Working with Agencies

CPG manufacturers and retailers rely on agencies to help plan, develop and execute their shopper marketing. Looking to gain insight into the agency/client relationship, Shopper Marketing recently queried various executives from both sides of the table. For the manufacturer/retailer perspective, we talked with recent inductees into the Path to Purchase Institute/Shopper Marketing Hall of Fame. For the agency perspective, we turned to executives of nine shopper marketing agencies that are members of the Institute’s League of Leaders.We asked both sides for advice on choosing agencies and how best to work with the other side. We asked about the feasibility of using one-stop shops. We also asked the Hall of Famers about typical failings of agencies and how to evaluate an agency’s performance. And, finally, we had the agency execs relay what problem clients do wrong and recount some of the unreasonable demands placed on them.Walmart exec Andy Murray, a 2014 Hall of Fame inductee and founder of shopper agency Saatchi & Saatchi X, offers this advice to agencies: “Stop talking about yourself and realize the client spends very few brain cells thinking about your agency and almost all of their time trying to solve their problems. The more you show up ready to listen, asking great questions and bringing relevant solutions to the client’s top challenges, the more you will see briefs — and work.”IN Marketing Services’ Lisa Klauser, interviewed as an agency exec (although she’s also a 2012 Hall of Famer), says, “I think the two most important elements of any successful agency/client relationship are transparency and trust. Building trust takes some time and comes when people do what they say they will do consistently day in and day out. The best way to set the relationship up for success is to be very clear about expectations. This requires really sitting down and talking about what success looks like for the client and the agency and defining milestones and KPIs to measure that success.”Hall of Fame Perspectives: Choosing an Agency“Start with defining what it is you really believe about shopper marketing.”— Andy Murray“Do they have the ability and capacity to scale and innovate, if needed, but also understand the local market from a grassroots level?”— Evan Anthony“The most important thing is that they understand your culture, your business plans and who your customer bases are.”— James Damian“The agency should have strong case studies showing how they executed past shopper marketing programs and the lifts/benefits their clients received.”— Spencer Blaker“The bases should be grounded in the deliverables — creative ability, strategic ability and execution — but also in understanding the retailers and your company.”— John Mount“You need to consider questions like: Do I have a lot of internal resources and just need execution? How much geographic/customer coverage do I need? Do I expect them to bring me retailer knowledge? And what kind of capabilities [e.g., insight development] am I outsourcing?”— Mike McMahonAgency Perspectives: Choosing an Agency“Long-term success requires finding an agency that will partner with, and grow with, the manufacturer/retailer. Success requires a mutual culture of communication, an openness to trying big ideas, and a willingness to fail but to learn and grow from missteps.”— Joe Robinson“Make sure the team presenting to win the business is the same team that will be delivering the work.”— Nancy Shamberg“Manufacturers and retailers should look for an agency that has demonstrated results in applying shopper insights (whether the agency’s own, or the client’s) and has knowledge of retail realities and retailer needs and barriers.”— Reyna Alishio“When you select an agency, you’re building a relationship. Making sure that your company culture, values and goals are aligned is key to this success.”— Rob Rivenburgh“The most important factors are linking the shopper, the brand and the retailer, yet putting the shopper first; delivering effective creative visuals for the key environments, whether it’s in-store or along the purchase path; and selecting crucial, relevant shopper touchpoints based on ‘where she is’ versus the new ‘shiny toy.’”— Tracie Curb-Crowser“Chemistry is so important, but having people who have walked in your shoes, who can strategically guide you because they have actually done what you aspire to do, is critical.”— Lisa KlauserHall of Fame Perspectives: One-Stop Shops“Because shopper marketing is a relatively new discipline, most agencies have gaps in one or more key areas. Find an agency with the core strengths that complement those of your company.”— John Mount“I prefer the agency manage the process soup to nuts. That way the agency can orchestrate the entire program seamlessly.”— Spencer Blaker“Most agencies will need to have outside expertise they can rely on when needed.”— Evan Anthony“A holding company or network may be able to provide a one-stop shop for all your marketing service needs, but it’s unlikely one agency will be able to deliver.”— Mark Scott“A one-stop shop is no longer the norm. The best way to optimize an agency’s expertise is to have a coalition willing to work together.”— Erik Keptner“Smaller manufacturers and retailers benefit from one-stop shops, while larger ones have more options to scale specialty areas and better use specific competencies.”— Andy MurrayAgency Perspectives: One-Stop Shops“It’s not critical that agencies provide every capability, but rather that they work well with other agencies and can lead shopper strategy at the integrated marketing communications table.”— Jason Katz“It’s not a fair assumption of all shopper marketing agencies because it requires a huge investment in resources to build a team of experts that can go deep in every discipline.”— Rob Rivenburgh“Putting on my client hat, I would rather work with a great agency that specializes than a mediocre agency that says it can do it all.”— Nancy Shamberg“It’s a real challenge for a traditional agency to be a one-stop shop, especially in shopper marketing. There are a lot of disciplines that are subsets of shopper marketing.”— Scott McCallum“I see the trend heading toward agency consolidation as clients need to streamline rosters and simplify the way teams work with agencies.”— Lisa Klauser“Being a one-stop shop shouldn’t only be expected but an imperative. The biggest risks, failures in execution and overlaps in resources happen in the handoffs.”— Charlie AndersonHall of Fame Perspectives: Advice for Agencies“Become crystal clear about the rank priority of each retailer to the vendor, and help the vendor maximize use of total retailer marketing spending, both shopper dollars and trade dollars.”— Kim Feil“An agency needs to understand their client’s business first.”— Erik Keptner“Understand their business better than they do. The best agencies I have worked with espouse this principle.”— John Mount“Stop talking about yourself and realize the client spends very few brain cells thinking about your agency and almost all their time trying to solve their problems.”— Andy Murray“Listen, listen some more, and then when you’re all done listening … listen, while asking questions along the way.”— Mark Scott“Ask questions around where their strategy is for the next five years, seven years, so you can write yourself into the strategic intent of the company you’re going to serve.”— James Damian“Develop a true understanding of that client and do not lump them into a channel. Help the client look and act smarter even though the agency is running the agenda.”— Evan AnthonyAgency Perspectives: Advice for Clients“Full partnerships where both parties share their expectations and concerns yield the most fertile ground to maximize results.”— Joe Robinson“Trust your agency and let them into your organization as an extension of your team. Allow the agency to be vested in your business, and they’ll treat it like their own.”— Reyna Alishio“Have candid, transparent conversations about expectations and budgets. If clients and agencies work toward a relationship first, the work will be fruitful.”— Tracie Curb-Crowser“Organizational immersion and alignment, a spirited partnership and establishing rules of engagement upfront are critical.”— Jason Katz“It’s inevitable, especially in a new relationship, that there are going to be some course corrections required, so you have to have that very fluid dialogue and do a learn-and-apply type of strategy.”— Scott McCallum“The best agency/client relationships are much like great marriages: they have trust, respect and open communication.”— Nancy ShambergHall of Fame Perspectives: Evaluating an Agency’s Performance“Is the agency challenging you to be better in your daily business?”— Spencer Blaker“Set up a review process against the metrics you align on, using a survey with a consistent scoring approach so you can track progress over time. Consider letting the agency review the client and make it anonymous so they feel protected.”— Mike McMahon“You have to have multiple measures, both quantitative and qualitative. Your customers have got to be part of the feedback channel. Don’t underestimate the power of social media: People love to make comments and post.”— James Damian“You should measure sales, share, profitability and sustainability — the degree to which the retailer wants to repeat programs again.”— Kim Feil“It’s pretty simple: Is the cash register ringing for your brands?”— Mark Scott “Through a rigorous scorecard that reflects the priorities of your business. This scorecard must be systematically applied.”— John MountHall of Fame Perspectives: Typical Failings of Agencies“They over-promise and under-deliver.”— Evan Anthony“They lack insight and analytics.”— Mike McMahon“They miss key items. They’re off strategy. They miss the customer or shopper target. And they spend money without considering the payback.”— Kim Feil“They don’t push back and ‘settle’ for delivering what the client asked for instead of telling the client what they really need.”— Mark Scott“They don’t spend enough time getting up to speed to understand the client’s strategy and learn how they fit into it. And they don’t have the capabilities to get from the strategic phase to practical execution.”— Erik Keptner“They shouldn’t send in the ‘B’ team on big stuff, and they should admit mistakes. Fix them fast and move on.”— Andy Murray“Often when an agency fails, it is because the ideas they proposed were either too esoteric or too expected.”— John MountAgency Perspectives: Problem Clients“Agency/client relationships fall down when briefings aren’t as thorough as they should be and when expectations aren’t clear.”— Lisa Klauser“Challenging clients often are less about the people and more about the [organizational] structure.”— Charlie Anderson“The biggest issue we face is when clients make decisions based solely on the bottom line. There is so much more than ‘lowest price’ involved with selecting and retaining the right agency.”— Nancy Shamberg“If challenges arise and teams get emotional instead of letting the process guide them to a resolution, then it makes it increasingly difficult to successfully work together.”— Rob Rivenburgh“Let the agency do its thing. Trust them. If they’ve not given you a reason to trust or have continued to under-deliver, it’s time to move on.”— Tracie Curb-Crowser“It can be a challenging relationship when clients are not acting as partners. When a manufacturer client is treating the agency as a vendor, there are a lot of disruptions.”— Scott McCallumAgency Perspectives: Unreasonable Demands“It’s inevitable that we have requests coming in in the morning and they need it done that afternoon. When the turnaround time is so intense, you’re not necessarily going to get the biggest and most powerful idea.”— Scott McCallum“If the product doesn’t meet the needs of the shopper or the price/quality ratio is out of sync, no amount of shopper marketing, no matter how strong, will fill the gap.”— Joe Robinson“It always comes down to timing. Quality work deserves enough time to deliver. When clients are unrealistic with timelines, it strains even the best teams.”— Nancy Shamberg“We understand that this industry lives by speed to market, [but] some requests are off-the-charts ridiculous. … And clients [driving] cost-savings through agency rates becomes unfair at some point.”— Tracie Curb-Crowser“Sometimes client demands (unreasonable or not) aren’t of their own making. It’s a reaction to socioeconomic factors — changes in business strategies or matters out of people’s control.”— Rob Rivenburgh“No request is unreasonable if there is alignment on what the deliverable is. … Problems come when expectations aren’t aligned.”— Lisa Klauser“We’ve seen timelines and budgets shrink industry-wide. This puts a lot of pressure on both the client and agency to accomplish what sometimes seems impossible.”— Reyna Alishio

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