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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.

Six months have passed since you began working with your new communications firm. And while they started out strong, they seem to be falling down from time to time on simple things. You’re starting to second-guess your decision and question whether you’ve selected the ‘right’ firm.

What should you do?

Imagine…you’re one of 4 children. You’re constantly on edge because your mom or dad continually compare and contrast what you do over and above your siblings (and vice versa). Their expressed love, approval and financial support depends wholly on how you’re perceived within the family. Would you ‘play fair’ as a child in this household, or seek every opportunity to self-promote and also detract attention and accolades from your siblings? Human nature would say that the later would be true.

This is also true of clients wishing to retain multiple agencies. For marketing agencies to ‘play fair’ toward a collectively shared integrated campaign goal and step away from selfish posturing, clients must first foster an environment which promotes it. Rules must be set upfront and client-side marketers must be unified and consistent in disciplining and rewarding agencies toward enforcing the rules. Insecurity and perceived untapped opportunity motivate marketing and communications firms to posture for a larger slice of a client’s budget.

Since 2004, every agency that I’ve worked for/with was in the midst of developing their own bespoke client asset management library. They’ve had various bells and whistles and each worked in different ways, but all with the same basic purpose: to efficiently share out brand assets (logos, etc), guidelines, etc. And there have been loads of software development firms who offered this type of package to big brands, as well (SmartPath being just one example), but with big annual subscription and/or customisation charges to match. Loads of marketing agencies and marketing departments spent major money on building their own asset management systems or on customisations for off the shelf solutions. And many of the systems weren’t the most intuitive.

Now, we’re excited to see a new UK start-up on the job. Brand Regard is a seemingly simple cloud-based solution. But it, and other cloud-based brand asset libraries like it, will make it much easier for smaller brands to keep their multiple agencies, partners and employees ‘in the know’ and using the latest marks, copy, photos, etc. As we’ve seen lots of brands move toward a roster approach and away from single integrated firms, this could be the ‘basecamp solution’ for asset management for marketing departments within SMEs.

Over the past few months, we’ve been questioned many times regarding what’s an appropriate answer for the ‘corporate tone’ ask as part of our project brief template. Given the frequency of the question, we thought others may find our long-form answer helpful. This is the third of a three-part series written by our resident copywriter Danielle, outlining our pointers for capturing your corporate tone. If you haven’t yet caught the first or second instalments, of course, link to those first.

7. Evolve

Over the past few months, we’ve been questioned many times regarding what’s an appropriate answer for the ‘corporate tone’ ask as part of our project brief template. Given the frequency of the question, we thought others may find our long-form answer helpful. This is the second of a three-part series written by our resident copywriter Danielle, outlining our pointers for capturing your corporate tone. If you haven’t yet caught the first instalment, please find it here.

In this series we focus on how to create a successful brand profile. You can find the first three steps in our previous entry below.