Accountability Fix or Fire?
A major value of the appraisal process lies in the questioning necessary to set goals. That's because this forces an advertiser to be explicit about their objectives for the agency, and how they relate to the company's targets. Without some criteria and method of measurement, there can't be any real accountability. When considering what some of those criteria should be here are three tips.

1. Focus on business outcomes in order to establish a relationship between your company's business strategy and the agency's contributions.

2. Try to avoid vaguely defined traits such as reliability, communication skills, business focus, or leadership.

3. Establis some pay for performance linkage, otherwise appraisals are not seen as a serious activity, sort of like shooting with blank bullets. After awhile, they just don't scare anybody.		 In a survey by the Conference Board, 21% of advertisers described the relationship with their ad agencies as unsatisfactory. Another 10% called it disastrous! And only 18% said their agency relationship was successful. Not surprisingly 37% of these disgruntled executives also said they planned to change agencies within the next year.

If you are part of that 82% segment that feels that your Agency relationship is less than successful, there may be a way to save your marriage and avoid the costly and time consuming process of an agency search.

McBride & Associates offers two unique tools to expose critical voids and to ultimately enhance the effectiveness of agency relationships: the Advertising Productivity Audit and the Gap Analysis. Some general information on both systems is shown below.

Productivity Audit

The Advertising Productivity Audit was created to help companies to optimize the advertiser / agency relationship and insure that the advertiser gets the maximum return on their investment. It is different and better than conventional agency evaluation processes because:

  • It requires thoughtful mutual consideration of the fundamental issues effecting the relationship.
  • It reveals both immediate and long-term operational problems, and points the way toward solutions.
  • It provides both quantitative and qualitative bench-marks that can be repeated to measure progress.
  • It provides the framework for a continuing self-appraisal for all the participants.
  • It is analyzed and administered by an experienced, objective third-party; which guarantees anonymity for the respondents, and eliminates potential bias.
    To learn more click here.
GAP Analysis
The Gap Analysis is based on a two-dimensional look at a marketing or advertising agency's performance over a pre-determined period of time: ideally the last 12 months, but certainly not more than 18. It can be either a one-way or two-way (i.e. agency judges client's advertising management too) examination of the relationship. What makes this tool unique and more actionable than conventional processes is the fact that the respondents assign an importance rating to each attribute as well as a performance score.

By determining where the largest gaps are between importance and performance it is easy to establish a hierarchical ranking of the most sensitive areas of both strength and weakness in the relationship. It is also possible to weight the responses to smooth extreme differences that may be attributable to varying experience levels among the respondents. Finally this entire process can be structured so that it can be administered via Email. A sample questionnaire illustrates how it works.
Related Information GAP Analysis

GAP Sampler

Productivity Audit
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McBride & Associates