Have agencies become wary of confrontation? This question was posed by Ulrich Proeschel, Chairman of the International Agencies Council of EACA in our recent webinar.
A decade of change
Aprais presented a chart based on data from over 24,000 client-agency evaluations, comparing agency performance between the decade from 2000 to 2020 in the EMEA, the Americas and APAC, as evaluated by marketer clients. There was room for improvement in most areas, but two stood out.
In EMEA, clients clearly felt that their agencies needed to be stronger in the areas of Resilience and Challenge. Resilience is defined as ‘the ability to withstand and bounce back from crises’.
The need for Resilience
Resilience has always been a key requirement in the advertising business, but Covid has highlighted the need for it more than ever. Hence the greater emphasis placed on it by clients. The Challenge issue is more alarming. In this context, Challenge means ‘taking the initiative, challenging the status quo and addressing conflict’. European agencies are behind when it comes to challenging clients.
The challenge of Challenge
Agencies need to be embraced as consulting partners – and clients need to be open to being challenged. Of course, the only way that can happen is if the agency steps up and fulfils that role. We suspect that the current ambience of job insecurity may have discouraged confrontation. People may be afraid of losing their job if they step out of line or say something out of place. It’s an environment that breeds risk-avoidance. This is contrary to the common wisdom that breakthrough work often requires courage, both of the agency sell it and the client to buy it. In a relationship where there is little or no confrontation, risky ideas may be suppressed.
We believe Challenge is an opportunity for agencies to stand out. Ulrich Proeschel of EACA believes it’s a necessity. In his words, “It seems that we Europeans have become a little too timid when it comes to arguing our corner”.
Challenge should not be confused with aggression. Ulrich believes this is about confidently sharing knowledge. He is confident that agencies are more than able to play a consultancy role; “With the expertise to defend our opinions: we can use data to show our clients what we know, not just what we believe”. Ulrich also feels that agencies can be guilty of pushing problems back instead of stepping up to the plate. For example by waiting until the next meeting to raise issues, rather than being in a constant conversation with clients. That’s what a partnership is all about.
The impact of Covid-19 on relationships
Aprais also presented insights around how the client-agency relationship changed during the Covid-19 era.
Our data reveals that the number of conversations between agencies and clients had risen during the pandemic. In the first half of 2020, 31% of agencies surveyed said they were in contact with their client every day. By the second half of the year this had leapt up to 50%.