Agency Relations

Industry expert, Steve Fajen, president, Steve Fajen Consulting Inc., shares an eight-step process for maximizing media agency value in this ANA Insight Brief.

This compilation of resources on scope of work includes best practices, ANA member case studies, and information on managing agency relationships.

Tom Cuniff, director, interactive communications, Combe Inc., shared his thoughts on cross-agency integration.

Sean Corcoran, analyst, Forrester Research, Inc., shared the results of Forrester's 2010 study on the future of agency relationships.

Eve Reiter, VP, global agency relations, American Express, discussed the keys to a successful client/agency partnership.

A panel of marketers and agency professionals discussed best practices for improving the agency search process.

Bink Garrison, president of Bink, Inc., and George Galinksy, vice president of advertising, public relations, and internet marketing at Mohegan Sun, described how Win/Win meetings can improve the client/agency relationship and lead to fewer expensive agency searches.

Benjamin G. Edelman, assistant professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School, demonstrated how to detect and prevent advertising fraud.

Anthony Rushton, director, Telemetry, discussed how the benefits of adopting independent delivery and verification of online video advertising campaigns helped Reckitt Benckiser to become the largest online video advertiser in the world.

Jennifer Statham, marketing programs strategist, agency management, global marketing, Dell, Susan Montgomery, global client finance director, Team Dell, WPP, and Richard Benyon, CEO, Decideware, outlined principles and processes that can help reduce the pain points often attributed to agency performance evaluations.

Bruno Gralpois and Marybeth Turk from Microsoft, along with Jillian Gibbs and Cherie Martin Irwin from APR, outlined principles and processes of Microsoft's Digital Production Guidelines, which focus on improving quality for less money.

Bob Siegal, director, management advisory services at Prager and Fenton, shared tips on how the most effective agency audits focus on marketing risk management and include a hard look at practices and processes at both client and agencies.

Representatives from the 4A's, Anomaly, Deutsch, and Bernstein Rein discussed the issues surrounding client "bad behavior" in the agency search and selection process.

Peter Stabler, an analyst covering the advertising and media sectors for Credit Suisse, provided his perspective on the state of the agency business. Issues covered included the impact of media fragmentation, digital media, analytics, and procurement.

This study underscores the phenomenal growth in digital marketing spending that has escalated over the last half of this decade as well as the growing role this discipline is playing in marketers’ overall marketing strategies for their brands.

This research report draws on survey research conducted throughout 2009 and also highlights "hot" topics to marketers such as brand building, newer media, agency evaluations, marketing accountability, agency holding companies, global marketing, agency audits, and hourly rates.

A presentation by John Stevens and Rich Sherwood from Sanofi-Aventis covered agency interactions and relationship management.

Genentech has developed a comprehensive structured agency evaluation program from scratch using ANA best-practice concepts and shared its learnings on the program.

In order to better establish benchmarks on practices and perceptions related to agency performance evaluations, ANA conducted a member survey. The survey findings report on incidence/frequency, types of agencies evaluated, evaluation criteria, benefits, recent improvements/adjustments, specific best practices, and more.

Casey Jones, cofounder & CEO, Jones & Bonevac, discussed the need for marketers to improve the briefs they disseminate to their agencies of record.

This Research Report explores the incidence and best practices of agency evaluations and covers the following areas: frequency, evaluating multiple agencies/agency types, value of 360-degree evaluations (meaning the agency also evaluates the client), use of technology to facilitate evaluations, and more.

Industry experts discussed the results of an ANA survey on agency evaluations.

Industry experts discussed the results of an ANA survey on agency evaluations.

Members of ANA’s Multicultural Marketing Committee suggest good 1) African-American agencies willing to undertake project work; 2) consultants, experts, or agencies well-versed across functional disciplines including marketing, HR, supplier diversity, philanthropy to help with messaging and to craft a company story; and 3) consultants, experts, or agencies well-versed across African-American, Asian, and Hispanic segments to engage in messaging and strategic planning.

Eric Jillard, department manager of digital marketing at Mercedes-Benz, and Andy Dutter, vice president of business development for Razorfish, shared their thoughts on best practices for driving efficiency in both the agency selection process and in the contractual/scope of work phase of client-agency engagement.

GlobalHue’s Dale Bramwell discussed how multicultural agencies are able to realize great savings in television productions.

Representatives from SelectResources International (SRI) shared their views on how the digital phenomenon is impacting the ways clients go to market and work with their agency partners.

A panel of digital agency experts from Deutsch LA, Ignited, and MRM Worldwide discussed digital issues including client education, digital agency compensation, the RFP process, Twitter, and digital agency evaluations.

Diane M. Gibbons, Team Leader, Agency Management, Pfizer, Jim Akers, Global Category Lead, Creative Agencies & Director, WW Procurement, Pfizer, and some of their agency partners discussed the evolution of the creative agency scope of work at Pfizer.

Matt Petersen, SVP, Meredith Integrated Marketing and Linda Willis, Director of Strategy, Meredith Integrated Marketing, shared the thought process behind the creation of Meredith’s new agency model, Meredith Integrated Marketing (MIM).