What do clients want?
With several of Australia’s biggest media accounts coming up for tender and many changing hands this year David Spasovic looks at what is causing so many client-agency relationships to fracture.
A cursory glance at the recent stories, opinion pieces and comments in the trade press present an image of significant rumblings of discontent in our industry. A quick count of media relationships that are or have recently been reviewed is evidence of this – Woolworths, Federal Government, Lion, Diageo, Nestle and CBA are a few accounts that fall into this category.
These guys add up to hundreds of millions of dollars of spending. Does this indicate there is a yawning gap between what clients are looking for and what agencies are providing? The strength of some of the comments posted on this site would suggest this is the case.
I recently moved from a client-side role to take up an opportunity in a media agency. Whilst most of my career has been spent in media agencies, I feel after spending a few years on the client side I better appreciate what clients actually want and why.
Sometimes I wonder what goes on in the minds of media agencies. So often it seems they just don’t get it
This is brilliant. Every agency needs to read this and understand. Period. We do spot suspicious billings and clients work hard too, ok. You just don’t see it because the creative and media is only say 20-45% of what we do. And we have to babysit the whole process.
Nice article Dave!
Yes, as a client sometimes I think we are looking after brands we own and spending our money doing so, yet our objectives are anything but a priority for our media agency. Do they sweat the sales figures with us? Um, no…..
Totally agree – far too much navel gazing goes on inside some media agencies, and the Client’s needs don’t always come first………
Free stuff
One example to reflect on:
We have a one hour catch-up that we spent days working on the presentation for:
We provide premium catering, with coffee orders ready and the client is half hour late, all smiles.
We have a 2 hour meeting at the clients office 1 hour drive away. We are early, there is not even a drop of water for the two hour meeting. Exhausted, we drive an hour back and run for the taps.
Anon … what do you expect for 3%? To be treated like a creative agency?