CHOOSING AN ADVERTISING AGENCY
By Don Kobes
One of the most difficult decisions a business can make
is selecting a “business partner” the advertising
agency. A wrong choice can be expensive. It can set your
marketing program back to the stone age. A right choice
could propel you to field leadership. Here is a procedure
and some practical tips and basic criteria to help you choose
the “best” advertising agency for your needs and budget.
From start to finish of this exercise allow at least six to
eight weeks to run this program. Try to avoid any deadlines
that may compromise your decision making.
Philosophy
Agency people often speak of the client-agency relationship
as a “marriage”. The relationship, like marriage calls for
communication between partners, similar goals and no
surprises. Additionally, each partner must be concerned
about the needs, wishes and in this case the business
success of the other.
Successful marriage usually calls for mutual commitment.
Without mutual commitment, success is unlikely. This means
when you do find your “partner” you should be prepared to pay
professional rates for professional services. Be prepared to
negotiate a mutually beneficial client-agency contract.
AGENCY SELECTION -2-
One note of caution.
If you now have an advertising manager, be certain he or she
is directly involved in all steps of this process. Agencies
will work best with those who can influence their future. If
you don’t handle it this way, expect a problematic situation.
Getting Started
To find the right advertising agency for your company you
need to start with two important pieces of information: The
first is the size of your advertising budget. The second is
who wants the job? In other words, identify all possible
candidate agencies in your geographical region.
Keep It Confidential
Surveying available agencies is best done confidentially,
without revealing your hand. This is because agencies are in
the business of selling their services and they’re very good
at it. You need remain in control of this decision-making
process and not lose it to “personality games” of agency new
business representatives.
If, for example, you spoke of the need for an advertising
agency to a media representative on Monday, you’d be swamped
with phone calls and proposals by Friday. New business
people at agencies get paid for aggressive pursuit of leads.
Just what you want your own sales people to do. Many of
these solicitations would be premature possibly irrelevant
and time-wasting. Discretion is the better way to go.
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Where do you look?
The phone book is helpful. It will provide a local listing,
but little else. Another source is identify those companies
in and out of your field doing advertising you feel is
effective. For example, look at the advertising in this
publication. Then, find out who’s doing this good work.
Another source for agency names is a professional directory.
A number of these exist, one is : “The Standard Directory Of
Advertising Agencies”, published by The National Register
Publishing Company, 5201 Old Orchard Road, Skokie, IL 60076.
You can write for more information or you may find this
directory in your local library.
The Standard Directory lists agencies both geographically and
alphabetically and provides you with the size of the agency,
names of the principals and a listing of current clients.
Once you have a fairly comprehensive list, you begin
narrowing down the candidates. All this can be done without
leaving your office or running up your phone bill.
A Big Fish In a Small Pond
Remember, the size of your budget is a key governing factor.
The size of your account must represent an important piece of
business to an agency in order for you to get the attention
you need to make the partnership successful. For example, if
your business is ranked fourth in a shop, phone calls will be
returned. If your business is ranked 400th in the shop–good
luck–you’ll need it.
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Use this simple “size” approach to narrow your list to six
or eight agency candidates. Hopefully, this will include
some of the agencies whose work you noticed. Don’t be to
concerned with finding an agency who works in your field.
You can bring that experience to the table. Creativity will
come from fresh viewpoints, not stale ones. Agencies working
in your field, if they are available at all, may give you
advertising that looks and sounds like all the other work
being done in the field.
Assuming you have narrowed the list as much as you can, it’s
time to contact the candidates. The first contact should be
as brief as possible, with the object of collecting data
about the candidates. The objective is to get them to mail
you this information. With each call, pay attention to how
and how quickly your response is handled. This information,
when it is received will provide you with resources to narrow
your search further. Hopefully, to about three or four
candidates.
The next step is a round of mutual visits and discussions.
Tell the agencies what you’re looking for and learn from them
how they work and even how they would like to be paid.
Chances are, when you talk to these agencies you’ll be
dealing with a someone who graduated first in the class at
charm school. Don’t be swayed. You may never see this
person again.
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Candidates you consider to be serious contenders, should be
asked present the account team that will be doing the day to
day work on your account. These are the people who represent
an agency’s abilities. Get to know them and get to know how
long they have been with the agency. A group of short-timers
may signal personnel changes and lots of re-training in your
future. An inconvenience worth avoiding.
During these “client-agency” meetings, look carefully at the
work they have done and find out, if you can, what it cost to
produce this work. These meetings and the many discussions
of advertising and advertising costs will let you narrow the
list, hopefully to two candidates. Now, pick up the phone
and speak to some of that agency’s clients for a broader
picture.
The final stage may be the awarding of test assignments. Try
to have the list narrowed to two when you reach this stage.
Give each agency a similar briefing and assignment. Remember
both agencies must be paid for their time, win or lose. Now
you get some assignments completed. You also get a preview
of their approach to your problems. Sometimes this is the
“tie-breaker”.
Disclaimer
This is not the whole story. It is a “schematic” that, if
followed, will enhance your ability to make the right
choices. Be certain the agency you select gets at least the
same commitment from you as you expect from them. Finally,
plan regular performance reviews to be certain all partners
continue to share the same objectives. Based on what you
have learned from your investigation and meetings you can now
make a decision. (Nobody promised you it would be easy.)
For more information on this or related subjects, you may
contact the author, a marketing and advertising consultant,
Donald Kobes, 23-1B Bloomingdale Drive, Hillsborough, NJ 08876
Telephone or fax: (201) 281-7445.
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