…a good client-agency relationship is the heart of great advertising.
Today, within the advertising industry, a mutual value-based relationship is the epitome of building long-lasting brands.
Over the last few decades, the power of advertising has moved from brands to the people. This significant change has transitioned the industry into focusing more on deep, meaningful consumer insights to help develop effective campaigns that create value for many brands and eventually, people.
The service industry, especially Advertising agencies, plays a key role in our everyday lives. From creating concepts to making society more valuable through the products and services advertised as solutions. We can talk about the Telco giant, MTN, always at the forefront of bringing innovative solutions like 4G, mobile money services, amongst others, the benefits of which may not have been clear to their intended target audiences without the expertise of an Advertising agency.
Advertising agencies, over the years, have carved a niche by being labeled as brand experts when it comes to marketing communications. Through experts performing core functions like copywriting, designing, managing key client accounts, building brands with a purpose through effective strategies, mining consumer insights, amongst others, advertising agencies meet client goals. Some say creativity should be the focus of what advertising agencies do, yes, and that should not be disputed. Nevertheless, a critical factor to be considered should be maintaining long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationships with clients.
Advertising connects brands to their customers in a meaningful emotional way through adverts that are positioned in a trustworthy way to compel consumers to buy a particular product or service. At the pivot of a good and successful advertising campaign is a good client-agency relationship. Therefore, building long-lasting client relationships is at the heart of what advertising agencies do in building brands.
An advertising campaign can only be effective when trust and understanding are established from the inception of the client-agency meeting. Trust, as it is known, is the basis for successful communication. To this end, clients and agencies must inculcate the attitudes of being honest and transparent with each other leading to a comprehensive understanding of each other’s preferences and objectives.
Great brand stewardship also comes out from good client-agency relationship when consistent workflow and communication are maintained between agencies and clients. Agencies must, hence, improve on their communication with clients by staying in touch with each other so they can monitor the progress of their campaigns. For many clients, this means great stewardships and value for their money. Keeping lines of communication open also leads to greater understanding between the clients and agencies. After all, open dialogue helps clarify questions and creates a better working relationship.
Sometimes client service personnel in advertising agencies may feel the client is not being flexible or understanding, considering the pressure it takes to work on campaigns that keep evolving with new updates and feedback. It can be tempting to look at the scope of work from only one perspective. But there is the need to look at both sides of the coin by understanding and always being willing to accommodate and remain flexible with clients. This is because advertising must be tailored to the customers’ wants, needs and preferences, which are constantly changing and even more so with the advent of technology. Being able to quickly and effectively change and adapt the campaign to accommodate client needs helps maintain a stronger relationship with them.
To get a sense of how Ghanaian agencies are faring when it comes to building strong client relationships and to tease out key factors clients consider in their relationships with agencies, Innova DDB Ghana collaborated with several agencies, including Resultz Advertising, Touchpoint Magna Carta, Interactive Digital, Digicraft, Pulse Ghana, OMD, Carat, OMD Mediareach and Echo House to conduct a dipstick survey using their current and past clients as the target pool.
According to the survey conducted, the most important criteria clients use to determine satisfaction with their agencies is achieving or meeting their business objectives. Just as earlier iterated, maintaining a good relationship with the client allows agencies to communicate well and better understand the client’s needs and wants (goals), which impacts the overall output. Campaigns can be very creative, but the ultimate test or question every agency should ask is whether they deliver to the client’s objectives and the needs of the target audience.
The clients also emphasized that they would like to receive regular feedbacks from agencies when there is a new development. According to them, this enables clients to stay up to date on the phases of their campaigns and to have a sense of receiving value for their money.
As agencies, we must do our best to ensure that our relationships with our clients are mutual, transparent, open and trustworthy. This was evident in the survey. Many of the clients scored 4 on a rating scale from 1 to 4, with 1 being the lowest and 4 being the highest. This was with regards to the ‘flow of information’ and ‘being transparent on the scope of all projects.
However, agencies are still at their wits’ end with some major clients’ concerns which seem to be the ‘always on’ scenario demanded of almost all agencies. What then can we do to avoid such hurdles when it comes to meeting deadlines, meeting objectives, paying attention to details and budgeting while fostering good relationships with our clients?
Setting and keeping deadlines
As agencies, over time, we have missed deadlines that have led to a significant impact on clients’ businesses. We are often unable to meet deadlines and turn in deliverables due to time constraints. This has led to some agencies losing clients. We must learn to work with the deadlines that are attainable to increase our credibility. This has been one of the main concerns’ clients raised in the survey. This can negatively impact agencies’ relationships with their clients.
Achieving the business objectives
According to the survey, our clients indicated that most agencies must learn to meet clients’ objectives and push beyond them. To do so is the need to constantly push beyond primary business goals to reach their secondary objectives.
Budget
The budget was also one of the main concerns of clients in the survey. According to them, agencies charge high fees, which to them seem exaggerated or tripled. To them, agencies must re-look at their fees. This came out to be the most recommendable action that agencies must take.
To resolve this problem, agencies must have clear rate cards and a clear track time that measures the hours a project is being worked on. This will provide clear evidence to the client that the time spent is consistent with the defined rate card used in the billing process. This will create credibility and trust should the client ask for an audit. This is also very important for agencies to focus more on value than seeing the client as an opportunity to exploit.
A long-lasting relationship with clients should be the ultimate goal of all agencies.
At the heart of this great relationship comes good results from mutual understanding of our clients’ key objectives and goals, trust and credibility on financial matters with the actual reflection of the agency fee and transparency on being open with clients on the progress of their campaigns.
We all know that advertising agencies are the experts within the marketing communication space. However, we must remember that the most important part of their work is not just about winning awards or creating the craziest, most creative and talked about campaigns but about how we build and maintain strong, open and long-lasting relationships with our clients, relationships that allow us to continue delivering the best results to society as a whole.
And that’s just the way to go.
The writer is the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Innova DDB Ghana
