2. Marketers-At-Large
Yvonne Johnston
and
Martin Chauke
Creating the Client/Agency
bridge

3. What do we do?
• We are the bridge between client,
and advertising and communications
agencies.
• We will make the client approval
process easier, and the agency
process more productive and
profitable.

4. “In the past we have had a strategy,
but our agencies didn’t stick to it.
They made good commercials and
they did win awards.
This may surprise you though.
I don’t care about awards. I want to
sell product.”
James Harrison

5. • Strategic focus
– Facilitation of communication and
marketing strategy development
– Development of strategic marketing
communication plans
• Problem solvers
• Relationship builders
• Facilitators and enablers
• Global best practice
• Trusted advisors with an understanding of
both sides of the fence

6. • Credibility and insights borne from experience
– Bring questioning, challenging minds
– Ability to advise
– Track record
• Easy to use tools
• Interaction from CEO to any other relevant and
appropriate level
• Our approach will be segmented and
differentiated depending on the needs of the
project

7. • Unique partnership
– YJ, creative, instinctive, insightful, fast
decision maker, very experienced.
– MC, considered, strategic, thoughtful, proven
track record, intelligent

8. Gaps that we are able to
close
• Ad agencies
• Often tend towards tactical, not strategic
solutions
• Often receive inadequate briefs without clearly
defined objectives
• Often don’t build the consistency of the brand
• Often don’t have strong strategic planners to
provide a framework
• Spend time and hard costs preparing work for
presentation that is never going to get approved

9. Gaps that we are able to
close
• Wastage of time and money
• Need to understand what sort of campaigns
the client likes/wishes for, and rates highly
• Need to understand who makes the final
decision

10. Gaps that we are able to
close
Clients:
• Would appreciate focused time clarifiying
strategy, and defining end game objectives
• Often lack understanding on exactly what
agencies need to do good work
• Often struggle to gauge whether presented
work is on strategy, on brand, and will deliver
agreed brief and objectives

11. Bad Habits of Agencies According
to Clients
• Lack of interest/understanding of the client’s
business
• Too much entrusted to inexperienced people
• Insufficient senior involvement
• Understaffing and turnover
• Defensiveness, especially when creative is
critiqued or rejected
• Lack of controls on timelines and budgets
• Antipathy to research

12. Bad Habits of Clients According to
Agencies
• Not sharing information
• Unrealistic expectations vs budget
• Unfocussed strategies
• Unwillingness to approve breakthrough ideas/too
many levels
• Over-reliance on research
• Not understanding the benefit of the account
being profitable
• Not realizing how important it is to be a great
motivator
• Institute of Communications and Advertising
• Toronto, Ontario M4P 1E4

13. “Creative without strategy is
called „art‟.
“Creative with strategy is
called 'advertising.'”
Jef Richards -(US advertising professor)

14. Marketers-At-Large offering
• The link between agency and client to close
the gaps
• Assess and audit the problem areas
• Define solution – what will success look like?
• Agree objectives with client and agency
• Agree our level of involvement in terms of
time and deliverables

15. Marketers-At-Large offering
• Facilitate joint client agency campaign
strategic session
• Agree chain of command within approval
process
• Review ad brief for background, competitive
information, tone, manner, deliverables
• Work with agency as internal review board – at
start of idea stage
• Ensure that the creative and communication
revert is on brief, on brand and on strategy

16. The processes used to arrive
at the total strategy are
typically fragmented,
evolutionary, and largely
intuitive
James Quinn in Strategic Change: Logical Incrementalism, 1978

17. Intervention points
New Business
Client brief
• Induction
•Challenge brief
• Rules of engagement
•Define outcomes and
deliverables
•Devise common understanding
of appropriate advertising
Client approval Strategy session
•Check against agreed •Improved client /agency
•Client and agency attend
criteria relationships
•Understand competitive
•Increased profitability
landscape
•Improved quality of
•Understand approval
strategy
process
•Robust work
Internal agency review
•Ensure that work is strategically based
•Ensure it matched agreed criteria
•Challenge depth and excellence of work

18. Right from the start…
• Today, clients move agencies more
frequently than ever before
• Let us manage the client/agency induction
• Client must understand how agency works
and visa versa.
• Define rules of engagement
• Client agency partnership established right at
the beginning (no school fees)

19. Benefits to Client
• Increased productivity, efficiency, thus
increased marketing ROI
• Less frustration
• Increased strategic alignment
• Increased cohesion and consistency in the
brand
• Clear delivery of objectives
• More efficient and productive process
• Sustainable and mutually beneficial
relationship with agency

20. Benefits to Agency
• Increased cost efficiency and productivity
• Less work rejected
• More sustainable relationships with clients
• Quality briefs
• Clearer articulation of the strategy
• Improved creative product

21. However beautiful the
strategy, you should
occasionally look at the
results
Sir Winston Churchill

22. What makes us different to other strategists
and measurement agencies?
• MC and YJ have both run successful businesses
• Have insights into the business of marketing,
advertising and communications
• Have been both ad agency executives, and clients
• Track record of successful , proven strategic and
creative work produced (Alive with Possibility)
• Focus on strategy, brand building and creative
excellence

23. Our job is to do the
right thing
for the brand.

24. When would you derive most
benefit from using us?
Client
• When you need some new thinking
• When there seems to be a gap between your brief
and the work that you are being presented
• When current thinking needs to be challenged
• When you are beginning to despair about whether
the agency is understanding your business

25. When would you derive
most benefit from using us?
Agency
• When the relationship is under strain
• When the client keeps rejecting work
• When your profitability is threatened
• When you seem to be talking past each other
• When you need a fresh perspective
• When you need an external view
• When you cant seem to get the strategy right

26. How we charge
• By project – we will assess the amount of
work – agree days ,(or points of intervention)
timeframes and deliverables and we will then
quote.

27. Summary
• Clearly articulated strategy is at the heart of
what we do. If all parties agree on the
strategy, then we will enable delivery, and
evaluate work based on that strategy.
• Other products that flow from the relationship
forged around strategic development are:

28. Summary
• client and agency induction,
• brief development and checking,
• advertising evaluation,
• risk analysis,
• creative review and
• brand review.
• Pitch management

29. We look forward to working
with you.