6 Mistakes Companies Make in Selecting an

Interactive Agency – and How to Avoid Them.

This white paper provides an experienced look at the unique challenges marketers
face in choosing the best interactive agency for their company’s needs. Authored by
experts who have witnessed searches from both client and agency perspectives for brand
leaders like Apple and P&G, and for creative powerhouses like BBDO and Euro
RSCG, the paper provides practical advice for companies seeking the right agency match
for their digital marketing requirements.
6 Mistakes Companies Ma ke in Selecting an Interactive Agency
– and How to Avoid Them.

For most businesses, selecting the right agency with which to dance as a marketing
partner can be a highly subjective process, whether it’s choosing an advertising agency, a
PR firm, a direct marketing expert or a digital resource. On average, agency/client
relationships last no more than 3 years. At worst, the process – presuming there is a
process -- is capricious. The fault is often on both sides – agency and client. But because
the client company initiates the search and controls the outcome, its commitment to a
clear, fair and transparent process must be at the top of the consideration list.

How can companies improve their batting average in choosing a long-term agency
partner? Rather than simply trying to eliminate risk in choosing an agency, companies,
also known as “clients” in relation to agencies, should lean toward motivating agency
participants to demonstrate the great thinking and great work they give to their best
clients. Too often the search process is opaque or subject to mid-course corrections,
making agencies fish for answers and piquing clients to question agency motives.

Finding the right agency will always require hard work. Working smarter can make hard
work much easier and more satisfying. So, how can the agency search process be
improved? This white paper examines 6 mistakes that companies often make in choosing
an agency and recommends 6 best practices that client-side companies should adopt to
avoid them.

These best practices can be applied in whole or in part to the search for most any kind of
agency. However, for purposes of this paper, the focus is on searching for the right
“interactive” agency. With the explosive growth of the digital economy selecting a
superlative interactive agency is more critical to a company’s business success than ever
before. “Digital” requires new ways of thinking. New business demands. New
management responsibilities. And new ways of marketing. It also demands a new way
of thinking about choosing an interactive agency.

1. Mistake: The Client Cow boy

The cattle call can be heard from one end of the company’s hallway to the other:
“Yeeeee—ha! Round ‘em up and fence ‘em in!” Are there really 50 agencies eligible for a
client’s business – or 25 or even 10? Yet it’s not uncommon for companies to solicit agency
participation indiscriminately. The “all comers’ ” invitation is often assumed by clients to
be the fairest approach to getting the most motivated -- or “hot but hidden” -- agencies to
solicit their account. Sorting through the 80 responses received in this approach

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generally yields the same agencies of which the client was already aware. After all,
foreknowledge is the easiest filter to use. As a consequence, agencies are given false hope
by the all comers’ invitation and, just as important, company time is wasted sifting
through candidates that were never genuinely in the running from the start -- or
overlooking highly qualified agencies which didn’t respond to the cattle call for any reason
in the first place.

Just as egregious is including agencies in the search process that are current client
incumbents as mere courtesy candidates. If a non-performing client agency has been
fairly advised of their shortcomings over a reasonable timeframe during which they had an
opportunity to demonstrate improvement, nothing is going to change the company’s
mind about their capabilities -- no matter how well the agency performed at the end of the
search process. Be honest and terminate them before you initiate your search for their
replacement. Similarly, don’t include agencies that may periodically handle projects for
you to simply give them a good feeling about being included in the process. If you don’t
believe they have the resources to be your agency of record from the outset, explain the
reasons to them before the search is initiated. Again, honesty counts. No agency likes to
be patronized.

Best Practice: Cull the herd. If you don’t believe you have the knowledge or resources
to do this inside your company, turn to outside resources – other marketers you may
respect, industry associations and specialized search consultants are some the of resources
you may wish to consider in creating a short, highly pre-qualified list of agency prospects.

2. Mistake: Avoid Eye C ontact

Agency brands are important. They provide an indication of consistent agency

performance for multiple clients over time. And, based on their performance, agency
brands can provide a short cut to selecting an initial list of agencies that may be right for
the company’s brand. However, the most important criterion in selecting the right
agency is not the agency brand -- but the people within the agency who will be working
on your account. Too often companies rush directly to a Request for Proposal (RFP)
without a sense of whom they’re dealing with. Is the agency passionate about your
business? Are they easy to talk with? Do they listen well? Can they think on their feet?
Are their ideas stimulating? Do they share your business beliefs and standards? And so
on . . . remember, these are the folks to whom you’re going to entrust your brand. Pause
and get them to personally introduce themselves at the beginning of the search. Make
sure they have one or perhaps even two chances to present their work during the search
process. If ultimately selected, they will be extensions of your marketing family. Make

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sure you’re as comfortable sitting across from them at the dining table as you are meeting
with them across the conference room table.

Best practice. In a world of social networking, voicemail, tweeting, email and

tomorrow’s next iteration of remote communication, the business of ideas is still a
business built by and for other people. The personality of the agency team must project
the personality of the brand. In the interactive world that personality is amplified by one-
to-one communications, individually relevant context and ongoing customer dialogue.
Key to a good agency search result is ensuring interaction between the client and agency
throughout the process that contributes to an atmosphere of a team-based, working
relationship, not a sterile process that bears little resemblance to the real world.

3. Mistake: I’ll Have What He’s Eati ng

Relevant agency success stories can be revealing. Enduring client relationships are
reassuring. But nothing can indicate whether an agency will be successful at managing a
client’s account more than a demonstration of how they perform on an actual assignment.
It helps level the playing field and, ideally, puts the proposed agency team for your
account on the line to showcase their talents. The proof is in the doing.

Don’t ask an agency to solve a brand problem in 2 weeks that has been years in the
making. Companies should consider providing an interactive agency assignment that is
highly discrete and bounded. Perhaps it’s a short-term online product promotion. Spec
creative may be requested to amplify the agency’s thinking but care should be taken to
evaluate an agency’s full capabilities -- versus simply making final decisions based on
executional appeal. Create an interim step in the assignment that allows for give and take
between the client and the agency. This provides an opportunity to learn how well the
two parties can communicate and learn from each other. Remember that the time spent
between major campaigns is the majority of time companies will spend together with
their agency partner; it’s the time to build trust, business knowledge and an
understanding of how to innovate on behalf of the brand.

Best Practice: Agency track records are important but the real test is how they run
their next race. People exit. Interactive tools and trends change constantly. Google
trumps Yahoo. Keywords give way to social media. Tweets supplant email. And change
begins all over again. Put your interactive agency candidates to the test on one aspect of
your business to see if they can get to your finish line in the present -- and paint a lane to
future marketing opportunities.

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4. Mistake: Agencies Are Non-Profit Institutions

Presuming you provide your agency candidates with an assignment tied to specific
deliverables during the search process – or simply request speculative creative ideas,
consider paying the agency a fee for their efforts. Frankly any fee amount is unlikely to
equal the time the agency invests in winning a client’s account. Many agencies spend
hundreds of hours pursuing a new client. Moreover, a large number will often incur out
of pocket costs for independent research, creative production, outside consultants, etc. --
all to assist them in giving the prospective client the best perspective on their business.
Money talks honesty. Offering a fee for agency insights demonstrates that the client
company takes the agency selection process very seriously.

One Fortune 500 Company felt so strongly about finding the best interactive agency fit
for their needs that, after narrowing its list of candidates to two firms, it provided both
agencies the opportunity for each of them to demonstrate their capabilities in a 90 day
paid trial. Each agency was given the same information, equal client access (including
frequent CEO interaction), an online assignment and a budget that afforded them a
profit. At the end of the trial period, the company contrasted the relative strategic
contributions, creative execution, working styles and passion for the client’s business.
The winning agency felt it was the fairest, best search process they had ever experienced.
The loser understood that it had only itself to blame.

Best Practice: You get what you pay for; rewarding prospective agencies for their
ideas can pay real client dividends. Agencies instinctively work harder when they know
the client has some real skin in the game. Similarly, corporate teams are more demanding
and attentive knowing that they have money on the table. And, in the final analysis,
companies get better thinking, better work --and they even get to keep the recommended
agency ideas as their own at the end of process, since they paid for them.

5. Mistake: Be Careful of What You Wish F or . . .

A trapdoor for companies – and often agencies – is trying to please everyone in the room.
By constraining the agency selection process to an irreducible, numeric scorecard, clients
hope that everyone on their team will have a voice in the decision-making process that
ends with the award of the account to the highest scoring agency. Giving equal weight to
everyone’s scores ignores that different managers have different levels of experience and,
sometimes, different expectations of an agency partnership. Nobody likes a strictly top
down decision. On the other hand, senior management is expected to openly lead others
to make the best strategic decision for the brand, even if it’s not always the popular choice.
After all, it’s corporate management that will ultimately be held responsible for the
agency’s performance – good or bad. Unwinding the results of a popularity contest after

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it is found that a new agency falls short in their performance post-pitch is much harder
than senior management leading the company marketing team to the right choice from
the outset.

Best Practice: Make decisions strategically, not tactically. Yes, the agency’s technical
competency is and should be important to the client company’s Web producer but it
shouldn’t make or break which agency is chosen. Technical craft can be learned or
improved. Strategic agency thinking is much harder to come by. Choose for major
agency strengths and gain assurances that any apparent weaknesses will be addressed
upfront in the relationship. And consider only including decision-makers in the final
agency review who are equipped to constructively contribute to the final outcome. Avoid
including passengers on the team bus. Always include players.

6. Mistake: “RFP” is S horthand for “Ready for Primetime”

Agencies tend to attack the completion of a client RFP with the same grit used in
attacking an essay for the SAT exam. They agonize over every word in trying to second-
guess those clients who will be reading their reply. Unfortunately client companies can
often under appreciate this work by merely glancing through the agency responses.
Similarly, some companies are so proud of the length and breadth of their RFP questions
that the answers are more important to them than other parts of the search process.

For other companies, writing of the RFP is a pro forma exercise, with the job assigned to
a junior project manager as part of a checklist of items to be completed by agencies. As a
result, this approach tends to yield insufficient or shallow answers, may contribute to
agency false starts or lead to tactical vs. strategic thinking. The RFP is an opportunity for
both the hiring company and the agency to demonstrate how well they can frame
marketing issues, share knowledge, communicate insights and stimulate dialogue. When
used properly, the RFP can be an effective fulcrum on which to lever the entire search
process.

Best Practice: Start by providing the agency with a Request for Information (RFI). The
RFI should be designed to screen all the “hygienic” questions the company may have
about the agency -- client retention rates, billing growth, competitive conflicts, technical
capabilities, relevant success stories, etc. The RFP should be developed in parallel, so
that when the short list of agency candidates is chosen, the company can rapidly swing the
search into high gear. The RFP should be authored by a senior member of the marketing
team and shared with all key stakeholders in the corporate decision-making process. It
should be signed off by the vice president of Marketing or comparable level manager
involved in the final decision – and before the RFP is provided to the agencies, which
should ideally be shared with them in person.

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When searching for an interactive agency, accept only online RFP responses to expedite
the process and ease review. Provide a mechanism where corporate decision-makers can
probe on agency responses – and make sure that the same decision-makers share agency
RFP observations among themselves. Different perspectives are invaluable. And,
remember, words don’t always accurately convey what the writer intended. Don’t reject
an agency simply because their answer initially appeared incomplete. Ask them why. The
company should also make themselves available for follow-up calls or meetings to answer
subsequent agency questions.

Summary

The interactive agency search process is highly demanding and time-consuming for both
agencies and companies. Equally high are the stakes for both. Yet rarely do searches
last as long as one season of The Bachelor -- and there aren’t any long stemmed roses
shared along the way. This puts tremendous pressure on the client team to execute
flawlessly. Their final agency decision is one that will have effects for their company’s
marketing efforts for a minimum of 2 years – whether they make the right decision or the
wrong one.

This white paper suggests 6 best practices to help companies make the right decision
when choosing an interactive agency. There are also other search concerns that deserve
company consideration that are not discussed here but can be learned by contacting the
authors. Our experience shows that businesses that understand all the challenges in
selecting a new agency will work hard to employ best practices at each step of the process.
But even the best companies will often turn outside for assistance to ensure that their
search is well run, well timed and well ended.

Weiss + Mowery helps companies identify the best digital resources for their interactive
marketing requirements – simpler, faster and with less risk than doing it themselves or
working with generalized agency search consultants. Successful agency relationships
begin with asking the right questions of only the right agency candidates from the outset
of the search process -- and ensuring that once a company selects an agency, promises
made are promises kept.

Weiss+Mowery specializes in assisting our clients to find the ideal digital agency using
best practice benchmarks to create a measurable evaluation context, Guiding the client’s
search effort is a proprietary 5-step model that we term “AAIIM,” (pronounced “aim”) to
assure a thorough, fair and transparent search for a high quality, compatible agency
partner.

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If we can answer any questions about your interactive agency search process we hope you
will contact us:

Peter Weiss Bruce Mowery

914.882.0545 480.607 .6644
peterweiss@weissandmowery.com brucemowery@weissandmowery.com