Marketing Role Of Agencies ‘Not Valued’

A new poll suggests that Britain’s top advertisers have never valued their advertising agencies’ opinion on marketing issues less than they do today.

A poll of senior executives within major advertisers, carried out by agency CDP, found that only about 50% rate advertising as their most effective brand-building tool. When considering their outside suppliers, fewer than half would consider turning to their advertising agency first for marketing advice and fewer than one in five believed that general strategic input was very important in agency selection at all.

Most admit to an increasingly unclear picture of what services agencies provide and how they are adapting to client needs. Almost all are clear about what they most want from an advertising agency – ‘creativity’ delivered by ‘quality people’, made relevant by ‘sound business understanding’. Most consider an agency’s ability to provide strategic advice to be ‘important’ but one-fifth of the sample considered it ‘unimportant’. That figure rises to over 40% when the sample is reduced to those respondents who are either chief executives or managing directors.

Chris Macleos, managing director of CDP, comments: “There has been a lot of noise about consultants charging large amounts for what ad agencies supposedly provide for free – strategic advice – and industry calls for us all to sharpen our act in this area. This survey suggests that we’re all missing a more fundamental point – that’s not what the customer wants.”

CDP: 0171 292 4000