Why your agency partnership should be like PB&J
When you’ve spent over 40 years in the ad biz, you learn what it takes to make a great relationship between client and agency. Think about it like a delicious PB&J sammich: Jelly by itself is too sweet. Peanut butter alone is too sticky. But when they work together, they make magic. Here are five easy ways to make your agency partnership more PB&J-esque in 2015.
Share the numbers
When it comes to gauging how successful 2014 strategies were and creating a marketing plan for 2015, data is important to agencies. Don’t keep your agency in the dark. Sales figures, research findings, projected growth and other statistical tid bits are vital to helping your agency better understand your business. Quality information will help your agency generate ideas to boost numbers. Insightful data can also help identify potential marketing opportunities.
Let them in
Your business has internal goals in addition to marketing objectives. Let your ad team in on your company’s in-house mission, values and overall plans for this year, next year and five years down the road. The more you’re aligned with your agency, the better the partnership will be.
What you put in is what you get out
Before giving a project to your marketing team, take a few minutes to really hammer out the purpose and objective of the assignment. Too little direction and the creative outcome may lack focus. Too many restrictions and the outcome may be stifled. Some questions to get you started include: What is the single most important point of this piece? What does our audience currently think about your product or service? What do we want them to think? What are the key messages and must-haves?
Take a (calculated) risk
The reason you hired a marketing agency is so you can have a team of experts who can think strategically, creatively and differently. Your agency is obligated to bring you fresh ideas you’ve never thought of before – and when they do, it may catch you off-guard. That doesn’t mean it’s not a great idea that will be extremely effective. Take the time to let new ideas simmer, and think it over before making a decision. A good agency will never present an idea they don’t wholeheartedly believe in, and a good partnership should allow you to trust in your team. Besides, if you wanted your marketing materials to look just like every other competitor, why do you need an agency? Make use of the talent you’re paying for.
Ask questions
Account Executives and Creative Directors will blab on and on if you let them. It’s easy to smile and nod when they spout media buying terminology, budget numbers and creative lingo so enthusiastically. If they’ve lost you along the way, stop and ask. The best relationships are formed when both client and agency are on the same page.
Want to know more about how we like to do business with our clients? Shoot us an email and we’ll talk about how Bouvier Kelly may align with your business. Let’s do some great work together and make one heck of a PB&J sammich in 2015.
