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The natural inclination for many agencies is to do formulaic work that they and the client know will perform,
instead of brave, potentially game-changing work with an element of risk associated to the fee payment.
The marketing procurement category is an exciting, interesting and wide-ranging category to work in and
procurement should encourage innovation and push the boundaries to achieve better results for all involved.
Tina Fegent, director, Tina Fegent Consulting
3. Know what you are buying. Is it the people? Or are you paying for what they create?
Having recently driven marketing procurement from the advertiser side, I know this dynamic far too well. I get
excited about the trends in procurement and the broader supply chain. The best procurement professionals
know marketing is an investment to maximise, not a cost to minimise.
To effectively measure quality which in marketing procurement is as important as assessing cost
procurement needs to know what problems they are trying to solve. Sourcing partners that deliver the best
value at the best price is what demonstrate procurements expertise and value-adding role. Unfortunately, the
greatest challenge facing marketing procurement people today is still that procurement never truly owns the
scope of work, nor the relationship of what they are tasked to buy. On behalf of their marketing colleagues, are
they buying Full-Time Equivalents, or paying for the creative output?
Choosing the right agency partner is a competitive advantage and the right team at the right investment can
dramatically improve strategic, creative and ROI. Once the relationship is established, sticking to the core
principles of output and outcome and ensuring real value in your compensation model will keep the
relationships healthy. By collaborating with your partners, you can determine the real metrics for efficiency and
the real measurements for success. After all, what matters is what should be measured. Procurement that is
committed to stable, high-performing partnerships stands to gain significant value, which surprisingly can
deliver against the procurement targets without always being at the lowest cost.
Brett Colbert, chief procurement officer, MDC Partners
You might ask: I noticed XYZ in our current marketing communication. What are you trying to achieve with this
and why? or Can you share with me what is important for the success of your work? What are you measured
against?. If you have a few follow-up questions up your sleeve and you carefully probe some more, you will
have gathered valuable information, demonstrated that you are interested in their topic and that you are willing
to learn and listen.
You have also, finally, opened the door to explore the topics close to your heart: How do your suppliers support
you in achieving your objectives?; How is the performance of your suppliers relative to your expectations?
and so on.
Most people like to talk about their work. If you show interest and demonstrate you want to understand it better
to help them, you are off to a good start.
Thomas Holzapfel, global category leader marketing, Deutsche Telekom
The key benefits to this are the marketing team will be happy because the agency is more likely to present the
idea or solution they are looking for. And the agency will be happy because marketing is happy.
However, achieving this ideal goal requires spending a little more time up front and really delving into what
marketing are looking for, which may not be what they initially tell you. This isnt because they intend to
deliberately mislead, but sometimes they havent clearly considered what they are trying to achieve and how to
communicate that to the agency.
The buyers job may actually involve helping define the need and this is where it is a benefit if the procurement
manager is a marketing specialist because they can ask the right questions. Once the need has been defined
and a clear brief written, the job is half done. Its also important to ensure all key stakeholders have been
involved in the brief creation, to avoid disruption later in the process. In a pitching situation, it is now possible to
identify and approach the correct agencies. Without a clear brief, unsuitable agencies may be approached,
which wastes everyones time and money, and as we are constantly reminded in the press, pitching is
expensive! A good brief plus the right agencies equals a higher chance of success and making everyone
happy.
Hazel Cotton, strategic sourcing manager, Procurian
member of the client team from the outset. It also gives you an opportunity to look underneath the bonnet of an
agency in a much more intuitive and revealing way.
Kerry Glazer, CEO, AAR