In continuation of our Secert Marketer series, we asked a New Biz Director at a leading  whitelabel marketing agency to share his thoughts on where the agency-client gap really lies.

His answers may surprise you...

When it comes to the agency search and selection process, what do both clients and agencies expect from a chemistry meeting?

At FindGood we have been exploring this topic on both sides for many months. In that time we have noticed one size does not fit all, but first impressions still count.

Here, our head matchmaker Annabelle looks to bridge the gap between clients and agencies

Preparation

Clients do like an agency to come to a meeting fully prepared (forgive us if this sounds obvious but you'd be surprised), but this entails more than knowing the full background of the business.

Daniel Henderson is the Client Service Director for innovative creative Digital Production and Marketing agency Here & Now. He has a decade working with blue chips clients to create innovative and multi-channel digital solutions.

How often do we ever take a step back and think about the relationship from the clients perspective? Probably not often enough.

Fiona Beauchamp, Director of Activation at marketing agency, Bray Leino explains how activation can master the crucial last yards of the customer journey, the point where the consumer assumes a hunter-gatherer mind-set and becomes the shopper

The thrill for me in working with challenger brands is tackling the unique obstacles they face, not only in breaking into the retail environment, but in staying there and remaining competitive against leading brands with existing retailer relationships and bigger marketing budgets.

Currently slogging it out in the agency search and selection process?

Hot from the desk of this anonymous Comms Director of a global business in the built environment sector, we bring you these top 10 tips for winning over in-house PR teams

Obviously, marketing agency search and selection is what our team does, day in, day out.

But we also help foster relationships and subsequently are asked by agency and client alike, what the secret to healthy, happy and productive partnerships really is.

We were digging about the annuls of WARC recently and found a useful article about assessing client/marketing agency relationships. You can read it immediately, here.

To the team at digital marketing agency, Pop Digital Ibiza, well-thought-out street marketing campaigns are a neat way of showing off your brand personality.

Here Liam O'Dowd shares his two (or is that four) cents on staying ahead

And while some of the bigger campaigns can be costly, there is potential to achieve great visibility and engagement even with a very limited budget, provided you’re willing to put the time in. Plus the ROI can be big.

We’re big fans of Street Marketing. It's an environment that is receptive to creative, eye catching campaigns that break the norms of traditional marketing. Here are four of the marketing agency trends we’ll be keeping a close eye on in 2014:

(1) Experiential Marketing

Alan Thorpe, of Digital Marketing Agency, Indicia, assesses the success of those who are and who are not taking a bite out of the social cherry. So, what's the cost of not being social?

When Carolyn Seaman of Marketing Agency, Net Media Planet came to us with her predictions for digital in 2014, we realised she might be on to something.

So, below you'll find her definitive list for what to expect in digital marketing in the year ahead, and how to prepare your business

The world of digital marketing -and certain how we work as a digital marketing agency- is fast changing and 2013 was clearly an eventful year. I expect 2014 to be no less action-packed. Here are my top 5 predictions to help brands take full advantage of the year ahead.  

The marketing landscape has seen some big changes in the last year.

But both marketing agencies and clients need to understand C2C is here to stay, says Adrian Cory, Business Development Manager for the Clay Group

It appears ‘communications agency’ is a common misnomer these days.

Somewhat puzzling given the designation of a communications agency appears relatively straightforward: an organisation that offers valued clients the best possible routes to reach out, connect with an audience and begin (or continue) meaningful and long lasting relationships. Sounds simple enough, but the reality is a little different. The way we communicate has undergone the most radical change since a man named Bell asked a man named Watson to pop in and many brands still haven’t adapted despite the over-bearing attentions of ‘experienced’ communications agencies.