Marketers - what's the most frustrating part of working with ad agencies?
Gabriel Sayers
16 replies
I started my career agency side and now I work client side. It's crazy how frustrated each side gets with the other and how much that can sour relationships and lower the quality of creative work. I reckon that client briefs are the most acute sticking point - what do you reckon?
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Nadezhda Kuzmenko@vse_horoscho
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No deep diving into products of the clients. Usually the agencies don't have an opportunity to learn the product precisely since they have a lot of clients. So they don't understand what client needs and client has to do the most work instead of them. So, I strongly believe it's better to build an in-house marketing (sorry agencies!)
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@vse_horoscho Yeah great shout. One of the challenges agencies face though is often the timelines involved in product launches don't facilitate that kind of deep thinking. I've seen far too many projects where clients announce a new thing coming up this quarter but are hazy on the details themselves. Then, next thing you know, launch is 3 weeks away and both teams are on the back foot. I've definitely noticed more disciplined clients will often test a product quietly with a small segment of users, gather feedback and consumer insight, then launch properly and with time for everyone to understand the product's positioning and RTBs. Also, I've found getting the agency and your product team in the same room for a couple of hours is great - live demo'ing the product and answering all the agency's Qs. Buttt you're right, in-house is always an option...
@vse_horoscho We also just launched (this morning 😳) our startup that's focused on getting marketers writing great briefs (whether those briefs go to your agency or your in-house marketing team!). With your experience in the field, I'd love for you to come and check it out.... https://www.producthunt.com/post...
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@gabriel_sayers sounds really great:) hope it will help the industry. upvoted!
Interesting question. I'm on the agency side and I think that the biggest problem is not aligning the requirements, responsibilities and obligations from both sides. That has to be agreed upfront before even starting the project.
@gabriel_sayers no worries, if someone understands the struggle - it's me :) I'll sign up now, thanks.
@andrea_todorova1 100% feel this! Misaligned expectations sets the project up to fail. It also leads to a load of tension in relationships - I'm sure you've felt this, where the agency is seething at the client and the client right back at the agency! We're trying to solve part of this problem with Briefly (which launches tomorrow 😬) where we reckon that getting clients to write better briefs up front should allow for a more transparent, collaborative and productive process (and ease some of those client-agency tensions!).
@andrea_todorova1 Here's the startup I was talking about, would love for you to check it out: https://www.producthunt.com/post... Let me know what you think of it!
@gabriel_sayers how amazing that you tried to solve this problem! Great idea, I will check out Briefly :) it might really come in handy next time we onboard a new client.
@andrea_todorova1 Ahhhhhh that is super annoying- sorry about that! My bad, it was a problem with our Google Recaptcha set up. Have fixed now, hope to see you on the early access list soon. And thanks so much for flagging...
That's a tough one. I guess you have to search for a trustworthy partner with whom you are on the same wavelength. Also, keep the quality-price ratio in mind, a lot of agencies can offer lower prices because they have a standardized process of doing things and rarely work closely with the client.
So true! I'm with Aarvy as well - I've seen some *very* expensive agency's churn out very mediocre work with shabby processes in place. Testimonials and - if you can afford it - a proper pitch process are definitely good ideas.
@matilda_todorova @software_guy We also just launched (this morning 😳) our startup that's focused on getting marketers writing great briefs. I'd love for both of you to check it out and get your feedback as agency-users.... Cheers! https://www.producthunt.com/post...
@gabriel_sayers great, lots of luck with your launch!
@matilda_todorova That's right, even I had these problem working with ad agencies.