How Many?

Sweet Question. 

How many Advertising Industry Agencies does an advertiser need to evaluate to find the right one?

Knowing how many of anything is a balance of how many we think we want vs. how many are actually good for us.

When is many too many? When is many still not enough?

How many is one of the Frequently Asked Questions clients have as we help them source the right creative and digital agency partners to build their brands..

So Many Flavors  

As the advertising industry emerges forever changed by the pandemic attractive agency offerings and marketing capabilities are available to advertisers today.

Brands are busy preparing for the reopening of the economy; marketing leaders are revisiting their strategic approach to finding, converting and keeping the targeted consumers they want the most.

Marketing and procurement leaders are also reevaluating their agency supplier set to feel confident they have the right agency partners in place; those best qualified agencies to get the job done at all points on the now data-enriched path to purchase.

This economic reordering of well, everything, has created new pairings in agency resource capabilities. Advertisers focused on their updated marketing goals and corresponding agency scope assignments will benefit from understanding how current advertising industry capabilities are being defined, integrated and paired, whether one or many is hired:

As sweet as it may be to sample a lot of creative agencies, there is a far less stressful way to review agency resources in market and reduce the risk of change; one that leans into a more targeted, higher quality engagement versus a lot of busywork (and an email box full of low value PPTs).

The better way to find the right agency for your brand’s future, that one will help you make the biggest leap forward, is to start by hiring an advertising industry expert first (similar to how one relies on an executive recruiter to find the right candidates for important staff hiring decisions). Engaging an industry expert early ensures that everything else that follows is productive, less stressful and importantly leads to the best possible outcome. After all much is at stake.

Wait, what is an agency search consultant?

To know us is to love us.

An agency search consultant is a certified advertising industry subject expert with validated search and sourcing processes, proprietary industry data and in-market knowledge you’ll benefit from. 

For thirty years, ROJEK Consulting has added strategic value to advertisers seeking to find and hire their best choice agencies; we consult with marketing and C-suite leaders who want to fully bring their brand vision to life, to deliver on their marketing and advertising growth goals, and to hire their best-choice agency partners (that play nice with others) along the way.

How does that work?

We appreciate a clear and direct answer to a question.

And while every client engagement is different, there are some best practice approaches to creative and digital agency selection that are the proven guide-rails to keep RFP projects on track.

Like most sourcing projects agency reviews move from the many to the one in a gated process of discovery. Client confidence in working with one agency over others increases over time as teams get to know their best qualified agency candidates and experience ways of working together.

Collaborative input meetings followed by well-designed agency proposals become the proof-points to determine the preferred choice candidate agency. The winning agency is most often the one that best understands the client company, its cultural values and its opportunity for success in market. Easy to understand, hard to find.

How many?

Discovery Begins!

We invite the Top 5 agencies that resonate with client teams into our proprietary cultural data assessment process. Understanding organizational cultures and underlying core values is best way to get a read on what motivates people to work and to work together. So important as we continue to Zoom along. Cultural data also reveals any constraints or roadblocks that will limit how well client-agency teams work together. Key differences in agency candidates are revealed by looking at their current core values and cultural ambitions relative to each other and the client organizational culture.

We then move to 4 agencies that are now the best qualified and culturally aligned; with NDAs in place, we facilitate quality briefings, collaborative client-agency work-together sessions. We provide objective feedback to coach agencies as they develop their Proposals to make sure that what is presented is on-point.

NOTE: We custom-design and right-size the RFP ask of agencies developing pitch proposals; we do this with transparency as to what the financial opportunity is for the agencies developing proposals for client review; we also challenge the agencies to define the economics of the proposed advertising /media spend in a way the client team can understand what it is to be achieved as a result of their investment. Money matters.

We target a minimum 3 proposals/presentations for client teams to review and evaluate. We think three triangulates what people hear and consider. Four is good planning in case one agency drops, five is too many as presentation fatigue and redundancy sets in.

Compensation proposals from 3- 4 finalist agencies will allow client decision makers to get a marketplace indicator on what their requirements and scope of work will cost. If conducted in a fair and transparent way, agency financial proposals validate pricing assumptions and inform the budgeting decisions around the agency hire decision. We are objective and fair in designing compensation programs that work well for both client and agency parties.

Best Answer

Most advertisers today work with lots of marketing suppliers and agencies that align with specific scope requirements or company business units. Or they have been added over time. There are best practice strategies to organize and integrate a roster of current agency partners. Yet, often there is a current gap or unmet need. Sometimes it’s increased digital capabilities. Sometimes it’s the need to refresh.

Many is good if it makes sense. But change for the better begins when you start by finding the One.

The One that gets you, your deeper brand values and your ambitions for growth. The One that connects from anywhere with your team in seamless fashion as if they worked for your company.

The One that culturally aligns and rises to challenge like a partner in the trustiest sense of the word. The One that is your brand champion and media integrator with the other specialist agencies you may invite around the table. The One that is accountable.

Find that One.  

Start with culture and finish with fit.

For a confidential conversation on how ROJEK can help, click here.