FIVE TRUTHS ABOUT AGENCIES
(agencies usually skip this bit!)
by Stuart Pocock
1. Every agency, however grand, veers between overconfidence and insecurity. These extremes usually combine to give value.
2. Agencies may not admit it, but they miss media people.
3. Every agency contains clever creative people who will work for you for less than the agency charges. Don't be fooled into buying them.
4. Every international agency has a "truly global" capability, since you asked, but never those odd offices that you really need.
5. Many agencies are smaller businesses than they look. However arrogant they seem, they look to clients for strength.
FIVE TRUTHS ABOUT CLIENTS
1. Every client is mildly dissatisfied with their ad agency. (This reveals itself in odd ways: one happy client we know of hit the roof when her agency invited her to complete a Client Satisfaction Survey. "They should know I haven't got time to do this at the moment!")
2. On the whole, much as you may flatter yourself by thinking it, clients do not want to work in an agency. If they did, they would probably already be your boss.
3. Clients appreciate a frank relationship with the agency concerning creative work more than they appreciate one concerning fees.
4. To a greater or lesser extent, clients set the style of an agency's management. If the management of an account goes wrong, clients should examine their responsibility: you are 'driving the car in front of you'.
5. Clients know you find it hard to arrive at a billing model which accurately charges for the irreplaceably high value of the ongoing intangible parts of your relationship, even though your successful pitch arrived at stunning insights in eleven days and for nothing. Tough; that's your problem.
