sparks flying

Top 10 Most Innovative Ad Agencies in 2020

Fast Company just released its pick for the 10 most innovative ad agencies in 2020.

Congratulations go out to BBDO NY, McCann Worldgroup, Giant Spoon, Anomaly, TBWA Worldwide, The&Partnership, VMLY&R, Observatory, and Droga5.

But let’s face it.

It takes a bold and courageous client to hire an innovative ad agency, and not be afraid. To be a strategic and collaborative partner with their agency.

And to keep the innovation team small – which sometimes requires keeping the rest of the C-suite out of the ideation sessions, and drawing upon the appropriate stakeholders for development and execution of the idea.

Agile and smart teams win the day.

Need help finding a new agency? As a leading global agency search consultant, we’re here to help.

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analytics meeting

Is ’40 the new 70′ the Latest Marketing Trend?

If you look at the marketing industry, it seems that way. Welcome to the new ‘grey attrition’

While it’s been a ‘young person’s business’ at ad agencies for a long time, corporate marketing jobs also seem to be ‘out with the old, in with the new’ – unless you’re the CMO. Whether at an ad agency or on the brand side, this is a disturbing marketing trend.

Seems like we receive at least one email a month from a colleague who has a friend / colleague that’s suddenly unemployed and, because they’re over 40, run into a ‘grey wall’ with human resources or job app websites.

One man of a certain age, according to a recent Digiday article, spent the last three years as a permalancer while he looks for a permanent advertising agency gig.

There are likely many factors driving this new ageism in the marketing industry.

One such culprit is certainly marketers driving down agency comp. This eventually forces advertising agencies to find cheaper talent solutions. And eventually marketers complain that the agency team is too junior and, worst yet, fires the agency.

Mergers and acquisitions, consolidations, and reorganizations also contribute to ‘grey attrition’ at both clients and agencies as they unload higher salaried staffs.

Whatever reason you come up with, it is still a human one.

It’s time marketers and agencies rethink scopes, and staffing – on both sides.

Pressures to increase ROI need to factor in the value of experienced human capital.

With that ‘grey attrition’ also goes your knowledge base. Indiana Jones once said, “It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.”

We’d argue that it can be both.

Mileage doesn’t always ensure wisdom. And ‘the years’ doesn’t mean you hit the brakes on learning.

Let’s stop and rethink this marketing trend.

Bajkowski + Partners is a global consultancy with practices in Agency Search and Selection Management, Agency Performance and Relationship Management, Marketing Organization and Optimization, and Brand and Marcomm Management.

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ad agencies are not banks for clients

When did Agencies and Vendors become banks for their Clients?

Increased pressure from brands on their agencies and vendors to extend payment windows is greater than ever

Mega brands such as General Mills and Chrysler are seemingly throwing their weight around, conducting agency searches of which agency payment  terms have reached a new low – or should we say high?

General Mills’ recent creative agency review reportedly demanded a payment window of 120 days. And according to a post on Digiday, “Chrysler succeeded in pushing its payment window to 180 days last fall…And around the same time…a big brand started asking for payment terms of a full year, according to the 4As, which received complaints from creative and media agencies about the terms.”

The client in that latter situation asked agencies to “work out a deal where on paper it looked as if the agencies had agreed to payment terms of one year”. Often this results in having agencies and vendors pre-bill far in advance and reconcile later.

So in reality, cash-flow management has not improved.

At least that’s what occurs with some of our clients and agencies, whether we’re handling a search or modernizing their agency contracts that have to include such burdensome corporate-wide payment windows that go beyond a 30-day period.

The Digiday article further reveals that marketers requiring these abnormally long payment periods assume agencies will get financing to cover the widening payment to expense gap.

Yet the client won’t pay the financing fees.

Clients should realize that such demands, if an agency acquiesces, can become part of the agency overhead – so you’re still paying the finance charges.

Equally troublesome is the use of third-party invoice processing systems that charge agencies for every invoice that is submitted – non-reimbursable of course.

Agencies are in the business of driving brand revenue through their communications expertise, not money-lenders to clients.

Wonder if client-side staff would be okay with being paid 120 days out.

Definitely not.

Is this what clients really mean by wanting agencies to be their partners?

Probably not.

Yet here we have another strain on client-agency relationships.

Related content: agency search management, client-agency relationship management, agency roster modeling, agency contract and compensation negotiations.

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project collaboration

Agencies Need to Make a Better Case

Show your case studies and capabilities – don’t phone it in

So, you finally got that elusive call with an agency search consultant. Or, better yet, someone at the client. But, you didn’t host the call on an online conferencing service?

That’s a missed opportunity given today’s technology.

And a 5-page deck is all you need to:

  1. Show you researched the brand or search consultant
  2. List your capabilities on one page and let the conversation steer the drill-down
  3. Show 2-3 of your best case studies – one page each with creative links

That’s it. Not complicated.

So why do so many ad agencies try to “talk” their capabilities and case studies at their audience over the phone?

As a result, you won’t keep your audience engaged nor leverage the impact of visuals to make a lasting impression.

Granted, technology can let us down at times. So you may want to send that deck just before the call.

But to get the most out of the short call, try to leverage online conferencing services and present a quick deck!

Bajkowski + Partners is a global consultancy with practices in Agency Search and Selection Management, Agency Performance and Relationship Management, Marketing Organization and Optimization, and Brand and Marcomm Management.

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