Agencies / Advertisers #jetaimemoinonplus !

Indissociable and so complementary, advertisers and agencies are eternal and mythical couples, at the mercy of all the stigmas of relationships that last and cross the ages. On either side of the river, great ideas, fantastic products, failed launches or Golden Lion campaigns, cut budgets, giant misspellings, frustrations, laughter, disappointments, hugs, bickering, hot potatoes, low blows, nudges… Each one in his role, his stress and his objectives, but all always turned towards the same and unique sun: to make the brand shine!

Expected to offer new expertise, agencies are redesigning their business model (internal photo/video studio, for example).
model (internal photo/video studio for example) but paradoxically they are slow to legitimize them and thus to make their investments profitable:

• +89% of advertisers say their strategic issues have changed significantly
• 92% of agencies consider that their scope of intervention has changed
• 1/3 of the agencies surveyed say that they are not asked about their new scope of intervention

Under the pressure of the need for transformation to seize the opportunity of e-retail and e-commerce, advertisers are organizing themselves to be accompanied and their hearts swing between make or buy. Today, advertisers make a mix between the internalization of profiles with high technical or production added value and/or different choices and types of outsourcing to professionals who are very up to date with recent trends and techniques.

For their part, agencies are shaking in the face of these new alternatives. The constant pressure of brand content needs, the multiplication of client touch points and this new “in house” creation for their advertisers are pushing them to reposition themselves and to carry the colors of their added values high : the big idea / the concept / the creation / the brand positioning! They must also rethink their production schemes to enter the race for ROI and allow their advertisers to produce well, accurately and quickly! Qualitative and creative requirements, daily reactivity to accompany test and learn, optimization and rationalization, it is the entire model of advertiser/agency collaboration that must be rethought and enhanced.

On the advertiser side:

On the agency side:

• 52% fear consulting firms
• 49% fear GAFAs and solution providers
• 38% fear production companies

In this context of mutual dependence, it is urgent to help this duo to return to a serene mode of collaboration framed by win/win rules.

Calls for tenders are the right time to review this collaborative mode.

Some concrete win/win leads to set up: apart from a few rare and sometimes well-known cases, there are no bad agencies or unmanageable advertisers. A good agency can be excellent for some and bad for others. That’s why the first step is to size up your choice and feed it by writing down your expectations in terms of partner profile.
The same goes for the agency side, sometimes you have to know how to decline a brief…

Really choose yourself: you live with a team and not with an idea (find your pairs). This is the first principle, we must appreciate each other, understand each other, trust each other, recognize each other!

Build the brief by desiloting the on and off : a good brief, a good campaign! We’ve always known this, but it’s worth remembering.The time invested in opening the brief in a workshop with the various departments is time saved in responding to and anticipating the needs to define the scope. It is also an opportunity to align the internal team with the vision of the brand, its deepest why.

Signing “intitue personae” contracts:
Even in a society affected by youthism, experienced people are precious, trainees too, but it is better to know it from the beginning. Reciprocity can be requested by the agency on major projects, which sometimes avoids 5 or 6 presentation slots and back and forth before arriving before the decision-maker.

Establish clear and indisputable contracts around a scope of work: The advertiser knows what it is buying, the agency knows what it has to produce. Goodbye to open bar fee contracts that always result in a loser, the drinker or the bartender!

Managing the rights issue upstream : Laying down simple principles (minimum 2 years to define the scope) is the second kiss kool effect that can triple the price of a campaign and freeze any possible re-use.

Framing upstream production envelopes : Creation is one thing and production is another, and everything is possible in this field. A 5-minute digital film for a major international soda brand at 1 million euros to a 50K YouTube video in agile mode and the budget investment does not guarantee the commitment behind it.  The key is to clearly announce your possibilities and to break down your budget according to the media expenditure (ideal ratio 20/80)
Today, some advertisers rationalize their production costs by working on their chestnuts upstream and by grouping them together, by setting up annual deals with directors or model agencies…

And always launch good products around relevant insights.