Why Agencies Get Fired so Often

Defeating the Pink Slip

This episode was nearly named “How to Systemize Your Creativity” but the conversation around the revolving door of agencies was too good to pass up!
Agencies (advertising, digital, marketing, media, PR) can find it difficult to keep a client for the long haul. It seems like right as you finish a major project with a company, they turn around a boot you to the curb. How dare they!
But seriously… why? To avoid getting fired, it’s important to know why you’re getting fired in the first place. Susan and Drew, who have an impressive 50+ years combined of experience in marketing, teamed up to help your agency succeed with a major report on agency hiring and firing in 2015.
Their new research captures the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of 500 decision makers with marketing budgets up to $10 million annually. A few gems we gleaned include the importance of communication follow-through, the reality of sharing your clients with the competition, and the growing appeal of agency specialization.

In This Episode

• Why data geeks have replaced the cool creatives at the agency cafeteria table and what it means for your agency’s account management
• How focusing on and communicating ROI will lead to bigger budgets
• Why a successful campaign doesn’t lead to a renewed contract for inattentive agencies
• How truth in advertising (agencies) leads to a happy customer
• Why your former intern’s Twitter account lost you that client

Quotes From This Episode

“Things like company size and staff size aren’t as important as agencies may be thinking.” —@susanbaier
“Half of the people who responded to this survey have fired an agency in the past 24 months.” —@jaybaer
“The reality is most clients today aren’t that excited about a one-agency relationship.” —@DrewMcLellan
“There’s an overwhelming interest in demonstrable results and being able to actually show data associated with the work that you’re accomplishing.” —@susanbaier
“The ones that are making money have figured out how to influence the sales funnel and track their efforts through it.” —@DrewMcLellan
“The people that are relying on creative alone are struggling because they’re a commodity today.” —@DrewMcLellan
“We are so busy chasing new business that we don’t take care of the clients we already have.” —@DrewMcLellan
“Any time you’re selling human capital, you have to have some measure of efficiency involved.” —@jaybaer

Resources

• Susan Baier on Twitter: @susanbaier
• Drew McLellan on Twitter: @DrewMcLellan
• Audience Audit
• Agency Management Institute
• 2015 Agency Hiring & Firing Insights
• Build a Better Agency
• B2B Content Marketing: 2016 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America