Your relationship with a marketing agency is important. With rapidly evolving customer and boardroom demands, as well as more competition than ever before, relying on a marketing agency to be a trusted extension of your team is integral. A recent article from The Drum explores the changing dynamic between clients and agencies, as well as how rapidly changing technologies can drive innovation and success for both parties. The sphere of influence: how clients, agencies, and tech can collaborate in the future features marketing leaders from Boots, Red Havas and Meltwater.
Innovation drives us forward
It’s easy to become siloed in your sector – your job is to know it inside out, after all! While what works for one organisation may not necessarily suit another, keeping up with innovations across sectors, however large or small, could help you to identify your next big win. This can be as simple as setting up Google Alerts or registering for regular industry newsletters. The benefit of working with different clients across a variety of sectors is that many agencies naturally pick up cross-sector knowledge. To stand out in a competitive marketplace, agencies also need to be proactive – giving them more motivation to keep up with emerging trends to inform new ideas.
Having the confidence to test new theories and producing real results also means that you can make informed decisions on where to take a campaign next, backed up by data insights. The rise of AI, data analytics and automated reporting provides all of us with more tools to analyse significant amounts of data to simplify this process. Interrogation can happen in real time, providing insight to tweak active campaigns at speed or outcomes to consider for next time. In addition, technology allows us to personalise, segment and automate campaign targeting more than ever before.
The purpose behind your brand
Being wrapped up in day-to-day brand management can make it trickier to consider the bigger picture. Why do you do what you do? Brand purpose has a significant effect on how customers perceive your organisation, and simply introducing a new set of eyes on your business can help to pinpoint your ‘why’.
A clear purpose allows your target audience to connect with your brand on an emotional level, promoting positive brand affinity and loyalty. In fact, brand research consultancy Motista found that emotionally connected customers have a 306% greater lifetime value than customers who are simply ‘satisfied’. Purpose also sets the foundations for you to define brand values and an overall vision which will drive your organisation forward.
Boots UK’s chief marketing officer, Pete Markey, comments in the article:
“[Partners should] take the time to see whether you’ve got anything unique to help transform and accelerate our journey”.
Collaboration is the name of the game
We’re sharing more and more, creating a ‘sphere of influence’ where both marketing teams and agencies contribute unique strengths to achieve mutual success. Agencies are fuelled by ideas and neither party should be afraid to share them. An open and collaborative approach with clear understanding of business goals and challenges gives both teams a better chance of achieving success.
Choosing an agency partner
Being exposed to innovations across sectors from food and drink to construction, finance to destinations, makes it easier for agencies like us to share new approaches and ideas. Keeping a finger on the pulse with multiple sectors also means that we have access to tools with broader reach and data sets. We are also flexible on ways of collaborating with clients to generate and present new ideas – whether that’s through a digital Zoom forum, asynchronous working with annotated video clips or a traditional in-person workshop.
As more strategic decisions demand data-backed insight, we have found our team being involved in client projects earlier than ever before, helping to craft briefs and informing performance metrics for success. More and more clients are also enjoying workshops to get to the bottom of what really matters to their organisation, and how we can use this to resonate with target audiences.
Meltwater’s VP, partnerships and business development, Johnny Vance, comments in the article:
“There’s going to be a baseline expectation that all agencies have access to [broad data sets], to add value through insights, analysis and actionable ability of that data to provide strategic counsel to their clients. That’s where agencies can’t be replaced.”
By merging our creativity, strategic insight and technical capabilities, we can craft campaigns that resonate deeply with target audiences and drive meaningful engagement. Our teams can facilitate technology to inform proactive and data-backed decision making. Working alongside each other, clients, agencies and technology will drive positive and significant transformation.
Let’s do something brilliant together.
