When loyalty is not required.
Relationships demand work, patience and care. Everyone knows that. At the beginning, things are easy and almost effortless. Both sides have a common goal and agree to walk in the same direction sharing and learning from experiences. It’s normal to face some issues along the way. However, problems get discussed and solved in order to improve and protect the partnership. These are the basics for a solid and maybe even long-term relationship.
But who is interested in a such big commitment nowadays? Freedom to explore around and trying new things seems the smart thing to do.
All those things above can be applied to a client-agency relationship. Less and less this partnership is based on commitment.
Clients are working on project-based models and there is no time available to build a solid and long-term relationship. While this way they have multiple partners, it’s not even fair to say they are cheating on their agencies. It is an established open relationship now.
In this case, we can say that agencies are the unhappy partners that feel forced to agree on something for the sake of the relationship. This means that agencies need to rethink their operating model. Scoping a nimble team and managing tight timelines for each project it’s key to be profitable.
On the other hand, for clients, it seems very attractive to move to a short-term relationship. They only pay for what they get. They have more power to negotiate pricing and deadlines besides the freedom to work with different agencies. However, there are some extra responsibilities that fall on client’s shoulders in this work model.
When agencies have no visibility of the future of that relationship it becomes hard to guarantee allocation of the right people in a long term. That means there will be different people working on a brand and the rotation of teams will be more frequent. With this model in place, where clients have several agencies as partners, they hold the major responsibility to bring consistency throughout all different projects. Having a cohesive strategy is top priority for any client. Consumers don’t need to know how many agencies are behind one single brand. They need to understand one consistent voice behind the brand.
Clients also need to be aware if the project-by-project model is helping to build brand or if it’s just solving a current issue.
Identifying the right agency for each project is time consuming for clients as well, because it generates continuous re-briefing and brand immersion.
Looking at the bright side, there is a constant flirting between client and agency and nothing is taken for granted. Teams may be more motivated to propose pro-active work. But it’s important for clients to identify if the extra work is based on business needs or if the agency is just trying to capture more project revenue.
Another aspect is how critical moments have been managed. During a partnership it’s common to have some process or people adjustments to accommodate client’s needs. But with this new dynamic in place, how much effort are agencies going to invest to retain current clients? Will they invest on hiring the team with the right skill set for the brand? Or when things get difficult will they focus on the next pitch?
Pitching new clients shouldn’t be more important than retaining current ones. But if every project with current clients becomes a pitch, how to prioritize them face new opportunities? I don’t have an answer.
Honestly, I have more questions than answers and I am living this transformation every day. No matter what these new relationship terms between agency and clients, the change needs to be done based on one single goal: better work out there. Otherwise we would be giving priority to something else but work.
(this article was published in Portuguese here)