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Do you trust your agency?

June 3rd, 2008 Posted in Business Strategy, Rants

Several weeks back I wrote (ok, ranted) about the current state of agencies and why I think things are off track. One of my issues was that clients don’t trust their agencies and agencies aren’t going out of their way to give them a reason to. I had some offline push back on that point, so you can imagine how redeemed I felt to see Marty Cooke, Chief Creative Officer at SS+K say that yes, clients have lost trust with their agencies.

So why? Why have clients lost trust in their agencies?

I stick with my original point that it’s because agencies have lost their spine (assuming they ever had one). They’re not partnering with their clients in a way that allows them to say “Look, that’s the dead wrong way to do this project and we’re not going to be part of it.” They’re also not keeping up with the times like they should. Find me a medium to large sized agency who can do great work around social media and online community and I’ll give you a gold star. Even better, find me one who can do it and can also bill for it and I’ll give you a trophy.


This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 11:06 am and is filed under Business Strategy, Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
  • Hmmm... Duval Guillaume NY for Topps?

    - Baby Bottle Pop
    www.babybottlepop.com
    www.bazookajoe.com

    - Bazooka Zooka Dance campaign for Bazooka Joe
    www.bazookadanceblog.com

    For the record: I work at Duval Guillaume. :)
  • Jake - I am not sure it's that they don't have spines. Let me self-edit. the reason that spines are not more firmly in place is because the agencies themselves don't feel confident in the space. So much is emerging and new and there is so much movement that it's tough to find your sea legs - and this is a major type of transition.

    The reality is that agencies and clients need to be really clear on what their goals are and be committed to an iterative process of understanding what works best for THEIR community.

    Walking into a community engagement with any pre-formed sense of what the community actually wants, the content they need and desire, and how they want to be communicated with is the first problem. Do away with those assumptions, engage with customers qualitatively (what do the numbers day), quantitatively (what does the feedback say) AND behaviourally (what do they actually DO) and you've got a solid foundation for a functioning program.

    And I'm still going to respond to that other post too. I promise. ;)
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