Agency Sourcing Practices
For our fourth research report of 2010 following our coverage of Chinese Brands expanding in the US, Tourist Attractions and the advertisers at Super Bowl XLIV. This quarter we've spoken with executives at ten of the nation's top 100 marketing spenders, focusing our conversations on current attitudes towards the sourcing of agency support.
The environments that today's brand marketers find themselves working in are complex, with a wider range of stakeholders than ever before involved in the agency selection process. We've spoken across a range of sectors, job titles, categories of marketing and departments to ensure we've covered areas including: -
Procurement
- A lasting impact of the global financial crisis is purchasing teams' increased role in all parts of the agency sourcing process. Involvement is being driven by both stakeholders' demands for standardization and rigor when it comes to due diligence, as well as business intelligence software having come of age and leading to new ways of suppliers being evaluated. Procurement professionals are now often involved in every aspect of agency sourcing, not just large-scale global reviews; for example, the Purchasing Manager for Global Procurement at Amex told us the business's focus this year is on digital, particularly as regards mobile, iPhones and iPads.
Search consultants
- Much has been written recently around the decreased involvement of consultants in agency selection. We've discussed this method with marketing and communications professionals in the top 100 spenders across the country. There's certainly an increased sense of ownership when it comes to marketers taking direct responsibility - due in part to their superiors demanding evidence of ROI across every area of the marketing mix.
AOR v Project Work
- Brands continue to cite '30-year' relationships with lead agency partners. More than ever before, however, project work can be a route in to winning a retained account. Project-based work is no longer limited to boutique shops with niche offers. The Global Director of Corporate PR at Coty highlighted to us the business's relationship with Grayling, which although project-based, supported the entire mix surrounding the launch of a new product in Germany.
Proactive prospecting
- While the variables involved when prospecting to major brands for different marketing service categories are greater than in previous years, a constant throughout the conversations we've had with both procurement and marketing individuals is that proactive prospecting works. Understanding companies' internal structures and processes is made more challenging by the greater number of internal decision-makers involved in appointing agencies.
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