What Marketers Want From Their Creative Agency (Part 2)

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Last week I caught up with Tom Lucas, the much respected Marketing Director for UKTV, for a long overdue catchup, much appreciated mind meld, and afternoon caffeinating. I consider it pure luxury to be able to listen to seasoned clients discuss real world/right now challenges in a frank manner and their approach to filtering through the creative agency clutter.

I again thank Tom for his perspective, some of which I share with you here.  PS: Please don’t bombard him with blind inquiries. He was kind enough to let me present this on ABM, and since I’ll be sharing more of my chats with top UK & US marketers and I don’t want to be scaring them all off. 🙂 Thankya.

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A Brief Guide to What Marketers Want From Their Agency (Part 2 of 3)
Missed Part 1? You can find that here.

Get a Grip on the Numbers

• Get on every email circulation list which disseminates performance data on your client companies.
• Read the analyst report.
• Get a copy of your client’s P&L, see where the marketing line fits in.
• Look at your fees from the FD’s perspective. Make it easy for him, demonstrate that the actual return on your endeavours outweighs the cost of hiring you.
• If you need to hire someone to do this, do it.

Don’t get the brief right. Get the right brief.

• Sometimes I think we get the wrong answers because we ask ourselves the wrong questions.
• “What is the single-minded message?” might be appropriate for a poster, but different consumer behavious and a new marketing paradigm demand new questions.
• In the digital age, a better question is “Why would I want to get involved?”
• Templates might make us feel comfortable, but sometimes we need to mix it up a bit.
• Let’s make the brief fit for purpose.

Adspend is the last resort

• Spend your client’s money as if it were your own.
• Exploit every last bit of owned or earned media. Audit the social networks. Find and arm the brand ambassadors.
• Only once your client’s brand permeates every possible realm of free media should you consider paying for it.
• And when you do, make sure you demonstrate that every penny is driving incremental reach and reaching the parts that free media can’t.

A Brief Guide To What Marketers Want From Their Agency (Part 1)

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Guest Commentary By Tom Lucas
Director of Marketing & Communications, UKTV

Don’t Sell Yourselves

• A confession: Most of us clients get quite bored sitting through credentials presentations.
• We’d rather talk about ourselves. Or make sure you understand what we’re looking for.
• The best way to win our business is to take a greater interest in and ask more questions about our problems than anyone else.
• Listen as if for a pin to drop.

Be Externally Referenced

• Spot new stuff and tell us about it.
• Most of us are profoundly uncool. We spend evenings feeding babies, and watching telly with Simon Cowell in it.
• Put your army of hipsters to work. Cross pollinate the learnings from your clients.
• Expose us to the great stuff you’ve seen at Cannes. Buy us the D&AD Annual.
• Help us dare to be cooler.

Know Your Limits

• Not every business problem is a communications brief.
• Sometimes we clients get desperate, and outsource the problem to someone we can kick if it goes wrong.
• If you don’t think you can help- tell us. We’ll respect you in the morning.

ESPN Hoops Package breaking this week

New work for ESPN’s 2009 Basketball season hits the air this week by NY-based agency Blue Room. The graphics promo package and toolkit was produced in HD 720p, and includes opens, transitions, mortises, endpage toolkits, custom backplates, and artwork produced for ESPN.com

 

 

March Madness is just around the corner-