate with good judgement as their proxy.

The typical marketing procurement manager within a big, global corporation faces many challenges. And in speaking with them, we’re regularly reminded of how tough their job can be. So, our aim here is to take a bit of a journey in their shoes.

Taking a step back for those unfamiliar, marketing procurement professionals work within large corporate firms. These individuals, if working for a firm which adopts an agency roster, may manage the selection of marketing and communications agencies full time. However, other marketing procurement professionals arent afforded the luxury of focus. Instead, they may be sourcing an accountancy firm one day (or worse, toilet roll!) and a marketing agency the next. So, the primary challenge of non-dedicated marketing procurement folks is lack of focus. And this lack of focus means that in many cases, procurers will have to start fresh in re-educating themselves on the industry whenever a new firm or agency network is required, as selection may occur just once ever three or more years. Of course, they’ll have their network of internal marketers’ ears whenever they need help or advice, but it can be a lonely world as they are in some cases feared (if not unpopular) amongst agency management.

There’s an old, trite saying which goes ‘there’s no such thing as a silly question’. However, in the case of the agency pitch process, I beg to differ. Questions, which drive a discussion forward are well appreciated by everyone, of course, but other questions which show ignorance are obviously best avoided.

As an agency intermediary, we chat with clients and marketing agencies daily in an effort to properly match firms to appropriate briefs. So, it’s not at all strange for us to be the conduit for questions and answers. Many of those questions are worthwhile and important. But, sadly, others are time-wasters and hurt rather than help the agency’s impression in the eyes of the client contact.

Too often today, project briefs start with prescribing a solution. ’Mobile application to connect with youth’, ‘in-store graphics and POP display appropriate for high-traffic retail outlets’….the list goes on and on.

So, we can’t help but ask ourselves who has their eye on solving the Business Problem? In the old days, clients would sign up with an agency they trust and give them a bit of money to think about achieving their business objectives. The agency would go off and spend the time their clients’ funds allowed figuring out how to achieve the business objectives while spending as little as possible (keeping the remaining funds for themselves as profit). The model certainly had its flaws. But, it allowed agencies to think and kept them aligned toward achieving business objectives.

As a first step, we often receive briefs from client-side marketers with a couple key problems:

Day in, day out we meet with client-side and agency-side marketers. And while agency-side hours and strong personalities can be a challenge to manage, client-side marketers don’t have an easy time, either.

Increasingly squeezed to perform and achieve the same results while coping with reduced marketing budgets and lower internal head counts, many client-side marketers are stretched too thin. They haven’t made it to the bottom of their inbox for days. They don’t have time to do the work that’s agreed within all the meetings which command a majority of their working day. And between the meetings and the inbox, there’s little to no time left for client-side folks to clear their minds, or even rush out for a proper lunch.

a guest post by Will Jenkins, Redbox Digital

According to a resent ISBA presentation by Aprais, a client/agency relationship specialist, “Successful marketing clients:

• are professional, disciplined, well organised
• understand and respect their agencies’ contributions
• know what they want, are demanding
• are committed to quality, expect to pay for it
• are honest and fair
• regard their agencies as partners, not just suppliers”

Recognising that not all clients are created equal, we always encourage agencies which are shortlisted for our clients’ briefs to be equally as selective as clients in making a choice at every stage of the pitch process. And while most of us who have worked in the industry for a while would self-volunteer most of these aspects if asked to describe the perfect client, perhaps it’s worth at least this brief reminder of those aspects which are markers for the most successful client-side marketers.

If you’re a UK marketing agency and haven’t yet registered for our database. What are you waiting for?! It’s easy….we promise.