{"id":97,"date":"2012-10-06T15:48:02","date_gmt":"2012-10-06T19:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seanowen.wordpress.com\/?p=97"},"modified":"2021-05-22T21:53:52","modified_gmt":"2021-05-22T21:53:52","slug":"are-agencies-fooling-their-clients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/?p=97","title":{"rendered":"Are Agencies Fooling Their Clients?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I first started in this business, individual agencies were experts in only a few areas \u2013 direct marketing, billboard, broadcast, retail, etc. Only the largest of agencies claimed to perform brilliantly in all areas. It\u2019s for this reason clients had different agencies for specific specialties. However, forcing agencies to work together wasn\u2019t acceptable, of course. Who would be responsible for campaign outcomes? If they were good, it didn\u2019t matter. If they weren\u2019t so good\u2026<\/p>\n

This caused a transition from integrated agency with several areas of expertise (of course it was the areas which most likely leveraged each other) to the latest digital agency (with all the extensions). In an amazing feat, nearly overnight, every traditional agency became a digital agency.\u00a0 Well, it really wasn\u2019t that difficult. After all, they only needed to change a couple words on their web site which hadn\u2019t been updated in four years, and the intern knew how to do that, as well as \u2018do\u2019 their social media.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s good news for clients though \u2013 you can tell the genuine article. Here are a few easy steps to knowing you\u2019re in good hands:<\/p>\n

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  1. Proof of performance<\/strong> \u2013 We are all championing the benefit of digital is measurement so evaluate your agency and their talent pool. Look at the agency themselves, as well as their client campaign performance. Check out kred.com or kout.com for the easiest and quickest way to see if they\u2019ve earned the digital moniker.<\/li>\n
  2. Take away the surfboard<\/strong> \u2013 It\u2019s easy to ride the wave of digital and social \u2013 talk the talk and most clients are more than happy to think they\u2019ve got the right agency. If your growth depends on it, make sure you test them. Dude, rip out the fancy surfboard and knarly waves and take the time to ask for an education \u2013 see if they can really provide the \u2018how-to\u2019 part. What digital tools do they use? How do they integrate various platforms?<\/li>\n
  3. No Goal, No Budget, No GO!<\/strong> \u2013 Marketers must be setting performance goals. This relates the goal to the investment for anticipated gains. Your agency better be able to offer their expert opinion regarding anticipated results based on investments. If not, they haven\u2019t done this before.<\/li>\n
  4. Risk for Reward<\/strong> \u2013 In golf this is a term you often hear at water holes that turn around a corner. The more you bite off from the tee box to get closer to the hole, the more water you need to go over. Risk more and get rewarded more. Revenue sharing has become a very common practice for digital houses. If you want \u2018x\u2019 coupons redeemed and the agency says you will achieve that \u2013 then why not incentivize them? Have a lower fee to entry and less risk. Worst case scenario, you pay more than you had to, but you got the guarantee of performance.<\/li>\n
  5. Leverage Your Assets<\/strong> \u2013 An agency\u2019s job is to get results. Granted, ideally they can do this without making you work too hard, but they still need you. If they say they don\u2019t \u2013 run. You have assets they need \u2013 access to internal people, activities, input, vision, etc. Especially in the social media world, agencies need real-time access and feedback for a variety of situations. They need you to succeed.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The digital realm has renewed the agency model. The truth, digital is not easy and it is not free. It takes hardcore expertise in an ever-expanding number of platforms and environments that are constantly changing. As an agency who has dominated this market for 14 years, we know clients excel when they embrace digital \u2013 if they have, as Coke would say, The Real Thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    When I first started in this business, individual agencies were experts in only a few areas \u2013 direct marketing, billboard, broadcast, retail, etc. Only the largest of agencies claimed to perform brilliantly in all areas. It\u2019s for this reason clients had different agencies for specific specialties. However, forcing agencies to work together wasn\u2019t acceptable, of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[21,27,28,39],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267,"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions\/267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}