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Basking Ridge New Jersey 07920
美国
电话: 9176905936
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员工: 3

Media Plus Advisors


Basking Ridge New Jersey 07920
美国
电话: 9176905936
电子邮箱:

To Fix or To Pitch, that is the Question

Back in the Spring of 2020, we may have thought that agency pitches would slow down to a crawl due to the disruption of business-as-usual, but there was still activity because clients had the need to review their partnerships. Now we are seeing a return to the more typical cycle and level of activity so it is a good time to reference some guiding principles when considering whether to hold a review. Simply said: should a marketer fix a relationship or go ahead with a pitch? That is the question!

Some marketers go to pitch because their business and service needs change, but their agency isn’t evolving to those needs. Others reasonably want to see what’s out there in the marketplace at other agencies, such as reporting, research or data management tools, talent, or innovation & ideas. But in my opinion, most marketers who go to pitch want things that could easily be renegotiated or have expectations that can be re-expressed. Essentially, they could fix the parts of the relationship and the agreement that aren’t working.

Partner Relationship Management is like any relationship – it takes effort, communication, trust, and shared goals to be successful. Marketers tend to initiate a change in agencies because of decline in service, loss of trust, and expectations not being met. But that broken cycle can repeat itself with a new agency without proper transition, or partnership re-fresh when remaining with the incumbent, that establishes expectations, shared goals, ways of working and measurement/accountability plans.

We encourage marketers and agencies to put effort into their relationships. The recipe for partnership success is not all that secret: trust, collaboration, mutual respect and evolving together as business needs and the media marketplace evolve. Learning from each other and listening to each other to reach shared goals and meet expectations are extremely important. Expectations and ways of working need to be discussed, aligned to, set, monitored, and revisited – not assumed which always leads to a disconnect and dissatisfaction.

Yes, there are valid situations, cycles, and reasons to activate a pitch. But first take a pause and check to ensure if the reasons behind the decision to hold a pitch could be fixed.

We are starry-eyed optimists by nature whose favorite word is collaboration and I believe that partner relationships and media performance management can be improved for both marketers and agencies. Because media – and the relationships that drive it – can only be improved if the ecosystem works together.