‘Clients are uncomfortable with the way their agencies approach them’, agencies warned
Agencies have been warned they may be nailing briefs, but they are failing to solve actual business problems, by a panel of former agency heads who moved on to head up big brands.
Jenny Williams, Luke Dunkerley, Paul Bennett and Julia Varigiu on the panel
“Universally clients say they feel uncomfortable with the way their agencies approach them,” said moderator Julia Vargiu, founder and principal of New Business Methodology, leading the Mumbrella360 panel that boasted a combined 70 years of client-side and 25 of agency-side experience.
“As a CMO you’re trying to solve a business issue. Quite often the agency solves the brief but it doesn’t actually solve the business problem,” said Jenny Williams whose career has included roles at Tribal, DDB and until last month was CMO at health insurer HCF.
“Your time is really precious” said Williams of her jump from agency to client side. “You start to get really resentful when you get invited to a meeting where you’re taught to suck eggs.”
Paul Bennett, the former MD for Sapient Nitro’s Australian operations who recently joined Cap Gemeni to oversee the consulting firm’s integrated digital offerings believes it’s important to look a client’s broader business picture.
“If I was running an agency now I’d want to have a much more sophisticated business conversation,” Bennett reflected. “We didn’t really have broad enough conversations with our clients,” he said. “We were having a pinpoint conversation where we were trying to solve their problem with a TV ad.”
The relationship between clients and agencies isn’t a one-way street observed Luke Dunkerley, the former CEO of Campaign Palace, MD at M&C Saatchi Direct, who spent a decade as general manager for marketing at Woolworths.
Williams: “You start to get really resentful when you get invited to a meeting where you’re taught to suck eggs”
He believes clients’ marketing departments expect too much of their agencies.
“You all want your personal valet but we don’t have enough money to pay for an agency person for every one of you.”
Another difficulty agencies face with their clients is hubris, Dunkerby sais. “It was a problem at Woolworths, they were very proud of their size and that breeds a haughtiness in people.
“They understood they worked for this unbelievably successful company – without really noticing it they were lording it over the agencies and it was everyone’s chance to be tough. I had to force humility onto them.”
For agencies pitching into businesses, a cold call has to be backed by a demonstrable record said Williams.
“One thing I had never appreciated until I sat on the client side is how much you get besieged by people telling you how they can help you,” she said.
“You would get 20 emails or LinkedIn messages saying ‘This is what we do, we’re really good at it and this is how we can help’,” she said. “Unless you stand out as doing something well, you don’t stand out as doing anything.”
In a crowded field, understanding the clients’ problems is the key to winning business, agreed the panel.
“Learn the specifics of the business,” said Dunkerby. “Work out what are the trends and what are the numbers that really matter, particularly profit. In a big business, look at the EBIT, how fragile it is and what makes it go up or down, then tailor your suggestions to that knowledge. Suddenly they’ll look at you with completely new eyes.”
Understanding the business imperatives is one of the advantages big consultancies have over traditional agencies, said Bennett.
“Agencies have to understand they have to adapt. Sitting now as a consultant, this is something consultants have an advantage with, because they can get their heads around the business.”
topics
agencies
Jenny Williams
Julia Vargiu
Luke Dunkerley
m360
Mumbrella360
Paul Bennett
pitch
Woolworths
Maybe the problem isn’t the agency but the client delivering the brief:
“As a CMO you’re trying to solve a business issue. Quite often the agency solves the brief but it doesn’t actually solve the business problem.
If the agency solves the brief but doesn’t the solve the business problem, it sounds like the business problem wasn’t in the brief OR the brief wasn’t solved in the first place
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On the client side I had the same thing, with unsolicited pitches coming from people telling us what we were doing ‘wrong’ and providing creative that was supposed to be revolutionary. It came with such arrogance and expectation too. It wasn’t even close to solving the business issues; and work we already had underway (and not yet public) was leaps ahead. Some agencies can be arrogant or ignorant of the client side process at the very least.
I agree with @Paul that the client’s briefing needs to be clear what the business problem is and how the immediate brief is solving that. I think Williams also has a point though that some agencies can take the brief too literally and don’t have the bigger picture in mind. Often the work loses it’s strategic integrity the further along the production chain. With people and suppliers down the line working on the work who don’t have any idea of the business issues or strategy it can miss the business objectives but still meet brief.
If anyone is interested I wrote a white paper on closing the gap between strategy and execution after a research exercise with industry professionals to figure out how to solve this.
https://goo.gl/XKO8nw
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“As a CMO you’re trying to solve a business issue. Quite often the agency solves the brief but it doesn’t actually solve the business problem,” said Jenny Williams. Agree with Paul above. CMO’s should have a look at their briefing process – often done by quite junior marketers who don’t understand the business problem themselves.
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@Paul That was exactly my thought as well.
I really liked Luke’s measured response which rightly points out that clients very often expect too much from their agencies and/or mistreat the relationship. Even today it seems many so-called sophisticated marketers demand consistent improvement in key campaign or business metrics without even providing the necessary sales information in return to inform agency decisions.
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@Darren – Fair call
However when it comes to expectations one must understand where these are bred from. How do we make a shift to understand the CMO better and influence them towards our field of expertise.
I would say that 90% of the disappointed endured within adland is as a direct result of over-selling and under-delivering, an approach fuelled by pressure to turn revenue in businesses which have deep flowing structural issues.
How much of the good work that many do undermined the issues created by others or problems created by those before. One could classify that as “victim” however the player/victim scenario is reliant on certain situations.
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@ Tom – the same applies to agencies sending pitches to publishers asking the world, paying a cent and having a few hours to complete.
All the while knowing that the decision will come down to people and perks not addressing a problem or need.
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I don’t think a tight brief solves the problem. The CMO or the business itself needs to solve the business problem.
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So true @Liam. If we are solving the problem then what is the CMO doing 🙂
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Love a good barney over logistics! Clients select agencies on their merit at the time and agencies will do almost anything to win business. Not sure where an intellectual answer to operations fits within these two separate but converging elements. Rarely do clients profile an agency team as well as they do their own employees and suffer the pitch outcomes. They then expect their in-house teams to be educated enough to handle a major predator agency crew. This is a little like “Married at First Sight”, amusing , gripping and as well researched from the participants point of view.
Bennet is an old hand and he knows, whatever he says, that an agency says “Yes” what’s the question. By the nature of agencies and clients only the very smartest of both clients and agencies invest in mutual education and thereby create long term working relationships. Solution, look to successful relationships and replicate them within your environment and expect to get about 50% right. Expect to Invest!!
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Hi Anne, the link to your white paper doesn’t appear to be working. Would you mind re-posting another link or perhaps even emailing me a copy please?
Many thanks.
PD
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