Ikea’s 7 comms rules you don’t want to break
Ikea’s Australian communications boss Patricia Routledge has laid out her basic rules of engagement for agencies.
Routledge was speaking as part of a panel on building enduring relationships between brands and agencies in a busy session at Mumbrella’s Commscon. She was joined on stage by Jess Gooch from the Sydney Opera House, Jackie Quilter from the McGrath Foundation and Mandy Galmes from Sefiani Communications.
Mandy Galmes, Patricia Routledge, Jess Gooch and Jackie Quilter
”Everyone always knows where they stand with me,” Routledge said. “ At the start of a relationship, I will tell people my quirks – just understand what success looks like for me, but also what it doesn’t.”
Check out the CommsCon 2025 conference photo gallery here.
Routledge said she has a “charter of success” with one of the agencies she works with. She rattled through seven clear rules of engagement.
“If I’ve asked for something more than twice, it’s probably already a problem.
“If you are hearing from me regularly, it’s probably a problem.
“ I expect deadlines to be met or renegotiated in advance.
“ I expect emails to be acknowledged within 24 hours.
“ Urgent matters, rung through, not sent through on email.
“ 48 hours for review of materials.
“ And the favorite one: close of play for us is 4:00pm, not 7:00pm.”
Ikea’s head of communications in Australia said her points might be “Client Service 101” but if they are neglected, trust between agency and brand erodes.
“Sorry, I know I sound awful,” she said. “I’m quite nice.”
Patricia Routledge
Other matters covered by the panel included whether clients should give budget guidance and the issue of staff turnover.
Sefiani’s Galmes, who was moderating the session, asked the panellists “do you open the kimono to the budget or do you keep it closed?”
She had prefaced the question by pointing out the frustration of putting too much work into a pitch when the budget wasn’t there.
“ I’ve got a particular bug bear: when you ask a client what their budget range is – because they’ve always got a budget range – and as an agency you can spend hours and hours coming up with big creative ideas and ultimately all they want to see is a dot point and the creative idea on a page.”
Gooch, from the Sydney Opera House, said in general she did not share a budget.
“It’s very rare that creative comes to us fully formed, and that’s what we go with. You want the nugget of the idea and then you as a client with the agency workshop it. If there’s an idea that we really buy into, [then] there’s lots of opportunities we have … we don’t like budget to be a dampener on the blue sky thinking.”
Ikea’s Routledge, on the other hand, said she usually gave budget guidance.
“I think you need to know how big you’re going,” she said. However, there was a downside to this approach.
“There’s a tendency when you give a budget range that the idea that comes back is to the top level of the budget range, sometimes at the expense of a really good idea that could have cost a fraction of it.”
The panel agreed that because personal relationships were key to agency/client trust, staff turnover was a big challenge.
Mandy Galmes
“For any agency leaders here, we know that staff turnover is a thing you can never predict,” said Galmes. “It always happens just when you think you’re in a beautiful, sweet spot, but it can be so undermining for a client and for the relationship you have with the client.”
“Ultimately even though you try and solve it by having multiple people owning multiple parts of the relationship, there’s always one who has that deep connection.”
“ Look, I think everyone in the room knows that relationships are key,” Gooch said. “That’s what makes or breaks a campaign.”
The McGrath Foundation’s Quilter encouraged agency staff to take secondments with clients to strengthen those relationships.
”I think it’s the best thing that you can possibly do. I wish I did more of it when I was in an agency,” Quilter said. “If your client’s saying, ‘we’ve got a secondment opportunity’, put your hand up, give it a go. And if they don’t, then go in one day a week and just see the soup they’re swimming in.”
See: CommsCon 2025 conference photo gallery here.
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