What makes for the perfect client-agency relationship? Poll provides insights

The annual Financial Mail AdFocus Awards celebrate individuals and agencies both for their creative marketing skills and for their overall business acumen.

But what makes for the perfect agency — or the perfect client for that matter? And what's essential in building the perfect relationship between the two? 

To find out, the Independent Agency Search and Selection Company (IAS) and Scopen, proud sponsors of the 2022 AdFocus Awards, ran a short online poll during the hybrid awards ceremony on November 30.

Respondents were mainly from agencies, and the results highlight the pulse of the advertising industry at the end of last year.

Defining the perfect client

When asked to select the most important criteria in defining the perfect client, the majority of respondents mentioned either those clients that respect timing (27.8%) or that remunerate their agency adequately (27.8%).

Other factors that contribute to making the perfect client are highlighted as being the desire to work with an agency long term (16.7%), a good professional team in the marketing department (11.1%), and a client that has industry knowledge (11.1%) of the marketing executives working for a particular brand.

Defining the perfect agency

When it comes to what makes for the perfect agency, the majority of respondents (40.9%) said that creativity/innovation is most important factor.

Other criteria that define the ideal agency were mentioned as being a good professional team (13.6%), providing effective return on investment (13.6%), and offering good value for money (9.1%).

It's worth noting that 9.1% of respondents also mentioned strategic planning in this regard.

This highlights how, in SA and globally, data and strategic planning (the understanding of that data) are becoming increasingly important, mainly because marketers are starting to appreciate that without solid strategies, big ideas are not produced.

Defining the perfect client-agency relationship

Again, adequate remuneration appear to be a major factor (52.2%) in defining the perfect client-agency relationship, mainly mentioned by agency professionals responding to the poll.

Personal relationships (17.4%) and partnerships (8.7%) were ranked as the second and third most important criteria. 

Scopen CEO César Vacchiano says building long-term relationships comes down to trust and confidence.

Having a good professional team on both sides, that share data and information, and clients that remunerate adequately, produce strong relationships that last longer and give rise to impactful and effective campaigns.

This article was paid for by Scopen.