We are just past halftime of 2022 and there is nobody comfortable sitting on a tie. Just like in sports, if you are ahead of plan, the key is to keep the heat on so the other team doesn’t catch up. If you are behind, the key is to turn the heat up so as to not get left behind. Either way, regardless of the actual score, acceleration forward is always good.
Field of Play
The current agency/marketing landscape is way more confusing than just an away game. Consider that our collective eyes are seeing things we’ve never seen before. A pandemic that changed our worldview, our work view and how we order things in our lives. The threat of a Word War is like out of a comic book, the cost of gas is like a punchline of a joke. In the marketing world, consumers have evolved at an incredibly fast pace, inflation is rising even faster, the market is erratic, funding is hesitant, client horizons are closer, agency talent costs are higher all while the rate of pitch opportunities have slowed.
Yikes.
Like people, agencies have had little control of macro things. Yet the most successful agencies with a growth culture double down on the factors most paramount in putting them in a position to win. Doing so is mission critical in the second half of the year, as every single dollar needed for plan requires two during the homestretch.
From our industry-wide view, agencies fall into two buckets today: Those that are having their best year in the last 5 and those that are having their worst year in the last 5. Pro-tip: A first step to go from worst to first is understanding the important questions the most successful are asking themselves and knowing the right answers for your agency.
See below for our proven discussion guide with your team.
ROJEK helps brands find agencies with strong cultural fit and, through our Agency practice (Juice), we help forward thinking agencies find brands and growth in many forms. For more information on how Juice by Rojek can help your agency compete to win, please reach out to Michael Goldberg (mg@rojekconsulting.com) or Lorraine Stewart (LStewart@rojekconsulting.com.)
Our goal is to help you grow, from the inside out, and always to avoid the tie.