If you’re in marketing or PR, chances are you’ll be working with at least one agency, at least once. Heck, it’s part of the job description. Whether that agency is providing you with creative services, media buying, event or PR services, there are 5 things a good agency should do for you. If they don’t, ask them to. And if they still don’t, change them. I can recommend a few 
1. Insight
Your agency should provide you with insight. By default, they’ve had more exposure to the ins and outs of their specific field, and they should be able to guide you. For example, I was recently organizing an event to open a new premise, and it was my agency that guided me on start times (I was thinking of a different hour, which was Bucharest-appropriate, but not necessarily appropriate in that particular city.) They advised me on press gifts (what is customary there, what would be best received) and the timing of the food service. This is not rocket science, it’s just insight into how people act (and react) in specific circumstances. But it can make or break an event.
2. Competence
A good rule of thumb is that your agency should know more than you. If it doesn’t, you’re in for a rough time. For example, you can’t become a marketer without knowing at least the basics of media buying, understanding some measurement, and some terms. Your agency should be way beyond that. The merest junior should know more about all of these things than you, or your whole department combined. You are trusting your brand, and a whole lot of money to your media agency, and you’re relinquishing a lot of control over the audience for your message. They’d better be competent to handle it, from the strategic to the execution. They should be able to see flaws, if the campaign is not gelling correctly, they should be able to balance frequency and visibility for your messages, and they should be able to see what you want, rather than what you ask for. This leads me to the next must:
3. Creative execution
Few marketers or communicators are excellent in any one, let alone all, the skills needed to conduct good marketing activities. Sometimes, you have vision, but you have no idea how that vision can be executed. This is what your agency should do for you: take that vision, and turn it into actionable material. If your vision is for quirkiness and unconventional media, the agency should translate that into fact. They should scout unusual opportunities, create some new ones, integrate them and deliver on your vision creatively. If you come up with a concept for a design, your agency should be able to deliver a design that embodies your message, and incorporates your requirements without compromising their creativity and design knowledge (which is, or should be, as per point 2, superior to yours).
4. Reach
It’s not difficult to explain this one, although it has a double meaning. Your agency should be able to tap into a pool of contacts, suppliers, media outlets, journalist etc. that is much wider and more diverse than yours. In addition to its wider reach, your agency should be able to actually reach the people you need: contact them, and get them to act or to respond in ways you cannot.
5. Strategy
If needed, they should be able to strategize on your behalf. If that is not needed, that they should understand your strategic imperatives, and make sure that their part of the campaign, event or project, is in alignment with those objectives you set forth. The biggest fault of an agency is being an island, where all it needs to do is respond straightforwardly to client requests. If you communicate your strategy, your strategic concerns, and your strategic constraints to the agency, it should be able to work to accomplish them.
I am fortunate that all the agencies I work with meet these 5 requirements. And how could they not, when they employ this caliber of people.
Posted under Marketing vibes
This post was written by Corina on November 27, 2008
