Below the Line

Agency/Client Relationships: an interview with Adam Kleinberg, Traction

This is the second interview in a series about agency/client relationships. If you know someone who should be interviewed, please have them drop me a note at interview(at)devoninspiration.com.

Q1 Name

Adam Kleinberg

Q2 Location

San Francisco

Q3 Website

Traction

Q4 Bio

Adam Kleinberg is CEO of Traction, recently named the #1 interactive agency in the U.S. by BtoB Magazine. He has been a pioneer in social media and creating rich digital experiences since he started his first blog in 1997. Since co-founding Traction in 2001, he has built a 30-person agency that has serviced great brands including Adobe, Virgin Mobile, CamelBak, Clos du Bois, Sun Microsystems and Alibaba.com.

Q5 Do you work on the agency side or client side?

Agency

Q6 What makes a good agency/client relationship?

Two things. Trust and communication. Trust is essential because clients come to agencies for leadership in their area of expertise. Without trust in their agency being able to deliver, the relationship is doomed. Communication is critical as well because unless expectations are consistently set and everyone is on the same page from the start, trust will soon erode and fingers will start to point.

Q7 What's your best tip for building a good agency/client relationship?

I'd say there's three main things you can do to maintain excellent client service levels in an ad agency.

The first is having processes in place that ensure communication between the client and agency are crystal clear (and that both the account team and client understand those processes). At the root of nearly every client relationship that I've ever seen go bad is poor communication. Conference reports aren't a waste of time. They avoid miscommunication. Creative briefs should be rigorously crafted and should leave no room for misinterpretation.

The second may sound obvious, but it's hiring good people. We always have a handful of account people in mind that we may want to bring on months before we need them. That way, you never have to settle when a new account comes in and we need to hire someone fast.

The third: be willing to walk away. I mentioned above that the #1 reason agencies and clients break up is miscommunication. The #2 reason is that there's just not a right fit. When my agency was 4 people and worked out of the spare bedroom of my apartment (7 years ago) we had a different cost structure than we do today at 30 employees. If you want to be great, you have to add process as you grow in order to maintain the quality of work. It's important to honestly ask "are we a good fit?" and if not, to just walk away. Otherwise, you're putting your client service people in the position of having to justify your agency cost structure again and again. And that's almost guaranteed to lead to a bad relationship.

Q8 Have you ever been in a difficult agency/client relationship? If so, were you able to improve the situation? How?

Anyone who tells you they've never been in a difficult agency/client relationship is a liar. Like any relationship, you are bound to hit your rough patches along the way. The solution is to embrace candor and address.

Q9 What do you wish clients understood about agencies?

We can't be an effective partner unless we're reasonably staffed. And there is a cost associated with that. However, with that cost there is value you will achieve and have a right to demand.

Q10 How can agencies add value for clients?
 
Being proactive about educating clients. Providing opinions and strategic insights.

Q11 Have you noticed any recent trends in agency/client relationships?

Clients need us to do more with less. That's ok. We just need to be candid about setting expectations and not grab at dollars just to flow money through the agency. Agencies must act like true agents and guide their clients to the best investment decisions of their marketing dollars.

Q12 Which past agency or client was the best to work with? (Past relationships only, please.)

We loved working with Bonny Doon Vineyards. There was a shared creative vision that we wanted to inspire and delight their hard-core fan base of customers—and be smart about their business at the same time. It was a formula for  very successful, award-winning work that we had loads of fun producing.

Related Posts:
Adversarial Agency/Client Relationships
Partnership Agency/Client Relationships
Confused Agency/Client Relationships
Integrated Agency/Client Relationships
Imbalanced Agency/Client Relationships

Is this the end of free love?

Will the recession mark the end of the free love trend? In the age of web 2.0, we've come to expect web content for free. But many content providers haven't found a workable business model based on giving things away. The promise of online ad revenues hasn't always delivered; for instance, the struggling newspaper industry is looking at ways to charge for online content to help them stay (or get) in the black.

Kodak Gallery recently changed their terms of service to require a minimum annual purchase in exchange for online photo storage. It will be interesting to see what other brands begin charging for things that they've been giving away for free or for a nominal cost.

When Kodak announced the new charges, they must have received a lot of customer feedback. Below is a response from the Gallery's General Manager. (Click to enlarge.)

Agency/Client Relationships: an interview with Gary Walker, Diretto Ltd.

I've conducted several interviews with people around the globe about agency/client relationships and will be posting the interviews each Friday for the next few months. If you know someone who should be interviewed, please have them drop me a note at interview(at)devoninspiration.com.

Q1 Name

Gary Walker

Q2 Location

North East England

Q3 Website

Diretto

Q4 Bio

Having spent a number of years working for Direct Marketing companies and following much consideration, I decided to set up a Direct Marketing Consultancy, Diretto.
My main focus and area of expertise is Direct Mail and Integrated campaign management including; data, print, fulfillment, postage, contact centres and general campaign management.

Q5 Do you work on the agency side or client side?

Agency

Q6 What makes a good agency/client relationship?

Effective Communication!

The methods of communication used should be suitable for the information being communicated. In order to choose the most appropriate method of communication between the two organisations, a number of factors are taken into consideration:

•    What needs be communicated?
•    Who does it need to be communicated to?
•    Is the communication urgent?
•    Is feedback required?
•    Is a record of the communication required?

As Fill (2006) states “the quality of communication between the two main parties is critical to the success of the overall campaign and to the length of the relationship between the two organisations” (p.384)

Q7 What’s your best tip for building a good agency/client relationship?

To develop a good client/agency relationship both parties have to devote patience and commitment to making it work. Although both parties should meet at the beginning of any campaign/activity, regular update meetings should be scheduled in order to discuss the progress of the campaign and update on costs and timescales. As Sims (2005) highlights “The client–agency relationship is a dynamic organism which needs nurturing and sustaining in times of growth, change and adversity” (p. 160)

Q8 Have you ever been in a difficult agency/client relationship? If so, were you able to improve the situation? How?

Yes, problems will always arise. The most important thing about any Agency or Supplier is how they deal with problems. You need to rationalise and stand back. Concentrate on the best methods to resolve the problem, or better still how to turn a negative into a positive. Far too often problems are accepted rather than resolved and more energy is invested into identifying who is to blame rather than how fix things.

Q9 How can agencies add value for clients?

Agencies can provide objectivity and access to expertise and experience gleaned from numerous activities and apply it to a client’s requirements. Most importantly an agency can allow a client to concentrate on it’s core business activities.

References:
Sims. M. (2005). Working with agencies an insider’s guide. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Fill. C. (2006). Simply Marketing Communications. Essex: Pearsons Education Limited

Related Posts:
Adversarial Agency/Client Relationships
Partnership Agency/Client Relationships
Confused Agency/Client Relationships
Integrated Agency/Client Relationships
Imbalanced Agency/Client Relationships

Built to last -- a recession marketing trend?

iPods don’t take a licking. A few months back, my iPod stopped working. I got the dreaded “sad iPod” icon. I tried the suggested solutions on the Apple support page to no avail and was ready to try the controversial “6th” solution: ramming it on a pad of paper. I asked some people about how long their iPods lasted and no one seemed to mind that these things crap out regularly. (A sign of greenetically incorrect eliteness, if you ask me.) Although iPods, according to their own report, and other electronic items, according to The New York Times, are supposedly built to last for three years, the reality is that many break down before this.

I hate having to replace something that should have lasted a lot longer. It’s a waste of money and generates needless landfill. Can you imagine if Sony Walkmans broke down so easily 25 years ago? Why are we so permissive of non-durability? While in recent years, brands have been focusing on the “fluffy” stuff like inspiration, now that we’re in a recession, I predict durability will again become a selling point.

Which brands will deliver campaigns like The Energizer Bunny, Timex’s “Takes a licking but keeps on ticking” or Built Ford Tough? (The former two are on Ad Age’s list of the Top 100 Advertising Campaigns of the Century.)

Sites like eBay, Gumtree and Craigslist are establishing a re-sale value for every imaginable item. Will any brands follow the lead of the auto industry and promote a high re-sale value in their marketing communications?  

Certainly, luxury brands with high-quality craftsmanship are in a prime position to respond to the current economic climate by positioning their product as an investment, something Patek Phillipe has done for awhile now with their ad campaign focusing on buying “for the next generation”.

A much smaller (and more affordable) example is our client ShopCurious which sells unique and designer vintage items. They have been encouraging customers to eschew a slavish addiction to high street trends and disposable fashion in favor of quality items which will last. The value in buying quality is that if you buy something classic that you really like, you can keep it for a long time and it will always look good and function well, i.e. they are “built to last”. 

If this company selling trash cans can use "built to last" as their key selling point, any brand with a quality product can.

Kate Stendahl contributed to this blog post.

You're invited!

My in box has been awash with invitations lately - from brands, that is. It seems many companies are eager to invite me to spend money. Some invite e-mails work better than others. Here are some examples.

Pizza Express has "invited" me to buy two pizzas for the price of one. Pizza Express has been running this two-for-one offer fairly regularly for at least 18 months, so it doesn't exactly feel like a special invitation. It would have worked better if they carried it through in the copy a bit more and made a more direct link with to having the recipient invite a friend out for dinner.

What's on Stage sent me an "exclusive invitation" to save £10 on theatre tickets. I don't know what could possibly be considered exclusive about this. I'm sure I signed up for their e-mail list at some point, but I didn't join any special group and I have no elite status with them, so I can only assume that everyone on their e-mail list has "exclusively" been invited. In the early days of e-mail marketing, sending an e-mail offer could be called exclusive because (at least for bricks-and-mortar businesses) the majority of their customers weren't on the e-mail list. It was a way of driving e-mail sign ups. What's on Stage, as far as I know, does not send any direct mail or any other form of customer communication, so their e-mail offer is not exclusive.

Northwest Airlines sent me two invite e-mails, a week apart. This suggests that the first one achieved a good response rate, or at least a good open rate. The first was an invite to apply for a credit card and the second was an invite to join a program called e-Miles. The latter feels more like a genuine invitation.

I also received an invite to a shopping party at Liberty. Although their objective is clearly to get me to spend money, I like this execution. It's an actual event, so an invite is appropriate. They've done several things right:

• The 15% in-store discount starts the day of the event they've invited me to, and is only on for a few days
• They require invitees to present the invite in order to gain admittance to the event
• They suggest inviting friends and family - by having them sign up for the loyalty program

Overall, it's a strong execution that fits with their brand.

Finally, I received an invite from LinkedIn to their "private beta" release of some new features. My guess is that I was selected because I am a fairly regular user. Although they've told me I'm one of the "specially selected members", it would probably mean more to me if I know how I was selected. Nevertheless, I think this is a good execution: simple and to the point.