The client-agency relationship is a funny thing. On the one hand, you have a uniquely close partnership predicated on trust, common ground and shared goals. On the other, you have a tenuous, fickle arrangement fraught with questions. And for a while, “questions” were viewed as the enemy of the client-agency relationship. If a client was asking questions, it meant something was wrong.
After the ANA released its report on media transparency, we fielded many questions from clients wondering how they should digest the findings and move forward with their own media partners.
I recently attended the 4A’s Management Practitioners Forum, and one of the panels focused on how agencies develop senior management teams and handle leadership succession. It reminded me of a dynamic that we often observe between clients and agencies when agency turnover, particularly at the highest levels, occurs.
An interesting POV came up in one of my meetings last week. An agency shared that they no longer say "the big idea" to refer to the crux of a concept. Their feeling was that big ideas don't have to be "big" anymore. A new logo, a change to packaging, a digital video-- while tactically small-- have all constituted big ideas that drove business results for their clients.
© 2024 Pile and Company Terms of Use Privacy Policy Contact Us Subscribe