Mumbrellacast Interview: Paul Cowan on the client-agency relationship
"Client expectations have never been higher. And they've never been higher because agencies really did respond fantastically over the last year."
Paul Cowan, former leading ad-man in the UK, now turned client-agency consultant, joins the Mumbrellacast to talk about some of the mistakes still being made in the account relationship, and how to fix them.
Over the course of the interview, Cowan touches on several chapters covered in his new book, ‘Connecting with Clients’, such as the optimism bias with which ‘problem accounts’ are viewed, as well as ‘the forced relationship’ which can be the cause of tension in the client-agency relationship.
Cowan’s time within agencies, and then working externally to pinpoint and solve some of the internal issues that crop up within these volatile relationships, gives him a unique perspective on how the industry has changed over the past few decades.
The conversation also covers Cowan’s views on how COVID has changed the momentum of the industry, whether creativity can be sparked from remote working, and what he would tell himself, were he starting out now.
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Music credit: RetroFuture Clean Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Backbay Lounge Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
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