Category Archives: Agency Management and Transparency

For some time now, clients all over the world – especially in China – have been getting worked up about media transparency. They don’t believe they’re getting it. They keep firing agencies who don’t appear to be delivering it and hiring other agencies, who turn out not to be delivering it either… As someone who’sContinue reading “Do you really want “transparency” from your agency? (TLDR: It involves sharing risk and working harder)”

It’s January and many clients’ thoughts will soon turn to the year ahead. Often, this is when a decision is made to call a pitch, evaluate different agencies and choose one to work with for the next couple of years (at least!) Based on my experience running pitches for clients over the last 3 years,Continue reading “3 Top Tips on picking a new agency in the new year”

Long ago (when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and I was a young lad skipping carefree through the meadows, placing a media buy here and there as I went) media agencies were treated as partners by their clients. We were co-owners of their successes and failures and while we never forgot that we were running ourContinue reading “3 problems with the procurement approach to media buying – and why the partnership approach is better”

Over the last 3 years I’ve been involved in about 18 agency selection projects with clients – where we help them evaluate and select an agency to manage their media. (By the end of this year I’ll have seen a few more of these projects). Across all these projects I’ve noticed one very consistent patternContinue reading “What kind of agency do you need? (Thoughts on eliminating the middlemen in media)”