The State of Client-Agency Relationships

As reported by Stuart Elliott in the New York Times, the state/outlook on client-agency relationships has taken a slight turn for the better, with more improvements than not compared to the same study (the Salz Survey of Advertiser-Agency Relations) results from last year, which pretty much hit rock bottom.

That said, we are talking about relative improvement from all-time lows.

As the article reminds us:

Madison Avenue is still struggling to adjust to profound new challenges, which range from adjusting to the rapid rise of new media to the difficulty of recruiting talented employees.

In addiiton, the survey also points out that there are still gaping voids :) between advertiser and agency perceptions, for example:

...when asked if there was more teamwork in their relationships than last year, the difference between the advertiser respondents who agreed (66%) and agency respondents (30%) was a record 36 percentage points.

The road to the future is pretty explicitly marked...and yes, it has new marketing written all over it. To win, advertisers and agencies alike are going to need to figure out a new way to work when it comes to mastering new marketing and the talent requirement that comes along with it. It's all connected.

There is just no way that the larger agencies (or advertisers for that matter) are going to be able to win by going it alone, applying a one-stop-shop methodology and/or trying to build robust and self-sustaining competencies in-house. They will need to partner, outsource or go the acquisition route in order to best leverage the dynamic and ever-changing range of opportunities (and challenges) associated with change.

And from a collaboration standpoint, expect the cliched "good ideas can come from anyone" to take on a larger than life meaning with unexpected partnerships and strategic alliances developing between, within and with advertiser, agency, publisher and gasp, yes even consumers. IP, DRM, royalties and compensation are all going to be royally mashed-up in the not too distant future.