Yes, that’s right, your agency should have corporate experience.
You may be thinking, “Of course they do, I’m not their first or only client. They work with corporations all the time.”
Let me explain what I mean. Your agency contacts, especially your account service team, should have some corporate world experience. They should have worked on your side of the fence at some point in their career, for at least a short amount of time. They need to know what you go through during your day, the environment you work in, the organizational waters you must navigate, and how an agency is viewed from the corporate side.
Having experience on both sides of the divide leads to a more sustainable, comfortable and productive relationship.
I’ve worked on the corporate side and the agency side. They’re very different worlds.
In my agency experience, I was usually the only person who had ever worked outside of the agency universe. It was unbelievable to me. I think it’s much healthier to have agency contacts who understand what it’s like to work within a corporation–dealing with committees, meetings, bureaucracy, planning, annual budgeting, complex approvals processes and the like–rather than talking about the corporate world like it’s an uncharted alien planet.
It’s also funny how agencies view corporations and corporations view agencies. It’s very Dilbertesque with universal assumptions, stereotypes and misunderstandings on both sides.
” Clients can’t make decisions.”
“The agency only cares about awards and creative ideas, not results.”
“Clients are afraid of new ideas.”
“The agency never listens to what I need, they always just give me what they want.”
“Clients never want to spend the money necessary to do something great.”
“The agency always wants to spend a ton of money, but what will we get out of it?”
There may be some bits of truth in there, but most of the problems stem from not taking the time to understand each side’s motivations, measurements and rewards. If you’ve spent your entire career on one side, it’s very tough to empathize with your agency or corporate counterpart.
Having been on both sides, I recommend that you, as a client, seek out an agency where your main contacts have been in your shoes.
Your working relationship with your agency will profit from it.
What i do with my clients from time-to-time is act as a consumer myself to their product. Meaning i’ll go to their store and get a feel of the place the people and so forth. And of course, see what the virtual people are saying.
I like your immersion approach.
I’ve encountered agency staff who work tirelessly on their client brand’s marketing and advertising projects without ever having used the product/service themselves.
For me, that’s not genuine. If I’ve never used the product/service, been a real customer, at least talked to customers, etc. (like your approach), I’m not being honest to my client or their consumers in developing the brand’s marketing strategy.