It occurred to me that I've had some valuable experiences in having presented new marketing concepts and analytics packages to both Ad Agencies and Digital Marketing Agencies. It also occurred to me that perhaps others may value some of my insights when considering a quest to gather agency buy in of a new idea.
As mentioned in other previous posts, agencies can't help being very practical. The days of hugely profitable, hardly measurable percentage based revenue models are nearly gone. In years past, it was common for agencies to "easily" earn 15% of an advertiser's entire media budget in fees. But as advertising becomes more digital and more measurable, more and more advertisers began questioning the logic behind this method. It's now much more common for agencies to negotiate a fee based or "retainer" type of an approach. As a result, agencies have been migrating toward greater efficiency and toward ideas that will generate additional revenue.
Digital agencies (especially larger ones) should care more about what works and what doesn't but also tend to favor "win-win" low or no "cost" programs. Agencies certainly don't mind selling their own wares including analytics solutions, ad serving technology, ad delivery "networks" and of course creative services.
In having spoken with hundreds of agencies about interactive marketing, I have observed the following common ground:
1. Agencies are not as creative as you may expect them to be. They seem to want to crave new ideas, but you'd better put your best foot forward because they don't want to have conversations about concepts.
2. Agencies will pick the lowest hanging fruit. If you make their life easier and you make them money- you're in. If it actually works for their customers, that's an added bonus that we help you stick around beyond an initial trial.
3. Agencies will ask for a trial. They rarely "buy" anything to begin with, but they hardly even buy anything before they've had a chance to test it.
4. Agencies won't actually do a fair trial. They will forget, get too busy, not fully implement (especially not according to your desired specs) They'll say they will, but they won't
5. Ad Agencies will ask for the lowest price possible. Then they'll ask again. then they'll refer you to someone else who will ask for an even lower price.
6. Digital Marketing Agencies will require excellent results and their standards will start off very high. Can you blame them? Many sold their clients media void of any real metrics for years.
7. Analytics Agencies (or an agency with a strong analytics focus) will ask for integrated metrics and conversion analytics.
8. Noone wants to be the first to present an idea to a client, but ironically, they don't want anyone else talking to their client either.
9. They won't introduce you to their clients unless they are fully confident that there is no risk at all that you will have any chance of working with them directly. In other words, they won;t introduce you to their clients.
10. Even if you present case studies, agencies will want a case study from an exact clone of their client. If you have a B2B example, they'll want a B2C example. If you're case study is for a Dentist, they'll complain that it's not for a Chiropractor. It's inevitable.
All this being said, establishing strong relationships with Agencies can be a very important goal. However, be careful that you don't burn bridges by jumping in too soon. You may only get one shot to prove your value proposition.
