Agency Reviews During a Recession

About the questions you cite: Question #12: Tell us what a creative program/campaign might look like. Question #13: Please tell us what a program such as the one you outlined above might cost.

I have always used a stock answer: 10% of your sales revenues. You should be able to look up this number, and the numbers of their category competitors as well as how they rank within the category – moreover, the client should provide you with the strategic data you require to provide a strategic RFP. So I would reverse those questions to identify their sales and their competitor's sales and category rankings. With most packaged goods manufacturers you must account for their trade promotions and ask the question "are they getting their money's worth?" The same is true with service organizations, you must know how much they spend on all promotion, not just they designated advertising budget. Knowing this I would then tell them what a creative program/campaign might look like based upon this strategic category information. We called it 'Strategic Creative Planning,' all based upon getting them to the top of their category, or how to keep them there. Brand Managers love formulas and quantifiable answers for creative strategy – not smoke and mirrors, cloak and dagger. Creative strategy that is based upon category data and designed to overtake competitors gets brand mangers to sit up and listen like a dog smelling quail – they are focused. Get the killer instinct by beating the competition, yours and theirs.

You say: " (...) It's becoming a trend. And it is a very big buzz kill for me as an agency person for several reasons. Most important, these two questions in the RFP completely devalue what we do as an agency. (...) Second, it says to me that clients are interested in price alone -- not the thinking that goes into the end product and could potentially determine the success of the idea. Third, after a number of submissions that resulted in "Sorry we don't have the budget," "We're putting any agency selection on hold" or "This is great, now I just need to go to management and try and get the funding," I'm crying "Wolf!" Are these reviews even real? (...)" Two things that you say are telling: First is it devalues you as an agency. I don't get that at all. It is exactly what you do as an agency – provide the client reasons why they should select your agency with your creative strategy and how much it will cost. If your creative isn't strategic who needs it anyway? You ask if clients are only interested in price alone – well, yes, of course they are. They are hiring an agency not as a public service or homage to your creative reputation, but instead because of your agency's ability to produce results to make them money as indicated by the RFP. About your concern of price alone – you have to make your proposed budget make sense to them. Just like a consumer they are looking for the same things, which includes quality and value for the money. Because Sales and Marketing work on quarters, I always structured campaigns likewise, with ongoing evaluations each quarter to adjust strategy. So my promotion budget was structure by quarter – accounting for their peaks and valleys. So it wasn't a big annual bite, but instead quarterly nibbles. I believe those two questions are the most important questions: the creative product and how much? No only do I NOT think it devalues an agency, I believe it does just the opposite: it defines your agency, as it is all that you do. If you win you did it right, if you get excuses, you didn't. The old Dale Carnegie sales formula of AIDA applies: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. If your proposal can't do that, you can't win.

You might say, we can't get that information about their sales, ad budget, or that of their competitors. Hey, guess what – they have it all. And if they really don't, include it as a part of your campaign, with an up front cost for strategic category data. You tell them that you need this strategic information to build your proposal to make it strategic. With those statistics, and other information gained about competitors that is transparent like their creative, it is much easier for your creative team to devise creative strategy. If the proposed client can't do that, you can't participate because we are a creative agency that uses strategic information to devise the creative strategy. You can't participate simply because you don't know what in the hell you are doing.

As for: "This is great, now I just need to go to management and try and get the funding," I'm crying "Wolf!" Wow, you didn't find out who the decision-makers were before proceeding. I always asked how is your company structure in management, how is it organized from plant to store? All so I can better understand your decision-making processes and business. I never, ever, went into a presentation without having it already blessed as the correct strategy for defeating his or her competition with everyone taking ownership in the proposal. It was blessed by the real decision-maker, and all the way down to my contact. Not only did this ensure my success but it also gained input from the entire organization.

I have sat through pitches where out of the blue a production guy, or someone like him, pops up and kills the entire presentation. So I now know to involve them all. If I don't know every aspect of your organization – how can I possibly provide a strategic creative proposal that will move you ahead of your competitors – or keep you on the top? Really, how could you? So if you are hearing no-deal, it is because of poor account work that didn't get the right information to your creative team. Or the account went to the President's sister's son, who is just starting out in the advertising business – and who would want that business anyway?

I just read your comments; after I made my comments to Noelle. We are saying the same thing -- with yours a little more plain-speak with just a touch of smoke and mirrors because you don't identify the real decision-making process and why, just the structure. To you, advertising is just a people business, isn't it? Why do they decide one way or another – because they like you? (Read my post.) Then your comment on creative was a little loose. When I began to work in doing my fact finding I would have some general creative ideas I would begin to bound off of them. Before I walked through their door I had met with my creative team to develop ideas, strategies, and learn what questions I needed to ask; and understand what I needed to learn. The reason is because you would be amazed by how many agencies come up with same thing. And remember this isn't their first RFP. So what happened before? What kinds of ideas have you been seeing? And finally, what happened with your last agency that you decided you needed a RFP? I use to always ask for the work they have been doing, and the work that they have done in the past - even if it is a hundred years ago. History, tradition, do count. And many times did good creative or secondary ideas just need a new spin.

Harry you've done this kind of work -- why aren't you providing facts instead of platitudes? Your advice is akin to the creative development that Cary Grant used in 'Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House,' where he pulls creative ideas out of the air or lucks into them in the end. But in the end, in the real world, clients select Strategic Creative that kills the competition – and the people who have developed the confidence in their creative strategy to win the business. Personality and chemistry as you say counts, but it isn't about you, as you seem to think. It is all about them.

Bound off them as to bind. The entire RFT fact-finding goal for us is to bind the client to our agency. I do this by first learning about them and their business to develop our Strategic Creative Plan, and along the way, demonstrate to them that we are committed to their business, were are bound to them.

So the entire process is about 'Binding Them to Us." Re-read my comments and put them into the context of "binding." The end-game is to be 'bound' to the client to develop the winning creative strategy to be 'bound to them' for a long term relationship. It wasn't just my personal creed, it was what we followed throughout our agency. We were bound to our clients for mutual success.

Imagine if you would, the amount of energy committed to winning. How would a client perceive this? How would they compare it to agencies that are just going through the motions, as you seem to indicate is your method? As if it is an inconvenience and not an opportunity.