ANA Magazine - June 2012

good at executing creative, yet they weren’t getting that strategic thinking that the team needed.” After a lot of wasted time and money, Pfizer had to go back and repitch the business.

There are few enterprises in a marketer’s job description so fraught with pitfalls as the agency procurement process. That means not only finding the right agency, but structuring the deal and maintaining a healthy relationship. Get it right and your company could gain a powerful lifelong ally; get it wrong and you — or your replacement — will have to do it again.

These days most agency searches begin and end with the probing eye of the procurement department. According to a recent ANA survey, three-quarters of advertisers said procurement played a significant role in managing agency relationships, and 47 percent said procurement led the agency-compensation process (compared to 28 percent who said it was led by marketing).

So the first step in any agency search should be a sit-down with your procurement people, says Bruno Gralpois, head of global marketing operations at Visa.

“Procurement people are advisors that can
be brought in early in the process to help set
expectations,” Gralpois says.
“They’re going to be brought
in one way or the other, so best
to bring them in early so you
can align on process and best
practices.”
Together you can formulate a
specific, detailed scope of work
that ensures you end up with
an agency that fits your needs.
“You should sit down and
discuss expectations,” Gibbons
says. For example, “if you have
a very high strategic launch brand, and all you
have are junior people on the staffing plan,
you have a very large disconnect.”
Items in the scope of work should include
staffing levels, costs, pricing agreements, and
expected outcomes. Do it right, and your agency
will ultimately thank you for being clear about
your expectations.

The classic pitch scenario — issuing an RFP, then selecting a handful of agencies to present creative — still works for plenty of marketers. But nagging inefficiencies of the process, including high overhead for the agencies and the ease with which they can paint a misleading picture (is that CEO really going to be working on your account?), have encouraged some companies to seek alternatives.

In 2007, Pfizer implemented a “preferred
roster” system of agency selection to try to get
away from the “big creative shootout” tem-
plate. “Most agencies can produce creative
fairly well, so when we have a relationship
with agency X and a marketer is interested
in working with them, we set up a meet-and-
greet or a capabilities meeting,” Gibbons says.
“There are some brands that will still have to
do the big creative shootout now and then,
but mainly we ask them to pitch on strategy,
to solve our biggest problem, rather than
simply present spec work.”
Of course, a preferred roster doesn’t make
sense for all companies, particularly smaller
ones. When standard pitches are required, don’t
be afraid to ask tough questions and demand
specificity, says Joanna O’Connell, senior analyst

For additional information on making the search process easier and more effective, read the “Guidelines for Agency Search,” a comprehensive white paper developed by the ANA and the 4A’s.

Opinions on how to compensate your agency vary wildly — not just among agencies, but clients too. Tying compensation to performance is an increasingly popular, if controversial, idea.